Blue Bay Platinum Hotel

Downsides:

One keycard per room, just so the hotel can save on electricity despite the huge inconvenience this causes to its guests. They’ve changed the in room keycard machines to no longer work with any old card in order to prevent guests running the aircon all day. Only actual keycards work hence the restriction on issuing them. Penny pinching nonsense. We just left the keycard in the in room machine all day to keep it cool and had reception send a minion to let us back in every time. Not ideal.

We had four rooms. The aircon units in three of them were “faulty” and required the aircon guy to “fix” them on night one. After repeatedly being told the aircon was actually working fine and me protesting that what they call aircon is in fact just a fan blowing hot air around the room, the fix was to send a teenager to each room, lift the aircon flap and push a button then hey presto - instant aircon. This is not a coincidence. They literally kill the aircon units to save their electric bill while telling you it’s working fine until you kick up such a fuss they turn it back on while declaring they “fixed” it.

Music volume at the main pool is ludicrous. This is not an 18-30 hotel but despite that they’ve employed a DJ who loves the sound of his own voice and delights in blasting it through stadium level loudspeakers all day long alongside dreadful music that nobody wants to listen to. It really is awful and the amount of people who complained about it to no avail is mind boggling. “It’s management policy” - yeah right.

The staff are a mixed bunch. This feeds down from the top. We had a nose to nose argument with the hotel manager one night because he kept switching off the aircon in the lounge bar despite the sweltering heat, and he became so aggressive it beggared belief. We complained to the TUI rep the next day and had the distinct impression this was not the first such occurrence of this clown’s behavior towards his guests.

Upsides: The hotel is lovely. Nice and clean and bright and cheery. The food is as nice as you would expect from these places. It’s all buffet of course and it’s not bad at all. There’s never any queues at the bars or water slides and the ice cream parlour serves top notch fair. The location is good too and just a couple of minutes walk to the beach.

The restaurant manager is brilliant. Always friendly and helpful. The maids are too. Waiters and bar staff vary from really good to grumpy and can’t be bothered types. Much like the hotel’s general manager in fact.

Doubtless the hotel will post a retort to this review, but unless it acknowledges the absurdity and imminent cancellation of its crazy policies regarding keycards and aircon and music volume, and its employment of a general manager that thinks it’s ok to pick fights with hotel guests, I’d steer clear. Marmaris has an abundance of other hotels to choose from.

Not 4-5 star as advertised online or through tui. We got there early in the morning about 3am. We were helped up the front stairs with our suitcases. There was no one to help when leaving at 7pm in the evening in the sweltering heat. There is no ramp to use if you have heavy suitcases or a few suitcases and children.

Checked in fine, went to rooms. One of the rooms had a pool view out of one window and the other view was of broken masonry on the windowsill and huge plant pots and spot lights which beamed into the room at night so these curtains had to stayed closed. The other room balcony door didn’t lock it is next to a flat roof along with other balconies which could easily have been accessed at any time. Informed reception they sent someone up to fiddle about with it. It did get fixed but not properly. I assume it will break again and the next person will have the same experience. Room 1108 The rooms were not cleaned to a good standard. I am by no means a clean freak but the basics were not even done. There was toothpaste from the pervious guest on the tiles behind the sink when we arrived and black bits in the toilet! We also found 2 inserts for a bra under the bed when looking for something under the bed half way through the holiday. The tiles used in the rooms can not be clean as it looks impossible to clean these properly as they are ridged like outdoor decking tiles. The bathroom was mouldy in places and on the shower/grout . The floor was bouncy in the shower like there had been and still is a leak. It was also next to the fire escape and above the bar lounge and snack bar underneath that so there was a constant smell we later realised was the bin/skip area. Room 1106

We thought about asking to move but we needed 2 rooms together so thought better of it as the reviews regarding customer service was not the best. We will complain to Tui who are selling this as a 4 star accommodation. Its 3 star accommodation at best.

They try to charge you for everything, a safe!!! Using the telly if you want Chanel’s you can actually watch/understand. And extra card for the room! You only get one so can’t keep the air conditioning on. €5 per card €25 for a safe. €9-10 for telly. Who charges for any of that in 2026? Let alone a 4-5 star hotel! €90 to keep room for 4 hrs , €120 for 6-8 hrs Pool towels are tiny and washed to within an inch of their lives, they look about 10 Year old, again not in keeping with the star rating. I’ve been to 4 stars in Turkey and they are 100 times classier/cleaner/value for money than this.

There isn’t any air conditioning in the communal areas or restaurant! I don’t know how the workers cope! I did see some sweaty workers in the restaurant area (sweat marks on full t shirt) which isn’t the best when you want to eat your food! Very rarely did you get a waiter get you a drink in the restaurant . I think we had it twice in the lunch service and twice in the evening service. During 7 day/night stay. Evening service was far too busy. Lunch they probably could have served most people. There is also no self serve drinks I.e fizzy drinks in the restaurant so this implies you should be served. If it’s too busy for them to keep up maybe a self service should be there. You can get carafes of white, red and rose wines from a chiller but can’t get a soft drink? Again not 4-5 star.

The pros are the food there is good , the Selection was good at all meal times. The snack bar had a good selection too. Didn’t look like things from breakfast were reused at lunch etc. The boys round the pool giving lounger and parasols were very good. They could get you an extra lounger or loungers later on if they were all taken and they always had a parasols. You didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn for a lounger either. The pool beside the seaside bar was always first taken so you have to be relatively early for that. The other pool had loungers a bit later if you’d missed out and they added rows. They were a bit packed in tho. So after 9am you’re at the back packed in.

Very loud music beside pool if you don’t like that there is an adults only pool. It is quiet, we went around for a look about and a quiet drink. Only one small bar with one worker who watched us come to the bar he was standing in front of then when we got to the bar he went off to collect glasses from the whole pool area while looking to see if we were still waiting. We stood waiting for about 5-10 minutes then left as he was obviously deliberately not coming back to serve us. Never went back. Half the pool is taken up for a bit doing water polo everyday which is fine but one day the had another competition in the other half of the pool so there was no where to go in that pool so you had to go to the other pool or the adults pool.

Air conditioning in rooms is not good you have to be in room few hours to feel the benefits of it.

The beds are like concrete. My hips ached each morning and I’m fit and of a reasonable age.

No air conditioning in the patisserie it’s red hot in there they have large Stand alone fans which do nothing unless You’re right in front of them. This is in the patisserie and the sea side bar. The staff looked like they were struggling.

Entertainment was ok. You could see from most of the seats placed out by the staff round the pool if someone didn’t come and put a chair or table in front of you at the last minute, which people did do!! Also no waiter service unless you flagged someone down we never did and were never asked if we wanted anything. They moved like lightning when picking up glasses I assume so you couldn’t ask them for a drink. They also took glasses when you’d not finish your drink, but leave half empty glasses on tables that were empty and needed cleaned?

Spa man harassed you as well as the photographer. In the end had to hide from the spa man. I told him we would book when we were ready.

Spa treatment was very good. We had the 1st day package. The girls were nice and did a great job with the Turkish spa wash and the massage. Really enjoyed it. The man behind desk was very helpful too.

All in all would not go back to this hotel. I’m annoyed I paid the price I did for it when I’ve paid less elsewhere and it’s been excellent. I unfortunately didn’t pick the hotel so lessons learnt.

I’ve since checked the prices of this hotel for next year out of interest and I’d be livid if I was paying over £1300pp for a week here granted it’s the summer holidays but that price is ridiculous I’d say this is a basic all inclusive holiday. No bells and whistles added on. Maybe it’s the pool towels added on that makes it luxury but this does not warrant a 4-5 star rating.

Save your money go elsewhere.