Ephesus Princess

Avoid, most definitely you will be disappointed, definitely not a 5star hotel, hardly 3 star, old , outdated, dirty, overpriced for the service they provide, very hard to access, restaurant, pool and beach, not suitable for old people or people with disabilities or injuries, people fighting over sunbeds every morning, drinks quality of a 2 star hotel. Some of the staff very helpful and nice, not all. Avoid Avoid Avoid

Our stay at Asteria Ephesus has been, without question, the worst family holiday we have ever experienced. From the moment we arrived, it was clear that this hotel did not meet the standard of a five-star resort. The hotel is tired, dated and in desperate need of refurbishment. The food was awful—poor quality, repetitive and nowhere near what we expected from a five-star all-inclusive hotel. We regularly saw flies around the buffet food, which raised serious concerns about hygiene. We booked the Italian à la carte restaurant expecting something special, but were extremely disappointed. On arrival, the salads had already been plated and left sitting on the tables with flies on them before guests had even been seated. The pizza served was little more than bread with cheese. When I questioned the manager, he produced a pre-made pizza and explained that they prepared them in advance "to save time". In my opinion, that is not an à la carte dining experience. There were also serious safety concerns. We witnessed a young child fall onto a broken wine glass in the baby pool area, sustaining what appeared to be a deep cut to his hand. Seeing broken glass in an area intended for young children was shocking. The most distressing part of our holiday began when both of our children became seriously ill. Our daughter became violently sick in the early hours of the morning, and later our son developed the same symptoms. We informed reception that our room needed to be cleaned because the children had been vomiting and asked for a taxi and directions to the nearest hospital. The hotel directed us to a hospital that was closed, forcing us to travel a considerable distance to another hospital while caring for two very sick children. Both children were diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis, prescribed medication and discharged. We have retained the medical reports confirming their diagnosis. Before leaving for the hospital, we specifically requested that our room be cleaned because the children had been repeatedly vomiting. When we returned at approximately 3:00 a.m., the room had still not been cleaned. After spending hours in hospital with two sick children, returning to a room in that condition was completely unacceptable. When I raised this with the night manager, I recorded part of a conversation between members of staff in Turkish. The conversation has since been translated and appears to relate to coordinating the transport of patients rather than responding to our complaint. Regardless of what was being discussed, our concern remains that our request for the room to be cleaned had still not been acted upon. Since then, the situation has become even more concerning. My wife has also become unwell with similar symptoms, meaning three members of our family have become ill during our stay. I have also personally witnessed two other children vomiting in the hotel and have evidence of another guest becoming ill with similar symptoms. The attached photograph shows one child vomiting in the hotel lobby. I also witnessed another child vomiting but felt it would have been inappropriate to photograph them. I only took the attached photograph because I believed it was important to document what I personally observed. While I cannot say what caused these illnesses, I believe the food served at the hotel should be considered as a possible source and investigated thoroughly. Given the number of people we have seen become ill, I believe this should be treated as a potential public health issue and investigated as a matter of urgency. The impact on our holiday has been enormous. On medical advice, our children had to remain isolated for 48 hours after their last vomiting episode. As a result, my wife and I have had to eat separately so that one of us could stay in the room with the children while the other collected food. The family holiday we had looked forward to for months has effectively been ruined. Although some members of staff were genuinely friendly and helpful, they were let down by the overall management and standard of the hotel. Throughout this experience, we felt there was a lack of urgency, empathy and ownership when dealing with our concerns. We have submitted our children's medical reports and raised a formal complaint with Click&Go. We have also explained that when we contacted Blue Insurance during the medical emergency, our policy number was not recognised, meaning we were unable to access the Travel GP service when we needed it most. Based on our experience, we cannot recommend Asteria Ephesus. We believe the circumstances surrounding the illnesses experienced by our family and other guests, together with the hygiene and safety concerns we witnessed, warrant a full investigation.

I do not recommend this hotel to anyone. This was one of the worst hotel experiences I have ever had. The hotel was extremely dirty, and the food quality was very poor. The rooms had almost no amenities and were very basic. Housekeeping was unacceptable. They never properly cleaned the rooms—they only made the beds and left everything else untouched. There was almost no entertainment, and the music was very poor. The entire hotel looked old, dirty, damaged, and poorly maintained. The pool bar was especially disgusting. Used glasses were not properly washed, and drinks were often served in dirty glasses that had clearly been used before. The hotel was full of flies. There were so many flies in the restaurant that it was almost impossible to enjoy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Overall, the service was nowhere near the standard expected from a hotel with this rating. In my opinion, it deserves no more than one star. I am genuinely surprised by its current star rating and wonder why no one seems to inspect or monitor the quality of this hotel. I strongly advise everyone to stay somewhere else.