I am now staying at the Doubletree, second year in a row. Unfortunately, this is going to be the last visit
Room - no more suite upgrade, we ended up in 402, nice King size with an armchair that turns easily into a bed for the 4-yr old. Accommodation is OK; not matching to some other eastern-European hotels in same chain, but OK for few days.
Food was the most horrible thing ever. Last year they had better food than now, and I still remember we thought it was not OK. This year it got worse. You could say there was some variety, but the looks and taste and ingredients of each dish were horrible:
Breakfast:
- white cheese - I know white cheese and this was the cheapest saltiest thing you can get from the supermarket, disgrace to a country that makes good cheese
- butter - are you kidding me? That is not butter, it is packed in a salami-shape and it is margarine with butter flavor, the cheapest kind. You can also use margarine, which my mom only uses for cooking
- scrambled eggs. You are supposed to mix the eggs so it at least resembles scrambled eggs. Undercooked too.
- omelette & pancake station. Same cook from last year, the guy was teleported from a 1950s army cantine. He drowned everything into oil, took forever to make anything, and never bothered to ask kitchen staff to cut omelette ingredients in smaller pieces. Unfortunately, he was making the only edible stuff in the joint
- juices - I did not expect fresh orange juice and other stuff, but not the cheapest drinks from a supermarket. They probably cost the hotel 1$/2liters...
- jam and honey. In a country where fruit jam and honey should be traditional, the DT serves you the worst tasting stuff
-coffee - my wife preferred to pay for a McDonald's coffee after the first attempt.
We tried one dinner and was enough. Except pork sirloin and rice, everything else was too fat, undercooked or overcooked. Ice-cream was good.
Facilities:
- outdoor pools have incredibly cold water for mid-august, almost nobody could use them.
- 3 out of 4 pools we REALLY dirty. You only have to clean them once a day, and when you run a sea-side resort, keeping clean pools should be part of core business
- indoor pool had warm water, but just as filled with chlorine as last year. Given the alternative of outside pools, it was the lesser evil.
- Beach. Last year the hotel rented a beach in same resort town of Golden Sands, now it is 3.1km from the hotel, well outside the town. If you do not have your own car, you depend on hotel shuttle, which is an 8+1 seater, and runs every 30 minutes. If you have your own car (like we did) it is easier, just pay an extra 3lv/day for parking. The beach though is much nicer and less crowded than the one last year.
I know this is typically an all-inclusive place, but I would not image somebody paying good money for their family holiday and stay here
For us it was a place close-by booked in January at 50% rates, but next year will think again, and maybe use same money to head again to Kos in Greece or to Turkey, where service is so much better.
BTW, no work started on the Hilton, reception told me they will start in October.