Not to excuse the bad service here... I wonder how much is because hotels shut for 6 months during off season and many staff leave. I loved Caresse and have kept in touch with 6 or so of their staff. All of them have left Caresse including the GM since I stayed there last year.
Is this staff turnover during the off season a problem endemic to all Bodrum hotels or just Caresse?
QUOTE=escape4;32570764]Introduction I stayed at Bodrum EDITION two years ago and had a great stay. I also read many good reviews about Caresse but no report from anybody who had been to both properties to compare and I ended up being the guinea pig. I thought I the comparison would be balanced with strengths for both but rarely do I find a head-to-head so one-sided: EDITION beats Caresse on almost all metrics. If I am not mistaken, Caresse has a new GM but I am not sure since when which might partly explain why my experience and previous comments from 2017-2018 were quite different. The service at Caresse was one of the most consistently bad I have seen in recent memory, many interactions with staff being necessary because they had bungled to begin with, only to fumble even more after I had to make requests. Given that Caresse and EDITION are in the same price range, I would recommend to most if not all travelers to pick EDITION. Service To illustrate how abominable service was, I make a list below of some of the numerous incidents. Some were more problematic than others, and some are admittedly minor, but I mention them nonetheless because they contributed to the barrage of mishaps. Many hotels can partially use covid as an excuse for temporary issues, however we have stayed in five hotels in Turkey post-covid so I am not waking up from a coma expecting everything to be the same as 2019. I have reset my expectations based on the local market, and Caresse comes up short relative to similar brands and even relative to lower brands; it is in no way worthy of Luxury Collection at the moment in my humble opinion. I contacted the hotel ahead of time by e-mail to inform them of an upcoming special occasion. They did not answer. Because I had not heard back from them, after doing online check-in in the app, I used the chat feature to inform them of our upcoming special occasion. They did not respond until we were already in the hotel. They answered too late, and sent us a few good words in chat, but no special recognition in the room given that they were unprepared.I used 5 SNAs and selected the ”Caresse Residence 2 Bdr” room type which according to Marriott’s website is supposed to be 125 square meters, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 terrace, 1 balcony, and 1 veranda. Upon entering the room I thought there is no way this room is 125 sqm even if we count the balcony. There was only one bedroom and only one bathroom. I called reception and asked what room type do we have. They were careful in answering “Caresse Residence” and not specifying 2 bedroom in the room type name so I asked is there not a second bedroom and bathroom for this room type? I was transferred to someone else on the phone. That person said there is an annex behind our room across from the driveway, but it was out of service. I expressed my disappointment and I was told someone else would call me. Later I talked to a third person and magically we received the keys of the annex. First, it seems the hotel decided upon themselves at check-in that it was fine to give me two thirds of the room only, second they were not transparent at check-in about missing the annex, otherwise I could have been understanding but they tried to sweep the issue under the rug, and third they lied by saying the annex was out of service. Besides the second bedroom and second bathroom which were missing, even if we count the annex I do not know why the website says there is balcony+terrace+verenda. There is only one outdoor area regardless how we call it, off the living room and nothing from the annex.The annex was an Achilles’ heel during our stay, at no time did they provide towels. Two times I forgot to bring a towel from the main room for my shower and only realized it when I got out of the shower. I was not going to cross the driveway outside naked and wet so I used a bathrobe to dry myself. Housekeeping was completely missed one day from the annex.We started the stay with 4 bathrobes altogether and finished with 1 only because they took away and did not put new ones back.On a 5-night stay, I never had to call for water so many times at any hotel. Only one day out of 5 did they proactively give us bottles of water in the room; the other four days I had to call. All those calls should have been unnecessary if they had done their job right to begin with, but it did not end there. When I called for water, either they did not answer the phone and I had to call again later, or they answered the phone but actually never brought our water, or brought the water but one time it was only a 330 ml bottle instead of bringing a few large ones, so I had to ask (again) for more. At the risk of stating the obvious, hotel staff should know that 165ml per person is not enough for one day. Housekeeping removed a personal item from the room one day. It was not highly valuable so I would not call it theft, but almost never do I notice housekeeping taking our personal items anywhere in the world as they are most likely trained that this is a big no-no, but another misstep from the staff from a long list.The air conditioning in the main room worked, but it was not strong enough. I called to have it checked and nothing was ever done. The annex had a lesser quality split AC system found in inferior hotels rather than central AC, but it was working better than in the main room. We considered sleeping in the awful annex which was a dark bunker without privacy, just for the comfort of AC that actually worked half decent.Some staff in the restaurant were friendly, but overall the service was not up to standards there either. Sometimes they forgot our order, sometimes they brought our order after a very long wait for something quite simple like a coffee, and sometimes they brought us the wrong order. Some mornings there were not even nakpins available, cloth or paper. I cannot remember the last hotel where I observed a napkin-free breakfast, not even low-level hotels.One morning we asked for warm water which they brought in a coffee cup. The cup was dirty – at first we thought it was a coffee stain which could not be removed, but when we rubbed with our finger it easily went away. With many guests having a heightened virus awareness at the moment, receiving dirty dishes is awful. Since it was just water, staff should have seen it themselves and not brought this cup. It made us wonder about other dishes with food or coffee: how clean were they underneath? Staff replaced our dirty cup without saying a word or apology.Staff was simply not in the customer-centric mode during breakfast. Since they did not have a menu it was hard to know what was available or not available for breakfast and we just had to ask. One morning I asked for spicy ezme which is a fairly standard Turkish breakfast item found in many hotels, and they brought it to me. But two mornings later they said it was not something available for breakfast, and when I mentioned that I had it two days prior, after insisting they brought it to me. It was a similar situation as for the annex: their first reaction is to just say no, but if the customer insists it turns out they can get it done. Very little was ever proactive and aiming to please.I could not find a “do not disturb” button or door tag, which is always useful to avoid staff coming to our room at inopportune times. Even the most lowly hotel brands have DND. I thought maybe it’s somewhere on the electronic panel in the room but I could not find it, so when staff brought water one day I asked where is DND. He had no idea either and he had to call a colleague. He was informed that residences do not have DND! This continued to be an issue later in the stay when I called for water the receptionist asked me on different days if I had removed DND and it had to be me informing them that residences do not have DND. And of course, one time housekeeping came to our room when it was not a very good time, because they did not know we did not want to be disturbed.The day we arrived at the hotel there was a nurse near the entrance checking customers’ temperature. On subsequent days, there was nothing at all so this hotel was one of the most lax about virus precautions of the 20+ different hotels we have stayed at since February.At check-out I could not imagine that the process would be smooth given everything else that happened during our stay. I arrived at reception, the receptionist had no mask, and she was helping another guest who had a problem with his invoice (no surprise). It took forever and I was just standing there, the receptionist apologized for the wait and said she would help me soon. But she could not fix the gentleman’s invoice problem, finally another staff arrived at reception (also no mask) and she processed my check-out. She asked me if I had bought cigarettes at their shop the day before, and I said no. I think she must have asked me four times in total and I repeated no I did not in fact we don’t smoke, then she asked if I bought something else, somehow she thought the customer must be wrong, rather than the hotel being wrong. She tried to find the receipt of that expense to figure out if another guest wrote the wrong room number on the receipt, but she could not find it. Finally the guest next to me left, the other receptionist asked me (again) if I had bought cigarettes. Neither of them could find any receipt and I was finally let go. Back to the issue of masks, I am not overly bothered by staff without masks outdoors, but receptionists not wearing masks indoors are currently breaking Turkish law.At no time during our stay did we get a visit or phone call from a manager to ask if we were having a good stay. In huge contrast, we went to lunch at Caresse’s competitor Susona LXR (from Hilton chain). In only two hours there, there were two managers including the GM who came to greet and chat with us, and at Caresse nothing in 5 days. It seems fairly clear upon returning to Bodrum we will be more welcome at Susona LXR than at Caresse.The only service which was good during our stay was the valet service and the concierge, there were some friendly staff in the restaurant, but the rest of service was subpar. All in all a complete comedy of errors, this hotel does not get a covid pass from me given what competitors do in Turkey plus the fact that hotel occupancy is fairly normal with high rates over 600 EUR per night during July. My expectations for a Luxury Collection hotel are higher but this one performs lower than a Four Points. Not to mention that based on our previous stay at Bodrum EDITION, I cannot say that local hotel standards in Bodrum are weak, in fact quite the opposite. Room The room (excluding the annex) was the strong point of Caresse as can be seen from pictures. The hardware looks very nice and the view was great. The terrace was large and quite possibly the only aspect which was better than EDITION where I liked the terrace and the view was just as good, but it was smaller than at Caresse. Nonetheless I still preferred the room at EDITION because Caresse had some problems. As noted above, air conditioning was too weak at Caresse, and the main bathroom was not designed well with two separate small sections each with a sink, one for the shower and one for the toilet. It was generally dark but to mitigate the problem there was a small window in the shower overlooking the bedroom. I did not mind but some guests might not appreciate not having the ability to have privacy from the shower – there were no blinds there. But the main drawback about the hardware was the inconvenient annex. Having two bathrooms was useful but having to cross the driveway is simply awful. The suite we had at EDITION only had one bedroom but I can more easily forego the extra bedroom which we do not need, it’s more the second full bathroom which is useful. EDITION had two full bathrooms in the same suite: a far superior arrangement than Caresse. At Caresse the annex lacked privacy because the bed was immediately next to the large patio door and unlike all rooms at the hotel, it does not have a view so I would not even recommend this room type for couples travelling together; might as well book two rooms. This annex would only be useful to a couple travelling with a nanny, period. Bathrooms had Bvlgari amenities which I like, and it might be a matter of taste but I still prefer Le Labo from EDITION. And small bottles at EDITION had my name printed on the label – a very nice touch. So EDITION easily wins for amenities as well. Dining I mentioned the service problems during breakfast already. Regarding the restaurant venue it looked nice overlooking the sea, but not as fantastic as the restaurant at EDITION. Also the setup was somewhat crowded and many mornings guests had to sit inside due to lack of space, losing out on the view and the experience. There was no buffet and there was also no a la carte menu – I have not come across any hotel doing this post-covid. You had no choice but to be served the traditional Turkish breakfast and you could pick how you want your eggs, period. I don’t know how EDITION handles breakfast post covid but I do not see why they would have cut their extensive a la carte menu which already existed pre-covid. Our breakfast at Caresse ended up being entire forgettable and we even skipped some given that it was not pleasant in terms of either food or atmosphere when it was crowded. In their defense, they did provide menemen and grilled sucuk upon request, but some guests would not even know it’s available if it’s their first time visit to Turkey. Not a great way for the hotel to proactively offer a broader range of local delicacies. Pool and Beach The pool and the beach at Caresse were good, but by now I am a broken record: both were better at EDITION. There was a pier right in front of the beach rather than open ended water – it was out of place and a bad design in my opinion. There were also many rows of chairs on the beach with a small water front area, also not ideal. Wifi Wifi worked well during our stay with speeds over 30 Mbps which is more than many business hotels in Istanbul. Thankfully this is an aspect which was smooth during our stay. Overall Overall our stay was subpar in many ways and I do not give them a pass under the covid excuse. Bodrum hotels have fairly high occupancy right now, none of the big hotel chains are closed, rates are high, and competitors provide a decent product based on my post-covid stays elsewhere in the country. Many people asked the question before: Caresse or EDITION? This will never be a dilemma for me in the foreseeable future.[/QUOTE]