Kirman Arycanda De Luxe

We had high hopes after reading reviews and a positive experience travelling to Turkey the previous year. Unfortunately this hotel didn’t live up to expectations. It is a beautiful property that is looked after by the maintenance staff but there are issues.

Staffing

When we went the hotel felt very busy. Some nights in the buffet restaurant we couldn’t get a table and had to stand around until a table became available. There seems to be no management of where people sit. At other hotels we’ve had to wait to be seated so that staff workload is managed properly. There was always someone stood at the entrance to the buffet but they didn’t do much apart from say hello! The staff overall seemed very overworked and there was a definite staff shortage. Things like the patisserie, juice bar and piano bar sometimes just didn’t have anyone around to serve you. Around the pool we ordered drinks several times and they never arrived or took over an hour. In the buffet, some sections just didn’t have staff monitoring the food levels and some things just ran out.

Food

We felt the food on offer was very much geared towards German / Russian / Turkish clients. Often we would come back to the table and we had struggled to find something to eat. We were travelling with 4 vegetarians which made it particularly hard as food was not labelled and there wasn’t a dedicated section like we’ve seen in some hotels. There was also limited options at lunch. The buffet runs at a sort of half capacity with only a few of the sections open offering salads, few hot options and deserts. If you don’t want what’s on offer in the pool restaurant, you are limited. The food locations were very strange! The buffet is laid out really weird and you have to hunt for everything or go round the whole thing before you decide what to have. It’s a very confusing layout. E.g the butter is not near the bread but on the opposite side of the buffet. Also, you can get pizza at lunchtime next to the pool but not at night despite there being pizza ovens.

Seating

It was very hot when we went so not sure if this is the cause for this but there was very limited places to just go and sit at night to have a drink that’s air conditioned. There were lots of seating in the reception and piano bar but it was modern seating that was more style over substance and didn’t seat many people. More seating in the open area near the shop or better seating / tables in the piano bar would help.

Room

These are ok but are on the small side from other hotels we’d been to. On several occasions we had to tell reception that we only had 2 towels for 3 people. The cleaners also took our pool towels one day which was annoying. The air condition was not very strong in our room and we were very hot at night. The corridors were very hot at times so think the hotel limit the temperatures.

Overall it was just an OK stay. Would we go again? No, unfortunately not. We have been to better hotels in the same price range.

We arrived at this hotel in the early hours after a long journey where we were greeted wonderfully, checked in promptly and shown to our spotless room. It all looked so promising, just like all the official online promotional videos.

In the morning we came down for breakfast; the restaurant had plenty of seats and speedy serving staff so again, we were enthusiastic about our stay. Sure, the restaurant didn't have a huge range of food and it wasn't very exciting, but it would be fine as a hotel like this does different foods every day...right? Nope. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was pretty much the same every day (even when there was a 'theme') and it became pretty boring very quickly.

I wish that was the worst thing I had to say about the food. The hygiene standards were consistently poor - plates were dirty, newly prepared food was brought out and put on top of old food, hot plates/heating lamps were lukewarm, chilled items were out in the open and - if you were lucky enough to see a freshly prepared item - the chefs were so rushed that on more than one occasion food was being put onto plates undercooked. After eating some suspicious eggs, I got severe sickness and diarrhoea; I had no doubt that it was food-related but - perhaps understandably - the hotel's stance was 'prove it was the food'. While we were there, there were many more reports of sickness suspected to be as a result of food, including another member of our party (it is possible that these were a few isolated incidents, but completely avoidable if hygiene standards were up to scratch for the whole time we were there). To the hotel's credit, they did do a deep clean of the room afterwards (sorry for the detail, but it definitely needed it).

The pools were ok, a decent amount of beds and the splash pool and slides were fun. No one was enforcing any of the rules though, so often you'd be round a kids pool while people would light up cigarettes and drink alcohol from glass bottles. The morning pool game was a laugh to watch, but was for adults only so the mid-aged kids were a bit bored. The Kichi kids club was excellent though, and my 7 year old enjoyed it immensely. I'd say that more is needed for tweens/early teens. The Fun Club arcade is a nice touch, but I didn't bring my kids to Turkey for them to spend all their independent leisure time indoors playing Minecraft - I'd have definitely preferred for them to have more stuff to do outside.

The beach was a big disappointment, I was not expecting it to be so pebbly and unpredictable in sea depth (it certainly didn't look like that in all the official pictures) and the beds were really shoehorned in. If you're going to Turkey for a beach holiday, this is definitely not the one for you, as the region has some much better stretches of coastline.

The evening entertainment was alright. Surely when you've got two amphitheatres and a large garden area you'd be able to have a better variety, but often you'd end up with very similar stuff being shown. I was expecting to get a nice drink after the show to sit down and watch the live music/DJ but it all ended surprisingly early compared to hotels I've stayed at before.

Bars were mostly good, especially the sister hotel's beach bar where the staff were excellent and a lot more fun to be with than the Arycanda. Getting drinks during the day around the pool was simple and generally of a high standard. It's a shame that there was only one place to get ice creams (all the way back in the main building), and they weren't topped up nearly enough.

Rooms were kept clean, the toiletries could have been topped up a few more times though. The size of room was good for us; we had an ok amount of storage, good space between the beds, lots of plug sockets and a good bathroom. The mini bar was regularly stocked with decent stuff. The WiFi in the main building was adequate, but is rubbish as soon as you get more than 20m away like around the pools.

So, in conclusion this is an ok hotel with some good features but not worth the price at the standard we experienced. The 'premium' tagline they so proudly display everywhere is true, but sadly in looks alone. I would not recommend or return, based on this experience.

We stayed at Arycanda premium hotel for 7 days for our honeymoon and we had an amazing experience. From the moment we arrived we felt truly welcomed. The staff (Ayana and sevcan from lobby. Erkan, huseyin from a la carte restaurant, asli, mustafa chef, erdem and Mücahit from the main restaurant, esma from personal assistent And Ozkan manager) friendly, helpful and always ready to assist us. Our room was cleaned everyday, comfortable and well maintained every day.The food was delicious and offered a great variety with plenty of choices each day. We also really enjoyed the facilities, the swimming pool and the overall atmosphere of the hotel. The beach was very great. Our honeymoon was made even more special thanks to this hotel. We want to thank the entire team for their warm hospitality and excellent service.