Steigenberger Alcazar

We stayed at this hotel in September for a 7 night stay, upon check in we were greeted by a very friendly gentleman who offered us drinks and a cool towel which was so nice!

Very quick check in process and then was whisked away to our room, we paid quite a lot extra to get a premium swim up room and as we got closer to the room the noise started to increase from music, we thought it was just due to the time and thought nothing of it.

The room was nice and large, needed some small matinence in my opinion for a 5 star hotel.

The food at the hotel was one of the best we have encountered from the à la carte restaurants, the buffet was very poor for both breakfast and dinner but we mostly ate at the restaurants so we were very happy.

There are issues with this hotel that you should be aware of before coming, the sun bed situation around the adult pool is a joke, there are signs everywhere saying no reservation for sunbeds but this is 10000% NOT the case, if you want a bed around that pool you need to be up ridiculously early. This is so avoidable but is not managed correctly.

Our other main issue was the noise from the hotel next door, we were in room 3020 which is the furthest point from reception which we liked but you face the other hotels very lively pool clearly and the music starts there at 10am and goes on until midnight, this is ridiculous as we wanted a nice relaxing quiet holiday but was impossible with the music sooo loud.

We definitely feel we should have been made aware of this.

The hotels should have some communication with each other about music volumes as it seemed to be some sort of competition to see who could be the loudest!

Would we come back, possibly but we would never ever have that room again or any room down the right hand side of the hotel.

We’ve been home for a couple of weeks now, and I deliberately wanted to give myself some time to reflect before writing this review.

This hotel is not a cheap holiday and, with its rating, reputation and price point, there is naturally a high expectation when it comes to cleanliness, service, food, drink and the overall experience.

There are lots of positives, and we did have a good holiday. However, there were also some significant areas where, for us, the hotel simply didn’t live up to expectations.

Arrival and first impressions

Check-in was a pleasant experience. The exterior of the hotel is beautiful, impressive and very welcoming, although that first impression was somewhat spoiled by people smoking directly around the entrance as we walked in.

We were allocated our room and taken there by buggy. The room had been made up exactly as requested, which was great. However, there was no soap in the bathroom and not enough towels for our family of four.

These aren’t major problems and a message to concierge got them sorted, but at this level of hotel I don’t really expect to have to ask. It’s often the little things that separate a genuinely excellent hotel from an average one.

Service and staff

We initially had some difficulty securing restaurant reservations, but Guest Relations helped us with this. They walk around the pools daily checking on guests, and we found them genuinely lovely and keen to resolve anything raised.

We also found the vast majority of staff exceptionally kind, hardworking and attentive.

We tip well because the staff work incredibly hard, and we really appreciated the people who looked after us. Emad was fantastic and took care of us around the pool each day, including helping us with beds. He was a real credit to the hotel.

The one exception was the restaurant at Pool 2, where we had lunch once. This was probably the least friendly and attentive service we experienced during our stay, so we chose not to return.

Smoking

One of my biggest frustrations was smoking.

Smoking appears to be tolerated throughout much of the resort, including around areas used by children and close to the children’s pools.

For non-smokers it is extremely unpleasant. In a family resort of this standard, I think designated smoking areas would make a huge difference and allow everyone to enjoy the facilities.

Management and our biggest disappointment

We attended the Manager’s Evening one night and had a lovely evening. We were very well looked after, and the management team spoke passionately about service standards and genuinely appeared committed to delivering an excellent guest experience.

Unfortunately, our experience later in the week left us questioning how those values translate into practice when something actually goes wrong.

On nights three and four, we were woken at approximately 4am and 1.30am respectively by significant noise from the room above us, including banging and what sounded like furniture being dragged across the floor.

Having two nights of sleep badly disrupted had a real impact on our holiday.

When the issue wasn’t satisfactorily resolved through the front-of-house team, we asked to speak directly with a member of management. Despite our requests, nobody from the management team came to speak to us.

This was probably the most disappointing aspect of our stay.

It is easy to talk about exceptional service at a Manager’s Evening. The real test of excellent hospitality is how management responds when a guest has a genuine problem. Unfortunately, when we needed that management presence, it simply wasn’t there.

We also witnessed several incidents involving other guests behaving rudely and aggressively towards both staff and fellow holidaymakers. Front-line staff appeared to be left to manage these difficult situations themselves. I felt senior management should have been much more visible in supporting their staff and maintaining appropriate standards of behaviour across the resort.

Food and restaurants

The à la carte restaurants were a real highlight. We tried most of them and generally found the food, service and atmosphere very good.

We paid extra for the Teppanyaki show table one evening and it was fantastic. The team made the evening really special and, for us, it was absolutely worth the additional charge.

Breakfast was taken in the buffet, although we generally chose to sit outside to avoid how hectic the restaurant could become.

There was plenty of choice at breakfast and it was perfectly adequate. However, having also eaten two hot meals in the buffet, I don’t think the overall buffet experience matched the standard or price point of the hotel.

Tables weren’t always cleared quickly, popular dishes weren’t consistently replenished and drinks weren’t always proactively offered. At times it felt more like a busy canteen than the dining experience I would expect from a hotel positioned at this level. I also thought the quality of some of the food could have been considerably better.

Our overall experience

We booked a couple of excursions through Falcon and had a fabulous time.

Ultimately, we did have a good holiday, but a large part of that was because we made it a good holiday.

If you are booking this hotel because its price, rating and reputation have led you to expect a truly top-tier experience, I would temper those expectations.

Sharm is blessed with some fantastic hotels and, at this price point, there is a lot of competition. This hotel has beautiful surroundings, some excellent restaurants and, most importantly, many wonderful, hardworking members of staff.

But the details matter.

The inconsistency in service, smoking throughout the resort, disappointing buffet experience and, above all, the lack of meaningful management intervention when we experienced a genuine problem meant it simply didn’t deliver the level of experience we had expected.

The management team talk convincingly about their values and service standards. I think the next step is ensuring those values are consistently demonstrated when guests actually need their help.

Would we return?

Probably not.

We don’t generally visit the same hotel twice anyway, but exceptional hotels sometimes make you want to break that rule.

This one didn’t.

For the price, reputation and expectations surrounding it, I wanted to leave thinking, “Wow.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t.

The hotel was amazing Staff are brilliant.very helpful Through out the complex.food and drink excellent Rooms cleaned every day Will return next year