Fort Arabesque Resort Spa and Villas

Fantastic 2 week stay as a newly retired couple. Staff made a great holiday GREAT. Whole hotel, pool, eateries were spotlessly clean. Room cleaned well every day. Food in main buffet restaurant was fresh, varied and piping hot. The Thai live station was a real treat. Indian, pizza and bbq stations daily too. Mr Whippy type ice cream on tap at every meal, even breakfast! The Greek restaurant is authentic and was a lovely change from the main restaurant. Drinks at every bar were decent sometimes had to ask for smaller measures of alcohol. The Club 159 bar has a chilled relaxed vibe with outstanding night time views across the bay. Sunset pool is lovely and gets bathtub warm by late afternoon, only issue here is not enough umbrellas to provide day-long shade for all beds. On that note beds are plentiful and pool guys happy to help by moving them around and raising umbrellas. Some folk were down early to bag a prefered bed (including us early risers) but beds were easy enough to find throughout the day if you didn't fuss which pool or exact palm tree you wanted to be at. The Adult Jungle pool was amazing and once we found it (after not getting enough shade at the Sunset pool on day 2) we never left. Mohammed the pool guy there was so friendly and helpful we looked forward to seeing his cheery smile each day. Ali on the bar at the adult jungle pool was top notch and absolutely does make the best iced coffees (as he proudly claims) Final stsff shout out to Aymam and especially Ali in the lobby bar who were also unfailingly cheerful and friendly. So many positives to this adults only section of this hotel that we will likely return at some point. Wandered through the family sections and thought they looked great - massive, clean pool and surrounds with plenty beds and shades. So negatives - very few - lack of umbrellas at Sunset pool, beach towel exchange system is overly complicated, adults only bar in East Bay not enforced (this last didn't bother us too much as we were West Bay and just over for a few drinks) adults only pool areas not well signed so lots of kids and wee families mistakenly wander in and have the disappointment/embarrassment of being guided (politely) away. Finally more care needs to be taken of the coral at the hotel beach, we as careful and experienced snorklers found ourselves walking on it before we realised as we made our way into the water because again it is not well.signed nor roped off and lots of floating (and sunken) litter around it. On the whole this is a 9.75 out of 10 hotel and we would recommend it to couples and families, something and someplace for everyone.

This is a strong and detailed review, but it would benefit from tightening the wording and making the criticism more measured while keeping the seriousness of your experience. In particular, I’d avoid saying staff “favoured a certain nationality” as an absolute fact and instead describe how you felt you were treated differently as British guests. Writing Overall experience The hotel itself is kept clean and tidy, and the grounds are lovely and very well maintained by the staff. Unfortunately, the attitude of certain members of staff did have a significant impact on our overall experience. When we arrived, we were taken to the main reception in the Beach Resort section. The reception staff there were very polite and helpful, and they gave us the opportunity to change our room if we wanted to. Looking back, I wish we had taken that opportunity. We had booked a Garden View West Bay room, but our room actually looked directly onto the neighbouring hotel. That hotel hosted entertainment which could become quite loud. Fortunately, we were usually out until late, so it didn't disturb us too much, but I can understand why other guests might find this an issue. The room itself was clean and tidy throughout our stay. The only issue was that there were initially no towels in the room. I contacted reception and two fresh towels were promptly sent up, so this was dealt with quickly.

The positives One of the best parts of the hotel was the team working around the Jungle Pool, particularly Muhammad and his colleagues. They were always smiling, welcoming and genuinely seemed happy to help. They regularly checked that guests had everything they needed throughout the day, and their service was excellent. Another highlight was the Greek restaurant. The staff there were fantastic and couldn't do enough for us. The food was also excellent — so good that we booked the restaurant twice during our stay. Unfortunately, this is where our experience with the service began to decline. Service in the West Bay section We found that, particularly in the West Bay section, certain staff members appeared to give preferential treatment to guests of some nationalities. As British guests, we often felt ignored or pushed aside in favour of other guests. This was particularly noticeable in the main West Bay restaurant. The restaurant staff were, on several occasions, extremely rude and unhelpful, both in the morning and evening. Rather than feeling welcomed as paying guests, we often felt like an inconvenience. We also experienced poor service at the West Bay reception. When asking genuine questions about the hotel or surrounding area, we felt as though we were inconveniencing the reception staff. In particular, one of the main receptionists was consistently unhelpful and came across as rude. The two members of staff we dealt with there were both disappointing.

Beach Bar incident Unfortunately, as I write this review, we have just experienced another very disappointing situation at the Beach Bar. We had followed the hotel's instructions and booked a table in advance. When we arrived, a member of staff seated us and provided our starters. Our waiter, Mina, then approached us and asked whether we would mind moving to another table because another family needed our table due to overbooking. I explained that I was unhappy with this, particularly as we had only just started eating. Initially, Mina said that it was okay, but he then returned on two separate occasions and insisted that we move. At this point, I had to ask him to move away because I did not want the situation to develop into an argument. Unfortunately, I was then met with further attitude, and he proceeded to discuss the situation with a colleague within our hearing. We were subsequently given our drinks to take away, despite other guests around us still being allowed to remain at their tables with their glasses. It felt very much as though we were being encouraged to leave our table to make way for another family. This was extremely disappointing and, in my opinion, not the level of service you would expect from a hotel of this standard.

Final thoughts There are some genuinely excellent members of staff at this hotel, particularly the team around the Jungle Pool and the staff at the Greek restaurant, who deserve recognition for their fantastic service. The hotel itself is clean, the grounds are beautiful and well maintained, and there are certainly aspects of the resort that we enjoyed. However, the inconsistent service — particularly in the West Bay section — seriously affected our experience. Being made to feel ignored, unwelcome or less important than other guests is not something I would expect when staying at a resort of this standard. For that reason, while there were certainly positives, our overall experience was unfortunately disappointing.

I’m sat by the pool bar typing this out waiting for our transfer for the airport we have been here for 2 weeks with 2 young children we have had a amazing time from snorkelling at the resort seeing the beautiful reefs and fish to the very well kept hotel and gardens we was unsure with the mixed reviews we had read but the staff have been absolutely amazing and so friendly we had no bad interactions with anyone the room was lovely we got upgraded to a family deluxe for free on arrival which was a bonus and certainly can’t thank them enough. The food is lovely limited choice if you mainly go to the buffet very similar food every day but in a different sauce but was nice to eat and we never went hungry the drinks like any well inclusive some of the bar staff are great some not so much but all served with a smile none the less we said we would definitely return thank you too all the staff!!