Delphin Be Grand Resort

A very disappointing end to our family holiday – made significantly worse by the complete lack of response afterwards

Sadly, our final evening at Delphin BE Grand was completely spoiled by our experience at the Teppanyaki restaurant and, even more disappointingly, by the way the hotel handled our complaint both on the evening and since returning home.

We had paid €220 for the experience and had a reservation for 20:00. We arrived at approximately 20:05 after initially going to the wrong area and were kindly escorted to the correct restaurant by a member of the à la carte team.

Unfortunately, things went downhill from there.

Communication was extremely difficult, with the member of staff assigned to our table unable to explain the menu or answer basic questions without repeatedly seeking assistance.

More importantly, the wait for food was completely unacceptable. At 20:34, more than 25 minutes after we had been seated, the chef had not even started cooking our meal. I have photographs from the evening confirming the timings.

We were travelling as a family and our three-year-old grandson was understandably becoming hungry and increasingly upset. By 21:00 – a full hour after our reservation time – we still had not received our main course, only soup and salad.

At that point I requested a refund of the €220 we had paid.

What happened next was actually more disappointing than the poor restaurant service.

Guest Relations told us that a refund would not be provided because their records apparently showed that we had not sat down until 20:30. This was simply incorrect and contradicted both our recollection and the photographic evidence we had from the evening.

I subsequently raised the matter with the Customer Relations Manager, Omar, hoping that a senior member of staff would listen, investigate what had happened and try to recover the situation.

Unfortunately, we experienced the opposite.

Rather than listening objectively to our concerns, his approach felt defensive and dismissive. Most upsettingly, my wife Sally's account of the timings was effectively treated as untrue, despite the evidence we had. We left the conversation feeling that our honesty had been questioned rather than our complaint genuinely investigated.

Service in the restaurant meanwhile deteriorated further. Staff largely disappeared and I eventually left the restaurant and walked to the beach bar myself simply to get drinks for my family.

The only solution offered was another à la carte dinner. As we were flying home the following day, that was clearly of no practical value.

This was particularly frustrating because even booking the Teppanyaki experience had been unnecessarily difficult. As our family occupied three rooms, I had to make three separate payments and the booking itself took almost 30 minutes.

However, what has happened since returning home has compounded our disappointment considerably.

We have emailed the hotel several times regarding our complaint. Our travel agent has also contacted the hotel on our behalf.

Despite this, we have received absolutely no response at all.

For a hotel operating at this level, we find that extraordinary. It demonstrates, in our experience, a complete lack of customer centricity, care and accountability once the guest has left the resort.

Every hotel occasionally gets things wrong. I don't judge a hotel simply because something goes wrong – I judge it by how it responds when it does.

The restaurant could have had a bad evening. That happens. But the dismissive handling of our complaint at the hotel, followed by repeatedly ignoring both us and our travel agent after our return home, turns an operational service failure into something much more concerning about the hotel's approach to its customers.

And that is particularly sad because we would have returned to Delphin BE Grand.

Instead, based on both this experience and the complete lack of care shown afterwards, we will not return and, regrettably, would recommend that others give this hotel a very wide berth.

This was supposed to be a special final evening together as a family. Instead, it became one of the most disappointing hotel experiences we have had – and the hotel's subsequent silence has left an even worse impression than the original incident.

Great hotels are not defined by never getting things wrong. They are defined by what they do when they do get things wrong. Sadly, Delphin BE Grand has had multiple opportunities to put this right and, to date, has chosen not even to respond.

The negative reviews for this hotel are laughable! We've been to many all-inclusive family hotels and this is by far the best we've stayed at. The staff are so helpful, with customer services checking daily that everything was ok with the room etc. All the pools were good with something for everyone. The kids had an amazing time with all the organised shows and events. Food in the buffet dining area was excellent with a different theme each night and the additional 10 a la carte restaurants were amazing. We would recommend this hotel every time.