Luxury only in the name

So to begin, I guess I don't fit into the standard clientele the hotel is used to (I'm lucky enough to be able to travel about a third of the year, while it seems the guests that this property caters to are the upper-middle class Europeans and North Americans who have a different view on life), but that should still not excuse the hotel of the issues I had. While the property itself was amazing, the service was lacking and the staff did say something that I felt was very inappropriate and given how the assistant manager responded when I brought this to his attention upon check-out, I don't see anything changing.

The hotel is situated a bit outside the city center. After picking up the rental car at the Bodrum airport, it was under an hour drive to the main gate of the hotel. The security guard checked the name against the guest list and directed us to drive down to the hotel reception. The resort isn't big, with residences along the upper part and the hotel at the bottom. It sits against the hill which allows (almost) every room and the residences to have an amazing view. Upon checking in, we received the room keys to the 2 bedroom suite that I was upgraded to thanks to using my Marriott SNAs from my plat status. The suite was located on the lobby floor (5th floor) at the end of the hotel.

Wow. The room was spectacular!

Entering the suite you were greeted with an amazing view of the sea. The room opened up to the kitchen and living area, which was finished off with high end appliances. (and where the welcome gift was left)

There was a table outside on the balcony and a separate balcony with 2 lounge chairs.

The suite had 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms. The first bedroom had a king bed and a bathroom with a rain down shower. The second bedroom had 2 twin beds and a bathroom with a shower as well. The bathroom in the second bedroom had a door which separated the toilet from the shower part, which allowed the toilet to serve as a guest toilet (as there was also a door from the toilet to the entrance hallway).

(no idea why that photo is upside down, tried to flip it and it still uploaded as upside down)

The property consisted of the main restaurant (Glass Restaurant) which served breakfast (7-11am) and dinner (7-11pm). There was a lounge (Glass Lounge) for drinks (which also doubled as the pool bar), and a restaurant for lunch on the beach level (Buddha Bar). On the pool level, there was the spa along with the infinity pool. The beach level had access to the dock along with a small private beach.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Sadly, this is where the property took a huge turn for the worse. Service was awful. There were too many flaws, that I would not deem this property as a 5 star nor a luxury collection property. For example, while the staff all seemed attentive, getting anyone’s attention was difficult. Every morning at breakfast they would forget my coffee. Every morning I would point this out. On the final evening, we wanted to make use of the table on the balcony in the suite and order from the restaurant dinner to have it served it the room. I went to place the order down at the restaurant and the staff said no. No explanation, no reason as to why (mind you, there is 1 restaurant for dinner at the whole property. The room service menu consists of everything that is found at the restaurant menu, so it's not like there was a second kitchen. There were some items on the dinner menu that we would of liked to have that wasn't found on the room serivce menu). I've never came across this before in any of my hotel stays. There was never an issue to order something at the hotel restaurant and bring it to the room (either by the staff or by me going to the restaurant and bringing it up myself). This stay was also right after high season, so it wasn't as if the restaurant was full. 

But the one thing that caught me off guard and ruined my stay was the comments from 2 staff members (and which the assistant manager confirmed). On the 3rd night, I went to the front desk to ask the concierge to check on a restaurant I've found on TripAdvisor (yes, TA isn't the best source of reviews for restaurants as they can be bought, but given this place has been around for almost 20 years, 1,500+ review and hundreds of photos, it's a safe bet that most of the reviews are legit). The concierge was away from the desk, so the front desk attendant took my room number down and informed me that she will call my room after her break finishes in about 10min. I asked her if she had any idea about the restaurant, and without looking at the name, but rather the location she said that she "would not recommend that location as that location is where there are 2* and 3* hotels and their clients visiting those restaurants are 2* and 3*". I was quite taken back by her comment and figured it might be a language barrier. I went back to the room and waited for the concierge to call me, which she never did (another lack of service), so after about 30min I called her and asked the same question if she heard of this restaurant. She replied almost the same as the front desk attendant did, that they do not recommend that location as it's not up to the standards that the hotel would recommend to their guests and she cannot recommend any place to eat in that area. She recommended a restaurant in the marina, which we went to, and while it was good, it wasn't anything great.

Now I might be reading into it a bit too deep, but those 2 comments from those 2 staff members painted a very strong picture in my mind of what kind of guests visit the hotel and how the staff was trained to reply to the guest. I've been all over the world, stayed at countless hotels from the 2* motels, Airbnb’s, to 5* resorts and hotels and everything in between, and I've never been told that way that they won't recommend me a place in a certain area, not because of crime, or any safety risk, but rather that the average working class eats there. Given that I would categorize myself as the average working class, this felt quite insulting. Also, traveling all over the world, some of the best food I've had were in these "average working class" areas as they focus on food, rather than just plating something generic nicely and charging the clients a lot to make them feel as if they received something excellent.

On the 4th night, with the restaurant issue (that they wouldn't have served the dinner in the room), I got pissed, grabbed the rest of the group and we went to the restaurant in the 2*-3* hotel area and we had a very good dinner. Was it amazing? No, but it was delicious. The restaurant was owned by a family who you could see really worked hard and put in their time and passion to make a great dinner. This place was also completely full (we grabbed the last table) while quite a few other restaurants were mostly empty, and that also says something about the restaurant.

I brought up my concerns to the assistant manager when we checked out the following morning but got the usual generic reply. Sorry for the lack of service, the staff shouldn't be forgetting coffee refills, and such. Sorry for the issue at the restaurant, that should have not happened, and we should have been able to serve it in the room. When I pointed out the comments from the staff regarding the location, he replied with a similar comment as the other 2 staff members replied but assured me that he will speak with the staff to make sure its phrased differently.

Overall, while the hard product is excellent (from the suite to the view and the grounds), the service, which in my opinion, differs no more than a 3* hotel. It leaves a lot to be desired and this property isn't worth the price nor the name luxury collection, in my opinion. The service I would say was on average what I would get in a Holiday Inn. I've had stays at Hampton Inn, Hyatt Place and Crowne Plaza that were better than this property. There shouldn't be any excuse for the lack of service. Just because it is after the high season, doesn't mean the staff should be focused less. Just cause the rate I paid was less than the high season rate, doesn't mean that the quality of service should be less (this property was one of the most expensive ones in Bodrum while we were there and the most expensive Marriott properties).

Finally, the comments from the staff really showed me what the property thought of "lower class" people and what kind of guests visit this property. Sadly, while the view was phenomenal and the suite was fantastic, the service and staff ruined the stay and made me not want to visit this place again.