Kaya Side Hotel

We were a group of eight staying here, and although the hotel and beach were beautiful, there were quite a few problems that affected our stay. The beds were very hard. The pools were not heated — especially the children’s pool, which should be, because of the large bucket that dumps water over the entire play area. The kids loved playing there as long as it was turned off, but they quickly got cold. There were an extremely high number of Russian guests both at the hotel and in the area. It was difficult to interact with them — no smiles or eye contact. The food had an Eastern European touch, and it felt like the hotel was mainly designed for that market. Staff spoke limited English, which made communication difficult. For example, when we asked to rent a stroller, we were told they didn’t have any, even after showing a picture. My brother went back the next day and asked again, and suddenly they did have one available — so we managed to rent it after all. One of our rooms had an air conditioner that didn’t work. It was also hard to find available sunbeds. People reserved them early in the morning with towels, and often only half were actually being used. There really should be a better system for this. The hand sanitizer dispenser didn’t work on several days during our stay, which is unhygienic considering how many people touch the serving utensils. One person in our group got sick with fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. Another person became ill a couple of days later. The person traveling with the first one asked if the hotel had an extra room available to reduce the risk of infection (since it’s all-inclusive and viruses can spread easily). The first staff member said they would arrange it, but another staff member later said no. Otherwise, the beach was nice, the food was varied, the cleaning was good, and the hotel itself looked lovely — but overall, the experience didn’t quite live up to expectations.