The Norm Collection Door'a

As an update….Jet2 holidays are a disgrace. £150 voucher issued. For the below. 72 days to get matter resolved…do not use this hotel. Not safe. The definition of a 5 star hotel…. A five-star hotel is a hotel that offers the highest level of luxury, service, and amenities. Various factors, like location and upgraded amenities, play into a hotel's overall rating. At 53 years old my wife and I have been fortunate to travel many times. In all this time we have never ever complained about a holiday whatsoever…what I’m trying to say is how bad this experience has been.. Following a delayed flight - understand this can happen we arrived at our room aprox 2am. We had a look outside and on one balcony the glass panels appeared to be shattered. The following morning we confirmed the window was shattered. See pics. We visited reception first thing Sunday morning. The first receptionist was horrified and said that we must change rooms. Her manager then came over, called maintenance?? They said it was safe. Don’t move rooms will be sorted in few days. We once again asked for a room change. Was told not possible as hotel full. We found out later no we’re near full. We reluctantly accepted this. 14 days later nothing. This was never replaced..5 star hotel, 2 at best. Would this have acceptable for any other nationalities, from what I’ve witnessed I will say no!!! We chased this mater for next few days and gave up..5 star hotel with broken glass balconies. Let me tell you if this was a non British guest they would have been moved..I observed other nationalities being checked in the experience was 10 fold what we received. Discrimination pure and simple. 2 days later our room has still not been cleaned. Back to reception again. Please leave room and we will clean, kind implying it’s our fault… 4 days later room not cleaned again..back to reception!! The mini bar is never replenished ever..oh even though it says on website. We have had to call reception 14 consecutive days to make this happen. The cleaning was adhoc for remaining holiday we gave up. Robes not replaced..toiletries not replenished. Again gave up…unless our room had caught fire we are not visiting reception again!!!! Outside our room is a generator of some sort..see video of the noise which is worse at night!!! Rooms should be next to this..again raised….fell on deaf ears the irony. See video attached. A constant whining all night long!!! Not one I mean proper nights sleep and rest. No resorting to putting towels by the door to soundproof. Video available. Pieces of glass are now falling onto the patio from shattered screen on day 6. Following a rain shower our balcony is now flooded. Does not drain away like next door balcony. In fact water is now dripping from ceiling see video!! Given up going to reception at this point, this meant to be a holiday…no holiday should involve multiple daily visits to reception!!!!! Water dripping from lights!!2 days later balcony still flooded.. Following multiple downpours. The overflow drainage is outside our room also!! Sounds like shower running for next 48 hours!!! Further disruption to our sleep…The balcony in now not useable. Food, in particular the beach cafe. Lukewarm warm chicken standing for several hours served upon hot chips.,.not good practice. On the subject of hygiene..cat fecces in main reception toilets..this is abhorrent!! Feeces in bar areas, staff in extremely dirty footwear in food areas!! Cats in eating areas..with visible fleas.. Pictures available. On the 08/10 and 06/10 our room key cards have stopped working. Another visit to reception to have them changed, passed back nonchalantly like it’s our fault…the lack of empathy shown is appalling. Whilst other guests are literally driven around in electric carts!!! I could go with other niggles but why bother…the non working internet, the hotel non existent information, Speciality dining only available 1 day a week!!! the total bias to non British guests..to name a few more. we paid best part of 3K of our hard earned money. 2 weeks of annual leave used for what can be described as truly atrocious holiday. Like most families we FaceTimed amour children.. oh don’t worry about the broken glass, the leaking and flooded balcony the poor standard of hygiene…the humming noise from outside. After all this is a 5 star hotel. On what planet.. To be honest all this created is completely unnecessary stress for my wife and I. Which leads to a very stressful and challenging time away together. Because we just gave up in the end… so sad. It really affects your mental health and I hate saying that. Destroys your holiday pure and simple. You really need to visit this hotel, look at every bar area, to see how dirty and unhygienic it really is. Our room was not fit for a stay, broken glass, unbearable noise, flooded balcony to name a few..as I said earlier 5 star..4.5 star by Jet2 just not even close. All the above is fact. We have emailed Jet2 and await their response.

The Norm is a lovely hotel consisting of low rise apartment blocks spread around a large site with pleasant connecting pathways. Good choice of restaurants and cuisine. Several pools and a spa offering a wide range of treatments. All of this delivered by a lovely group of staff.

Everything was perfect! We absolutely loved our stay at The Norm and would recommend it to everyone. We were greeted warmly at reception by Mehmet who very kindly upgraded us to a swim up bungalow suite. The hotel grounds are very large and from reception we were taken to our room by Muhammet in a golf buggy. He was very knowledgable and kind and gave us a tour of the hotel. Our room was beautiful, clean and bright. The food, considering it’s all inclusive was very good (and I have a very fussy toddler!) it was varied and had a decent selection at every meal. The pool areas were clean and there was lots of sunloungers. We loved the beach, the drinks and food menu at the beach bar was great. There was a little patisserie coffee shop that was open from the late afternoon which had delicious pastries, baklava and ice cream. We really were very spoilt! One evening, there was a bad smell coming from the sink. I messaged the WhatsApp number and within 2 minutes, an engineer was at the door and ready to fix it. It was superb service. I honestly cannot fault the hotel one bit and we can’t wait to go there again next year, with our extended family. Thank you to all the staff, especially Mehmet, Muhammet and Arzu ❤️

Overall we had a really fun time at this hotel & loved the look of the place. The entertainment was great with different singers, bands, DJ’s overnight that we were there. There are just a few notable things that we weren’t happy with listed below. Bar staff & service 1 We watched the Bar man hold a glass jug by the brim with his fingers inside, which he proceeded to fill up with water. Which is then put out for guests on arrival to the hotel. Not the best practice of hygene in this instance. 2 Bar service was good overall, I found it hard to get the attention of the bar staff at the reception bar, even with hardly anyone else waiting for service. Room 1 We booked a superior bungalow room. The room that we got when we arrived late at night was not the best. Strange layout with an oddly set up bathroom with the sink area in the main space near to the bed and a sofa that was too large for the room and blocked part of the balcony window/door. We managed to switch rooms after some convincing and were told something along the lines of “Sometimes you don’t get the best room when you arrive late at night” Not a major thing but slightly inconvenient. Food & Restaurant For me the main down side was a particular aspect of the food. In the Pool bar, Reception Restaurant and the A La Carte Fish night. We received the wrong orders as follows: 1. Pool Bar = my partner ordered a chicken wrap. He received a chicken wrap with ingredients that were supposed to be in a completely different wrap. 2. Reception retract = I ordered a meatball wrap and received a steak and onion wrap It seemed as thought menu items were being mixed up. 3. A la carte night = I ordered the salmon with grilled asparagus, potatoes and a lemon sauce. What I received came with a small amount of cold vegetables. When I questioned this I was simply told that I was wrong. When I reiterated that this is how it was stated on the menu I was told no again and that they didn’t have asparagus. I would not usually say that it is a problem however it had happened multiple times and left me confused as to how there were so many mishaps with their menu. For me the A la Carte was the main fault as I chose this dish specifically because of what it was paired with. Room Air-con 1 As it was late October the temperature has not surprisingly been that warm. We had an unlucky time with the weather by it raining on our 2nd day and not stopping. (which can not be helped) Because of this the air-con was switched to basically the “heating” setting. Making it pretty difficult to sleep at night. As we came to find out they have a general Air-con system and temperature can not be changed on a room to room basis. So we had to endure the heat of the room with the the air-con off, and the same temperature if not warmer with it on. I understand that other guests might be cold at this time of year. However, it should be up to the guests to decide what temperature they want their room to be. Construction/building work 1 Lastly, there was construction taking place in the main building while we were there. This is not a bad thing per say but I think that it should be mentioned to guests when you book that something like that is going on. Literally demolishing rooms in the main building For all to see with no warning/caution signs anywhere to be seen. Only a few plant pots in a corridor suggesting you can not go down that way. Where this make-shift blockade was placed, was directly leading from the indoor pool to the sauna room and changing rooms. Meaning that if you wanted to get to the sauna and get changed from the pool, your only option would be to walk up and around to reception and go down the stairs from there.

We arrived at The Norm Collection Door’a Bodrum feeling excited but were immediately disappointed. The entrance looked uninviting, and the first impression wasn’t great. Strangely, there were no all-inclusive wristbands (even though it’s an all-inclusive resort), which already felt unusual. Check-in was also poor - no warm welcome, no complimentary drink (even though the setup suggested there should be). Ironically, we saw another family receive this treatment the next day, so it seems the friendliness depends on who you are. The receptionist said he couldn’t show us to our room right away because he didn’t know if he was allowed to leave the desk - not exactly a smooth start. We were eventually taken to our room by buggy - the only time that service was offered. After that, every trip to the reception or restaurant meant walking a long, uninspiring route around the front entrance. The room itself looked nice at first glance, but it was clearly a quick renovation using cheap materials. The door had gaps at the bottom, letting in light and noise, and the soundproofing was non-existent. The bed was rock hard. The biggest issue, though, was no air conditioning - despite it being around 24–25°C every day. When we asked at reception (after calling twice), we were told the system was centrally controlled and switched to heating mode because “most guests preferred it.” Their only advice was to open the balcony doors. Unfortunately, this let in bugs because the mosquito nets were badly fitted and ineffective. The food was another disappointment. Only one à la carte restaurant was open; the other option was a pool snack bar serving fried, unhealthy food. Salads were smothered in sauce, and the buffet coffee was awful. To top it off, there were cats climbing on tables while you tried to eat. We were supposed to stay for six nights but checked out after just two. We moved to another hotel nearby, which was absolutely fantastic - and only about £200 extra per person. If you’re tempted by the glossy photos and “5-star” label, think twice. This hotel might look good on the surface, but the experience is far from luxury.