Caresse, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Bodrum★★★★★

!Our stay started off well, but unfortunately we had more and more issues as the days went on, especially for a five-star hotel. First, watching Netflix or YouTube on the TVs is surprisingly complicated. The hotel uses a separate device for streaming and apparently they only have a limited number of them. So if someone else is using it, you simply can’t watch Netflix or YouTube. Even the TV in my room didn’t have Turkish channels. We called reception four or five times about this and nobody ever came to help. I was also expecting a parcel during my stay. Before it arrived, I asked the hotel if they could accept it for me and they said of course. The parcel was delivered and Concierge told me they would send it to my room. Three days passed and still nothing. On the fourth day I called again and gave them the first two letters of the first and last name of the person who had signed for it, which I could see on the delivery app. They told me nobody with that name worked at the hotel. Then somehow, when I came back to my room that evening, the parcel was there. So clearly someone at the hotel had received it. I don’t understand why I was told otherwise instead of someone simply checking properly. There seems to be a serious communication problem between departments. Then there was the Sıla concert. The pool was closed for two days because of the event. We were never told about this when we made our reservation. If we had known, we would have cancelled and stayed somewhere else. We were eight people staying in five rooms and none of us speaks Turkish, so obviously we hadn’t bought tickets for a Turkish concert. Because we didn’t have concert tickets, we weren’t allowed to access the entire floor where the concert was taking place. The problem is that the Living Room, terrace and gym are also on that floor. Every evening our group had been meeting at either the terrace or the Living Room to sit and talk.

!Our stay started off well, but unfortunately we had more and more issues as the days went on, especially for a five-star hotel. First, watching Netflix or YouTube on the TVs is surprisingly complicated. The hotel uses a separate device for streaming and apparently they only have a limited number of them. So if someone else is using it, you simply can’t watch Netflix or YouTube. Even the TV in my room didn’t have Turkish channels. We called reception four or five times about this and nobody ever came to help. I was also expecting a parcel during my stay. Before it arrived, I asked the hotel if they could accept it for me and they said of course. The parcel was delivered and Concierge told me they would send it to my room. Three days passed and still nothing. On the fourth day I called again and gave them the first two letters of the first and last name of the person who had signed for it, which I could see on the delivery app. They told me nobody with that name worked at the hotel. Then somehow, when I came back to my room that evening, the parcel was there. So clearly someone at the hotel had received it. I don’t understand why I was told otherwise instead of someone simply checking properly. There seems to be a serious communication problem between departments. Then there was the Sıla concert. The pool was closed for two days because of the event. We were never told about this when we made our reservation. If we had known, we would have cancelled and stayed somewhere else. We were eight people staying in five rooms and none of us speaks Turkish, so obviously we hadn’t bought tickets for a Turkish concert. Because we didn’t have concert tickets, we weren’t allowed to access the entire floor where the concert was taking place. The problem is that the Living Room, terrace and gym are also on that floor. Every evening our group had been meeting at either the terrace or the Living Room to sit and talk.

✓Beautiful property, shockingly poor service and management Not an 5 star experience. Unfortunately, this was the worst luxury hotel experience I have had, and certainly the worst I have experienced at a Marriott property. The resort itself is beautiful, which makes the level of service even more disappointing. This was not about one mistake. Over the course of our stay, we experienced a remarkable series of issues: * What appeared to be mold/mildew or moisture damage in our shower, which we reported and photographed. * An entrée at Buddha-Bar that never arrived; after approximately 40 minutes, we were told it had been delivered to another table. * Consistently slow pool service, where basic things like water, menus, towels and utensils often required multiple requests. * A complimentary in-room dining/breakfast gesture offered by management because of the existing problems took well over an hour to arrive, and multiple items were missing or incorrect. The hotel acknowledged this in writing. * On Thursday morning, staff woke us at approximately 8:30 a.m. because they incorrectly believed we were checking out that day. We were actually checking out Friday. * Reaching a manager required repeated requests, including having to explain that I was not going to sit in my hotel room waiting indefinitely for someone to call me. * We spoke with management in person on Thursday morning about the accumulating problems, so the property was well aware that this was not a single isolated complaint. The final checkout experience summed up the entire stay. As part of the service recovery, I had been told by a hotel representative on Thursday that a lunch would be complimentary. On Friday morning at 11:21 a.m., I proactively contacted the hotel to make sure it had been removed from our bill. I followed up repeatedly and specifically told them at 12:05 p.m. that we were leaving for the airport at 2 p.m. and wanted the issue resolved beforehand so we could have a quick checkout. Instead, they told me they would address it at reception. I asked again at 1:07 p.m. and, after still receiving no confirmation, pointed out that this was my third request. At checkout, it STILL had not been resolved. We then had to spend our departure re-explaining issues that had already been discussed with management and extensively documented through the hotel’s WhatsApp. Management’s explanation regarding the complimentary lunch was that the employee who promised it had not been authorized to do so and that there “must have been a miscommunication.” That is an internal hotel problem, not something that should become the guest’s problem while trying to leave for the airport—particularly after I had spent hours proactively asking them to resolve it. Mistakes happen, and I am generally very understanding when a hotel makes one. What was unacceptable here was the pattern: something would go wrong, we would report it, management would attempt to recover the situation, and then the recovery itself would create another problem. Even at checkout, we seemed to be starting from scratch despite having documented everything throughout the stay. I have stayed at St. Regis, JW Marriott and numerous other Marriott properties internationally, as well as plenty of non-luxury Marriott hotels. I have never experienced anything comparable. The physical property and location are lovely, and there were individual employees who were courteous and tried to help. Unfortunately, the overall operation and management of our stay fell dramatically below what I would expect from a Luxury Collection property. For anyone considering Caresse, I strongly recommend reading recent service reviews carefully. A beautiful resort is not enough at this price point when basic execution and service recovery repeatedly fail.