Oscar Resort Hotel Review - 64 of 79 Reviews

I must say I was not impressed with Oscars. The food was average (and very repetitive), parking terrible and Wi-Fi virtually unusable. Most worrying though was the maintenance and cleanliness of the hotel grounds, swimming pool and beach, which was, to be polite, poor. I recall reading one review about a tile missing from the kids pool (by the slides). It is still not fixed. Indeed when we first went there were several young kids throwing the aforementioned tile at each other in the pool – a razor sharp 6 inc tile flying across water! Since there was no life guard in sight I had to tell them to stop which led them to throwing water bottles at each other; of which there were numerous floating in the pool along with other rubbish. The lack of life guards or any hotel oversight of behaviour was a common theme and on more than one occasion led me to take my children out of the pool due to the behaviour of bigger children and teenagers. For example kids & teenagers used the slides in increasingly fast and dangerous ways and regularly led to painful crashes at the bottom as no oversight. The lack of adherence to the stated opening timings of the slides also meant that kids used the slides even when the water is switched off! It is probably also worth mentioning that there is effectively only one slide as the blue slide is useless. For whatever reason it simply does not work – even my 4 yr old had to use his hands the entire way. Others took the opportunity to run down it… The wave pool was not as bad since there was less inherent danger but there was never a life guard in sight. Equally, the bumper boats never worked and apparently have not worked for ages so seems false advertising to suggest they have this activity. The beach was ok – it had a veneer of sand that quickly turned to slime as kids dug but the worst part was the amount of litter (esp carrier bags and cig butts) on the beach and in the water. I appreciate I may be coming across as a party pooper but there are some basics you expect at a so called 4star + hotel that prides itself on being family friendly such as bannisters that are actually fixed to the floor so they do not swing alarming when your child uses them to go down marble staircases or the fact that the men renting the motorised watersports kit (part of Oscars hotel) were racing their jet skis at full speed and doing outrageous stunts in the swimming area. Or that the power boat is seemingly allowed to speed into the bay at such a speed that several parents ran into the water to get their children. However, to me this all highlights the lack of control within Oscars. This was reported and the frontdesk were very professional and said someone would be in touch. Tickle me with a feather but no one ever did.

I must end on a high note though and point out the good parts of the hotel. The train was a nice touch although it seems to be used by adults as a cheap taxi rather than for kids. Indeed my kids were the only ones on the train (which probably seats 30 +). The train was packed with adults and their bags trying to save the £4 it costs for a taxi. There seemed no system for prioritising families so families were left behind as adults rammed themselves into kid sized seats on a kid sized train. Enough said as I am supposed to be positive in this paragraph. The best bit about the hotel was the rooms – although they would struggle to justify their self-proclaimed 5* status. The fact that parents can have a separate area for their kids is bliss and the fact we had ground floor apartment next to the other family we travelled with was perfect as we could sit on our patio and play cards whilst our respective children were asleep a few feet away. The beds and bedding were good quality and the AC worked well too.

In summary – the family rooms were the best and redeeming feature for Oscars. It certainly does not compare to Salamis Bay Conti or Acapulco in terms of a venue but the benefit of a 2 bed apartment for families goes someway to overcoming the multitude of other issues.

Just to ensure that we were not being overly harsh on Oscar we stopped off at Salamis Bay on the way home and it reinforced our views on Oscar as the hotel is so much more swept up in terms of staff, cleaniness, safety etc. Indeed in the few months since we were last there they have actually actioned a comment we made on our 'how have we done' survey that are in most hotel rooms. We mentioned a minor issue that the marble floor between the pool and the steps to the slide was slippery when wet (which it was all the time). They now have quality matting professionally fitted so children can dash between the slide pool back to the steps up to take another go as well as life guards permanently on duty to oversee the entire process. This highlights to me the gulf between the two hotels.

Liked — Family Room
Disliked — Cleaniness, maintanance, lack of lifeguards, overall safety

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