Grand Rotana Resort and Spa

We left this hotel feeling extremely disappointed. What should have been a relaxing family holiday became a series of unnecessary problems, all made worse by the hotel’s lack of care and poor customer service.

We travelled for 14 hours with two very young children and had requested a baby cot in advance. The hotel confirmed it would be ready, but when we arrived there was no cot in the room. Instead of putting our exhausted children straight to bed, we waited over an hour for one to arrive. It was a terrible start to our holiday and completely avoidable.

The biggest issue was the room itself. We paid extra for a room advertised as having a pool and sea view, but the room we were given had neither. The terrace overlooked a public walkway where guests constantly walked past, leaving us with no privacy and forcing us to keep the curtains closed. We raised this immediately, but the hotel showed little interest until we made a formal complaint through Booking.com. Only then were we moved to the room we should have received from the beginning.

Unfortunately, this summed up the whole stay. Every issue required us to chase staff repeatedly, and management seemed far more interested in closing complaints than actually looking after their guests. Even during the room move, nobody arrived to help at the agreed time, one of our bags went missing, and when it was eventually found, there wasn’t even a proper apology.

The hotel also experienced several power cuts, one of which caused the shower water to suddenly become dangerously hot while our children were being bathed. Thankfully they were not seriously hurt, but it was a frightening experience.

Another disappointment was the entertainment. British families should be aware that it is heavily geared towards eastern European guests. Most of the entertainment team spoke little or no English, making it difficult for English-speaking children and families to join in or feel included.

Overall, the hotel showed very little empathy or concern for the inconvenience caused throughout our stay. Selling rooms as having pool and sea views when they clearly do not is misleading, and the standard of customer care simply does not match what you would expect from a hotel of this level.

In our experience, this hotel overpromises and underdelivers. We left feeling misled rather than valued, and we would not recommend it to other British families.

I had really been looking forward to this stay, but unfortunately our experience was overshadowed by a series of disappointing issues, most of which could and should have been handled much better.

Before our arrival, I informed the hotel that we would be arriving late after a 14-hour journey with two very young children. I specifically requested that a baby cot be set up in the room before we arrived so that our two-year-old could go straight to sleep. Although the hotel confirmed this request, there was no cot in the room on arrival. We then had to wait over an hour for one to be delivered while our exhausted children stayed awake. When the housekeeper eventually arrived, he had to move a sofa to make space for the cot, revealing a significant amount of dust and dirt underneath. None of it was cleaned before he left.

The biggest disappointment, however, was the room itself. We had booked and paid for a room advertised as having a pool and sea view. Instead, we were given a room with virtually no view at all. The terrace was not private either; it was effectively part of a walkway that guests regularly used to move between the lifts and the main building. People were constantly walking past, meaning we had to keep the curtains closed for the entirety of our stay in that room, completely defeating the purpose of paying extra for a view.

When I raised this at reception on arrival, the response was dismissive and unhelpful. No one followed up with us afterwards or appeared interested in resolving the issue. It was only after I contacted my agency and made a formal complaint that the hotel finally got in touch and offered to move us to a different room.

The replacement room was much better and was what we had expected from the start. Unfortunately, the room move itself became another stressful experience. I agreed a specific time with the manager for someone to help us move our belongings. Nobody arrived. I called reception twice and was told each time that someone was “on the way”, yet no one ever turned up. In the end, we had no choice but to leave our belongings in the room and ask the hotel to transfer them while we went out for dinner.

When we arrived at the new room, one of my bags was missing. I had to return to reception to investigate. Eventually, the porter located it, but instead of apologising, he tried to brush the situation aside by saying, “It’s just a bag and should focus on enjoying my holiday.” What he didn’t know was that the bag contained valuable belongings for my children, including branded clothing worth considerably more than the cost of the hotel stay itself. At no point did anyone acknowledge how stressful this was or offer a genuine apology. The conversation was that member of staff was shocking.

More generally, I felt there was very little empathy throughout our stay. We had to pack and unpack twice while travelling with two young children, yet the focus always seemed to be on closing the complaint rather than genuinely looking after the guest.

Housekeeping was also inconsistent. The same housekeeper who had ignored the dirt under the sofa returned the following day and spent time making towel animals, which was a lovely gesture, but the room itself, particularly the floors, still wasn’t properly cleaned.

On the second day of our stay, there were several power cuts across the hotel. Although each outage was relatively short, they were still disruptive. During one of them, the electricity went off while my wife was showering our children. The water temperature suddenly became extremely hot, causing both boys to scream in pain. Thankfully they weren’t seriously injured, but it was a frightening experience that should not happen.

The compensation offered by management did not reflect the inconvenience we experienced. It felt tokenistic rather than a sincere attempt to make things right. More importantly, I believe the hotel should stop marketing these rooms as having pool and sea views when, in reality, the view is blocked and there is no privacy because the terrace is used as a public walkway. Selling these rooms under that description feels misleading.

That said, there were plenty of positives. The food throughout the resort was excellent, the staff in the restaurants and bars were consistently warm, friendly and attentive, and the reef and swimming pools were fantastic. Those parts of the holiday were exactly what we had hoped for.

Unfortunately, the poor service from reception and the way our concerns were handled left a lasting negative impression. Time and again, it felt as though the priority was simply to provide a response that would allow the issue to be marked as resolved, rather than genuinely caring about the impact these problems had on our family.

Overall, this could have been an excellent holiday, but the repeated failures in customer service significantly affected our experience. I hope the hotel takes this feedback seriously, as most of these issues were entirely avoidable with better communication, honesty and a greater focus on guest care.

We were there for a week and it was really a pleasant vacation. This hotel has many wonderful and beautiful features such as the delicious food that includes many international dishes such as Asian, Indian, Arabic and Western. There are beautiful swimming pools where it is available for all categories for young and old and there is an excellent lifeguard that provides you with all comfort and safety services for you and your children. As for the location of the sea, this is the best thing because it is located in Shark Bay and this area is known for its beautiful people and fish. It was a great experience and the price of the hotel is great. I will return to this hotel again