This was my first stay at the relatively new addition to the Accor stable: Rixos. A chain largely focussing on Turkey and the Middle East, and a little further afield. Rixos is also odd in that not all properties participate in Le Club, however this hotel does, in a way...

I had emailed the hotel in advance to inquire about a transfer from the airport and was quoted the rather huge price of €80 (one way). I declined and paid €18 with a perfectly fine taxi.

Check In

Check in was somewhat confused. It took them some time to find the reservation and there was no priority counter (the Le Club priority sign was unhelpfully behind the counter). Eventually I was asked to take a seat and have a beverage. First some juice was offered and then "champagne". The bubbles turned out to be something local, dreadful, flat in 5 seconds.

Eventually they arrived with the "welcome gift" (a cover for a suitcase), drinks voucher (for one, changed to two when challenged) and a confirmation that an upgrade was not possible. the next highest category would have been a villa and it was claimed they were all being worked on (not the case).

In any case off we went in a golf buggy to the room. I had booked a superior suite with two bedrooms.

Room

The room frankly was not great and not what I would describe as luxury.

These suites feature two bedrooms and a simple living room. All tiled with poor bedding and this one with no view. Other features were: a large sun terrace and a regular sized balcony. The minibar (soft drinks and beer) was free and was restocked daily (also on demand which was useful). The bedding unfortunately was synthetic and had only two soft pillows (no pillow menu). In room coffee comes courtesy of Nescafe (yikes), no Nespresso here. The worst of it was the fact that the room was next to the hotel's loading dock and above a storage facility. Noise was a real problem. That room should not have been allocated to a Platinum member. I would go as far as to say that this is one of the worst rooms about.

After one night I requested to change room. The new room was the same layout, without the sun terrace but two balconies, and importantly was quiet and offered a nice view over the bay.

Service

Service was decent. The staff are friendly and hard working. As per usual in these regions there are many middle managers about who appear to be doing a little less than the regular staff....

The staff at the outside Mojito bar were particularly pleasant I must say.

Dining

This hotel is an all inclusive property, meaning all meals and drinks (including alcohol) are included. In the summer season (not during my stay) it also offers two additional a la carte restaurants (pay).

The main restaurant is huge and can get noisy when busy. The food offered was plentiful and of good quality. There are penty of live cooking stations at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The wine was was drinkable.

The only criticism I would have is that the food could be more varied, after couple of days some non-Turkish food (nice though as it is) would have been nice. Only a small observation.

Outside meal hours a beach side restaurant (included) is offering smaller bites.

The lobby bar offers drinks, coffee (best in the house) and pastries all day.

Facilities

The hotel is huge and offers a wide variety of faccilities, several pools, a private beach, a private island, music venues and sports facilities. Everything is very well maintained and the gardens are lush and pretty. It should be noted that the hotel is on a hill, walking uphill (at some incline) is part of the course. They offer a regular shuttle service but can also do on-demand service (though there were several signs saying that they do not, maybe it was due to the fact that it was still low season).

The elusive villas:

Loyalty Services

Overall this is a nice hotel (second best in Bodrum after the Mandarin Oriental) but it did not feel like an Accor hotel in that there was virtually no loyalty recognition. All that was offered was the "gift" and the drinks voucher.

Towards the end of the stay I requested a chat with the GM but he did not make himself available. Instead I got to talk to an Assistant Guest Relations Manager. This was not to moan but to encourage them to do better for other Accor status guests. She recognised the problem and offered remedies.

I was offered a free spa session for two and "something for the room". This something was a bit over the top:

For the record: I was not on a honeymoon. Actually I am a widower so this was a bit wrong but I was able to laugh it off. Some years ago I would have had a breakdown...

Also in the room was what should have been the Le Club welcome on the first day (included was also a bottle of wine which was "on demand" due to the temperature).

Points posted quickly but unfortunately were wrong. A whopping 1600 status points are missing. The conversation with the hotel is ongoing....

If the hotel gets Le Club perks right I would have no hesitation in recommending it but at the moment the may need to retrain a little.

There is no lounge at this hotel, nor is there there an exclusive area in the restaurant (there is for villa guests only).

Location

The hotel is a 20 minute taxi ride from the airport and a 15 minute ride from Bodrum town centre. Taxis are easy to get, airconditioned and metered. Uber is also available.

Overall

Overall this is a nice hotel with great facilities. That said there are some areas as mentioned that need improving, in particular the bed and bedding and Le Club status recognition. I hope they took my little chat seriously.

Personally I am not sold on all inclusive but chacun son goût.

Value for money is debatable. This hotel is not cheap.

I have tried various resorts in Bodrum in the past but never Rixos until now.  My quick takeaway was that this resort is excellent quality for an all-inclusive in terms of food & beverage and the hotel common areas, although the rooms are not the most impressive.  

Room

I booked one notch below suite room type (Premium Sea View), and at check-in I was told that what I booked had sea view but the suite they could upgrade me to did not (Deluxe Suite), so they gave me a choice between the upgrade or no upgrade.  I thought the offered +1 upgrade as Accor Diamond was not overly generous so I enquired about the second category of suites (Superior Suite) which is listed as being almost twice the size, and thankfully they told me that we could take a look at the various rooms in order for me to decide - a nice gesture.  As it turns out the superior suite was actually a 2-bdr suite so I can understand their original reluctance to upgrade there.  However the difference was not simply the extra bedroom; the living room and main bedroom were far more spacious and there were 2 full bathrooms rather than 1.5 so I took the superior suite despite not really needing bedroom #2.  The hardware was fine but not the most fantastic, in fact the hotel common areas felt far more luxurious than the rooms, which I guess is not illogical since guests in an all-inclusive resort like this one will probably not spend much time in their room.  

Dining

This was the third all-inclusive Rixos I tried in Turkey, and every time the crowds have been surprisingly quite well behaved and I did not witness obnoxious drunken guests.  In many all-inclusive resorts the food quality can leave to be desired but at this Rixos the buffet was quite good, the food was well presented and of reasonable quality.  The main drawback was that unlike the other Rixos resorts where we stayed, all of the a la carte restaurants were excluded for dinner which was a bummer.  The only a la carte available was during the afternoon and during the night (midnight to 7am).

The drinks quality was also acceptable and included a long list of cocktails similar to Rixos Premium Belek.  They even went a step above in Bodrum: when ordering a Negroni during dinner, they brought a small station on rolling wheels to my table to prepare my drink in front of me which was nice.  I am not much into sweets, but for people who enjoy chocolate the Godiva Café was quite impressive.

Common Areas

As mentioned above the hotel common areas were very nice, from the pool to the beach, and various children installations which makes this resort very good for families with young children and therefore a good complement to the nearest other Rixos (Göcek) which is adults-only.

Wifi

Wifi was not always the best, notably from the second bedroom the reception barely worked.  From many public locations of the hotel it worked fine and I clocked speeds of 20-30 Mbps.

Overall

Overall I was quite satisfied with the stay; the upgrade as Accor Diamond ended up being satisfactory although it was not entirely proactive.  The highest room types at this hotel are villas with private pools but they are in a completely different price range so I don’t think anybody should expect upgrades to villas – it would be unrealistic.  I personally still prefer Bodrum EDITION which has stunning rooms (but not all-inclusive); however Rixos is far cheaper than EDITION so in its price range I believe Rixos is a solid choice.