Belair Beach Hotel
Food must be good, that many flies can’t be wrong!
Never felt compelled to write a review before, but feel after enduring two weeks at the Belair beach, this place deserves a special mention for all those looking to book….don’t do it!
As many do from the UK, we had a late flight into Rhodes and arrived at the Belair Beach about 11pm. We were greeted on reception by a pleasant lady who checked us in and pointed us in the direction of our 3rd floor room. The room was very nice, well equipped and spotlessly clean with a lovely balcony overlooking the pool area.
As we’d been travelling for the best part of 5 hours, we dropped our cases off and went down to the bar for a quick drink before bedtime. On arrival to the bar, we were told that they served until 1.30, however as the time was now 11.30pm, the drinks were no longer part of the inclusive package and we’d have to pay, the all-inclusive stops at 11pm….an all-inclusive hotel which has a cut-off time for drinks, after which you have to pay….really?
The hot food breakfast was ok, nothing special but as expected really, normal bacon, eggs, sausage etc, but limited for anything else. Everything cold, however, i,e the small amount of fruit and bread on offer, were crawling in flies, something that worsened as the two weeks went on.
As my wife is a coeliac and also has a dairy allergy, we asked the head waiter if it would be possible to have soya milk and show us what food was gluten-free (something we were assured the hotel catered for prior to booking). Tearing himself away from playing on his mobile phone he instructed one of the waiters to bring us some milk and said the head chef would show us, ….before dropping his head back down to continue Candy Crush or Angry Birds.
The breakfast drinks were self-service which to me is good, and there was plenty of tea and coffee available.
The pool area in the hotel is very good, lots of sunbeds and the lady that works in the pool bar was amazing, always smiling, helpful and there for every one of our 14 day holiday.
Going back into the restaurant for lunch/evening meal is where the issues lie. The lunchtime food was again nothing special but ok but the evening food was far from good…every night the same, nothing seemed to go with anything, very low-quality food, and by the fourth day, the flies were literally crawling on you while you were eating.
The drinks at lunch/evening are served by the waiters and there were simply not enough staff, four on duty at best…and the Candy Crush King watching over doing nothing. A wait of 10 minutes was nothing out the normal and one night we didn’t get served at all. I did try complaining to one of the older waiters and he just walked off.
One thing that did become more and more obvious as the week went on, the treatment that none all inclusive guests were getting in the restaurant. The ‘pay as you go’ guest clearly got preferential treatment in the restaurant whilst those that had paid in advance didn’t get served.
By the fourth morning we were informed that there was no more Soya milk available and we could have some more when they had it….this was 3 days later.
By far the worst thing about this hotel is the flies… they are crawling over everything, food, tables, chairs and guests…disgusting
So to sum up, 14 nights at the Belair Beach, Wife had one night being violently sick after the evening meal, I had diarrhoea for 24 hours, the restaurant food is awful, there are flies over everything, not enough staff, not really an all-inclusive hotel, but the restaurant manager beat his personal high score on Angry Birds…..maybe I’m doing him an injustice, guess he could have been looking on the net at customer relations course or ‘how to get rid of flies’
There are way better hotels than this one, steer clear.