Sherwood Exclusive Lara

Sude in the guest relations, she is very helpful and pretty , the dinner is amazing, the pools is great thank you

We had an amazing experience at Sherwood , the food , staff hospitality everything was amazing . The entertainment was good and very family friendly

A very mixed experience here, let down by dirty rooms, poor food and chaotic running of the hotel.

Whilst the beach, pier, pool area and entertainment at the hotel are very good, the rest of the experience is terrible. The hotel is dated, the rooms are in disrepair with doorframes loose, lights not functioning, poor air conditioning performance and dirty mouldy showers. If you look beneath the beds you will find weeks of dust, hair, spillages and rubbish from previous guests. The rooms do not have irons or ironing boards which is not the end of the world, but you have to ask reception for one and pay a deposit to 'borrow' one, collecting it yourself and being time limited to an hour. The lifts are slow and are very intermittent so you lose about 20 mins in getting to reception and back, carrying a hot iron through busy areas which is a safety hazard. Last time I had to pay a deposit from an iron was in 2* 18-30 hotel and I travel about 10 times a year for work and holidays - 5* hotels have irons.

Talking about the staff - a real mixed bag. Reception are chaotic - each member of staff tells you something different. We had extended our stay and were told to come back 3 times to sort out our extension (which we had arranged weeks before checking in), every person we spoke to told us something different and at one point we were told we would need to leave the rooms and change to others for the extended single night - despite organising this weeks ago.

The check-in experience itself was awful. No information provided, nothing explaining that we had a free dinner included at an a la carte (more about that later) and we only found out by accident when Guest Services told us it was included when we enquired about the availability and the 25 euro per head surcharge.

We had a large-ish group and were told the we would have to be split up across different tables yet when we arrived for the meal we were all sat together on a nice looking table. A pointless conversation literally summarising the lack of co-ordination between departments when one argues its not possible and the other don't. The meal was actually another example of the craziness in this hotel. No menu and no explanation of the menu. We had a vegetarian who was not offered an option and we had to fight for something to eat. The staff all confused and ended up bringing pasta, followed by someone elses meal where one of them said it was cooked in a separate kitchen and the other said it was cooked on a hotplate next to meat. On a separate occasion a Chicken Parmigiana arrived containing prawns with no mention of them.

When asking for the winelist, they bring you a trolley of wine and carry endless bottles to show you what they have, but no actual winelist. After bringing 30 bottles of wine out (literally!!) , they bring a wine list with no prices so you never know what the wine is or what it costs....eventually (after 15 mins) they brought a wine list with prices but it was all very chaotic and disorganised.

The air-con in the hotel - forget it, not good at all, barely exists so that cold blast you want when you walk in from 39 degrees - not a thing.

The Gym is well equipped but 2 treadmills stop working halfway through the morning as if the heat gets to them. The Gym attendant literally had no answers and clearly didnt care so you're left wondering how long that has been going on for.

The bali beds - nice to spend the day on, but the service was very intermittent and the staff decided to disappear after lunchtime leaving you to walk to the bar for your own drinks - bear in mind they charge for the beds and service and having provided a 20 euro tip up front, you would expect 'some' service. Also wear shoes or take tweezers to remove splinters if you book one. And watch for the nails sticking out.

The breakfast buffet is madness, as is dinner in the buffet. There are people everywhere, the food moves around each day so people are wandering around not knowing where it has moved to, a bit like the supermarkets do to keep you buying things you wouldnt usually see. Every morning you have to seek out where the fruit has moved to. More odd logic. Also watch for the wet beach towel on the floor catching drips from under the AC unit, right in the walkway when you are carrying your plate...yes, actually.

Everything is just so random here, its like there is a huge co-ordination issue. The staff are mostly very friendly but it is like they have their hands tied. The standard of english is very very low and whilst you should not be arrogant and expect everyone to speak your language, if you are going to market to english people and have an english website, there should be a higher standard. It is as if all the english speaking people have been employed by other hotels.

The entertainment team are absolutely awesome, really work hard and keep everyone entertained - David in particular - he was memorable. There are ample activities and things to do here. The Water park is great fun and the pool areas are generally nice. However, a number of parasols are broken - not 5*, and the cleaning around the pool is sporadic - with the previous day's drinks debris left around at times. Again, not 5*.

The food in the day is decent enough, and the ice cream/waffle place is a nice touch so no complaints here, same with the beach bar - all good. There is ample water in fridges everywhere which is good and they have premium beer and spirits available - again all good.

So a really mixed set of feelings - if it was a 3 or 4* hotel you would be happy with the perks, but if you are paying the price for and expecting 5*, do think very carefully about this. We booked based on the reviews this hotel had and took 5 rooms. We just cannot understand why so many people rate it as highly as they do and it does not make sense at all. We are not the types of family who complain about anything and everything - we are very tolerant and tried not to let the issues ruin the holiday and would rarely leave a review like this but we felt the hotel needs to address these issues and be held to account to do so.

One of the waiters asked our party to hand the phone to write a trip advisor review and most of the entertainment team also asked us to leave good reviews - they are great people and probably dont see the other side of things so can't blame them but it felt a bit like a tactic...since they were all asking the same continuously. The management clearly expect staff to seek out 5/5 reviews but it should be rewarded on the quality of the hotel and not leaning on the people to drive the agenda for high reviews.

We won't go back to this hotel, there are too many options to part with hard earned money.