Fiesta Athenee Palace

Food at Chang Thai was amazing, Decor is lovely Staff are so attentive, the two Gios, elena, and Roberto

The time is amazing, we have a wonderful dinner at el dourado with the amazing team: Giancarlo, Elena M and Carmelo Macawso Thank Your for Your hospitality

This was our second visit to this hotel having been last September. We have already booked to return in September this year but decided to come in July to celebrate a special occasion, I should have realised that it was a mistake when, within 5 minutes of arrival, my expensive Antler case was broken by being picked up by the drag handle before a second member of staff fell on top of it. On closer inspection on my return home the handle is totally broken, the case will cost about £220 to replace. There were a few positives about this visit. The grounds are well kept. Most staff are good, a special mention to Daria, Pietro, Angelo and the staff in the Xtra Time Bar. Our upgraded Signature Level pool view room was very good, thanks Khalil. We enjoyed breakfast. Now the negatives. The hotel was very busy. The a la carte restaurants were hectic, lots of families with children and babies, so not great for couples. The portofino was way too hot, Sicily was experiencing temperatures of about 40 degrees at the time, nowhere near enough fans to make it comfortable for guests and staff alike although the food was good. The signature pool was not remotely relaxing. Most of the beds were taken by about 8am, we could see the mad dash start at about 7am from our balcony. On two occasions self entitled people decided to take our beds, for context we did not see this happen to any other guests during our stay, just us TWICE. Although on reading a recent guest review it sounds like it has turned into the Wild West! The first time this happened we had been sitting on the beds before being absent for about 10 mins, we returned to find our towels and belongings being unceremoniously removed by the lifeguard. Other guests lied to her and said we had not been there, a family of four adults who wanted to sit together, shameless behaviour. We were obviously not happy but took it on the chin. In hindsight I wish we had not. The second time was much more upsetting and disturbing. Again we had been gone only 10 mins and returned to find two 'gentlemen' sitting on our beds saying they had been there before us. An obvious lie, they were on our towels, secured with our pegs. They had touched/removed our personal belongings, unacceptable. They refused to move and became abusive and falsely accused us of stealing their sunglasses/case. Due to this serious escalation of the situation after the unfounded allegation I went to the reception to try to get assistance from a senior manager but was told there was not one on site, ludicrous, a huge 5 star hotel should always have a senior manager available, they sent a bell boy. This happened on our special day which totally ruined it and the rest of our holiday. I did not feel safe to walk alone after this incident. On the day of our departure, I was not sorry to be leaving, we were told that the men found their glasses/case. We still did not receive an apology for being wrongly accused of theft. We have been to many 4 and 5 stars hotels around the world, problems can occur at any hotel but it is how management deals with them that sets the best apart. In light of what we experienced, senior management did not do enough. As I stated at the beginning of my review, we are due to return in September, I am very apprehensive about it.