We planned a 7-day half-board honeymoon at Rixos Premium JBR, staying in a panorama room. First off, the hotel's location was good, and the room view was beautiful. The staff was very friendly, helpful, and eager for tips. However, I need to point out the downsides. First, the breakfast was really bad. It was the same buffet every single day for 7 days, with no changes. After the 3rd day, it became incredibly boring. Also, the olives and cheese were inedible, at least for us. The variety was limited, and some items seemed to be there just to make the buffet look fuller, like pickles and green salads at breakfast. It truly surprised me that the buffet breakfast at my family's 35-room boutique hotel in Bodrum was much better than what a huge Rixos offered. While I felt proud of our own establishment, I was embarrassed for Rixos. Secondly, the half-board option on the site where I made the reservation stated breakfast and either lunch or dinner. But they told us there was no lunch option and that it wasn't possible. Okay. But even dinner wasn't as advertised on the promotional materials or the booking site; it was à la carte. Since the menu was so limited, it also became boring after the 3rd day. Plus, the dinner menu was capped at 245 AED per person; if you ordered more, you had to pay the difference. The dinner dining area, unlike breakfast, was either the Godiva cafe in the lobby, which is quite small for a hotel of this size, or room service. Dinner took quite a long time to arrive; you'd wait at least 1-1.5 hours after ordering. Dinner starts at 6:30 PM, so if you ordered then, it wouldn't arrive until 8:00 PM, which would make you late for any evening plans you had outside. Also, if you ordered room service, someone would constantly be coming in and out of the room both when the food arrived and when it was collected, making it difficult to relax, and the room would smell of food, again making it uncomfortable. Thirdly, apart from the Godiva cafe in the hotel lobby, there were no other seating areas in the entire hotel. If you wanted to smoke, you had to go outside into the heat and stand by the entrance to smoke before coming back in, as smoking is prohibited in rooms and indoor areas. However, you could smoke inside the private restaurant and nightclub that had an entrance from the lobby; the indoor smoking rule didn't apply to them. Fourthly, I can't really say the hotel has a pool; it exists but it's not really part of the hotel experience. They've outsourced it to a private company, and it's open to outside customers, so you need to go early to secure a spot. Hotel guests can get free sunbeds and towels, but since it's a private establishment, you pay for your food and drinks with cash or card when you leave. Fifthly, when I tried to book through tour agencies or the ALL Accor website, I saw 6-7 different packages under the name 'signature offer' (e.g., Best Holiday, Romantic Holiday, Spa, etc.; the names might vary, but that's what I recall). The prices varied, but there was no detailed information about what was included. I called ALL Accor to find out the details, and they said they didn't know and that it was related to the hotel. I tried to reach Rixos customer service but couldn't get through. I called the hotel directly, and they said they didn't have such packages. I was forced to book through a tour agency that provided more detailed information, trusting what was written there. Since our flight dates were fixed, I had to make a 'blind' purchase. We only learned the details upon arrival. My point is that this kind of detailed information and content should have been provided to the customer beforehand. If the customer still wanted to book after having this information, they would have, and they wouldn't have been surprised like us when they arrived. Sixthly, a 2000 AED (approximately 25,000 TL) deposit was required at check-in, and we were informed of this when booking. However, we were not told that 174.19 USD (approximately 8000 TL) would be deducted from the deposit for one mixed nuts and one Sprite from the minibar. We only saw this deduction on our bank statement after returning to Turkey. Other than these issues, it was good. Thank you.
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