Pickalbatros Palace Resort

There are several things we believe prospective guests should know before booking.

First, this is an extremely busy, family-oriented resort with a very high number of children. During our stay, children were present throughout virtually all pools, restaurants and communal areas, and the general noise level was consistently high. Although dedicated children’s facilities exist, we did not feel that there were enough genuinely peaceful areas for adults seeking a quieter resort experience.

The fundamental issue, in our opinion, is not simply the number of guests or children, but the resort’s lack of effective management and quality control for such a large operation. Standards of professionalism varied considerably between employees. Some staff members were polite and helpful, while others fell well below what we would expect from a five-star property in terms of courtesy, communication and professionalism.

Another issue that made us particularly uncomfortable concerned online reviews. During our stay, members of the entertainment/animation team repeatedly encouraged us to leave a five-star rating. We did not experience this merely as a casual request for feedback; we felt pressured to give the hotel the maximum rating. Guests should be able to leave completely independent reviews without being encouraged to select a particular score. This experience inevitably made us question how representative some of the hotel’s exceptionally high online ratings may be.

We also found the tipping culture unusually prominent. In our experience, interactions with some restaurant and front-desk staff created a noticeable expectation of tips, and tips received by staff were at times handled or displayed quite openly. Tipping should always remain an entirely voluntary expression of appreciation, not something a guest feels may influence the level of attention or service received. At a five-star resort, every guest should receive the same professional standard of service regardless of tipping.

During our stay, a large proportion of guests appeared to be large families from Middle Eastern countries. This is relevant for travellers choosing the atmosphere they prefer, but our concern was not anyone’s nationality. The issue was that some groups used shared spaces with very little consideration for other guests, including excessive noise, queue-jumping, children being left largely unsupervised and communal areas being left untidy. In our view, management did not enforce reasonable standards of behaviour consistently enough. An international five-star resort should apply the same rules of courtesy and shared-space etiquette to everyone.

Finally, the Wi-Fi was surprisingly poor and unreliable. The connection frequently dropped during our stay, was unstable, and worked poorly in several parts of this very large property. Even basic messaging and internet use sometimes required repeated reconnection. Reliable Wi-Fi should be a basic service at a resort in this price category, and the current infrastructure did not appear capable of consistently supporting the number of guests.

Overall, anyone looking specifically for peace and quiet, well-controlled adult areas, consistently professional service and a refined five-star resort atmosphere should take these points into serious consideration before booking.

Just want to leave a good review about this amazing hotel, a really friendly staff, the special thanks to animation team, a very active guys with a very interesting program. Evening show is amazing, special party’s. Our family really enjoyed this vacation. Thank youuu