Sun Palace

Like many reviews on here already I must say Rhodes and the location are stunning. The hotel however is absolutely awful. For the money we spent (a lot!) we were left very unsatisfied and are currently going through tui to see what can be done about this. The room was small and out dated! A family room that litterally had a divider in the main room to put the two kids beds in. The bathroom flooded every time we showered, although 2 nights we had no water so showering wasn’t an option! The food is awful, always either cold or under cooked! More raw fish than the sea opposite! The cleaning staff in our area would enjoy their morning spliff outside the room every morning which could be smelt for quite a while! The sunbeds lacked quality and quantities which made it very difficult to get one throughout the day! And the wifi also is non existent! So I would avoid this at all cost. We only ended up having one evening in the hotel, and ended up spending a lot more money to avoid being there!

Throughout our stay, we have experienced a significant number of issues, which are detailed below.

Room, cleanliness and maintenance

• When we first arrived in our room, there was a strong smell of wet grass, and there were used plastic cups containing Coca-Cola left in the room.
• There is visible mould on the sealant inside the bathroom, outside the bathroom and around the door leading onto the patio. I have photographic evidence of this.
• The balcony has not been cleaned by the cleaners since we arrived. I have photographs showing the condition of the balcony.
• On 19 August, our room was cleaned but there was no toilet roll left for us. We had to go to reception ourselves to obtain toilet roll.
• On 20 August, our room was not tidied at all. We contacted reception to request towels, but they did not arrive, meaning we eventually had to go and collect them ourselves.
• The drying rack outside our balcony is coming away from the wall, which appears to be a maintenance and potential safety issue.
• The bed arrangement in our room is also unacceptable. There are two single beds pushed together to create a double bed, but they repeatedly move apart during the night, leaving a gap between the mattresses. You can end up falling into the gap while sleeping, which is extremely uncomfortable and has disrupted our sleep. For a holiday of this length, we do not consider this acceptable for what is supposed to be a double bed.

Pool areas and facilities

• There is a strong and unpleasant smell of vomit around the entrance/exit leading onto the swimming pool area, which has been extremely unpleasant to walk past.
• There is visible mould on the parasols around the pool area.
• There are broken tiles all around the pool area, which is unsightly and also raises concerns about safety and the general condition of the facilities. I have photographic evidence of this.
• There appears to be only one lifeguard covering three swimming pools. I cannot comment on the waterpark side as I have not established how many lifeguards are allocated there, but the situation around the main pools has caused concern.
• The sun loungers are extremely hard and uncomfortable, making it difficult to relax around the pool for any length of time.

Food and drinks

• The drinks machines have consistently been poor. The drinks have been flat, warm and tasted predominantly of soda rather than the advertised drinks. As a result, despite being on an all-inclusive package, we have had to purchase drinks from the shop across the road on a daily basis.
• The food has been particularly disappointing. Much of it has been overly salty, very poor in consistency and almost like slop, and on numerous occasions the food has had a strange or unusual taste. We have struggled to find meals that we actually enjoyed.
• The food has also frequently appeared extremely greasy, with some dishes visibly swimming in oil or grease. I have photographic evidence of this.
• The snack bar serves essentially the same food every day, and what is available is extremely greasy. There has been very little variety.

Entertainment and service

• With the exception of the animation team, who have been friendly and appeared genuinely enthusiastic about their jobs, the overall level of friendliness and customer service from staff has been disappointing.
• The evening entertainment area fills up extremely quickly and very early, leaving guests struggling to find somewhere to sit. This makes it difficult to enjoy the entertainment unless you arrive considerably earlier than the advertised start time.

Overall standard of the hotel

For a hotel advertised and sold as a four-star property, we feel that there needs to be major work, maintenance and investment carried out throughout the hotel.

The amount of mould, broken tiles, maintenance issues, cleanliness problems and general condition of some of the facilities does not, in our opinion, reflect the standard we expected from a four-star TUI holiday.

I do want to acknowledge some positives. There have been no significant sunbed wars on the non-waterpark side, which has been appreciated. The air conditioning in our room has also been excellent, and the animation team have been one of the few consistently positive aspects of the stay.

However, these positives do not outweigh the considerable number of problems we have experienced.

The biggest issue for us is that we have paid for an all-inclusive holiday, yet we have regularly felt the need to spend additional money on drinks because the drinks provided were not of an acceptable standard. The quality and variety of the food have also meant that we have not felt we were receiving the all-inclusive experience we paid for.

We have also had repeated issues with the cleanliness and servicing of our room, poor maintenance, uncomfortable sleeping arrangements and the general condition of the hotel and pool facilities\

4th year at this hotel and love it! hotel is clean with staff working constantly to keep it clean. Pools are great with lots of new sunbeds. No sunbed hogging, beds at main pool still available after breakfast. Animation team work incredibly hard and entertainment is always fun and enjoyable. Water park is also very good and part of the all inc with snack bar and only open to hotel guests. Every year we see more refurbishments taking place over the winter and this winter a large refurb is due on last rooms, water park and restaurants. Food is typical all inclusive, can always find something to eat and snack bar stays open till midnight which can be a godsend!! Location of the hotel is also spot on. The one thing that I find that lets this hotel down is the guests not tidying up after themselves. We have already rebooked for 2027.