LRS Lake & River Side Hotel & Spa

There were multiple issues encountered both immediately before and during our holiday. This holiday was meant to be significantly better than any we had previously booked in part due to my mother recently losing her husband and wanting to splash out on her and my children. We booked The Raxeria Hotel which was due to open on the 1st June 2026; This was supposed to be the ultimate 5* experience and a brand new hotel with exceptional facilities I had been checking the website for 2 months prior to our holiday awaiting the hotel opening so I could see the reviews and actual photos of the hotel rather than the designers images that were originally displayed. I saw that the opening of the hotel was consistently being pushed back and began to become concerned the hotel would not open. I contacted OTB in July to highlight my concerns only to be told we could change the holiday but it would be at our cost, I did not feel we should be made to pay more because the hotel may not open in time. Eventually I saw that the hotel opening date had been moved to beyond the date of our arrival, I again contacted OTB only to be told as far as they were concerned all was ok. Low and behold some 4 hours later I received a message from OTB advising our hotel could not accommodate us and we were offered The Palemon, which was not comparable to our original hotel, I asked for an alternative and was advised your accommodation cost £3601.96 if you can find one yourself. I was then offered the Palm World Resort and the Lake & River Side Hotel. Again, neither of these hotels were comparable to our original hotel. We were being penalised for booking early and getting a good deal by now only being offered similar priced hotels at current pricing rather than similar standard. We begrudgingly accepted the Lake & River Side Hotel after being told we could cancel but would not get the price of our flights back and not wanting to disappoint the whole family who had been looking forward to this 5* experience for some time. We arrived at the hotel at approximately 1am local time, having travelled for almost 14 hours with my 70 year old mother and 2 young children, we were given our wristbands and told to go to the bar. Obviously given the time we had been travelling we just wanted to get to our rooms and sleep, this is when the next phase of problems began. We went and had a soft drink and returned to the reception, to be told our room was not ready and a plethora of excuses were offered Flight delays The sales & Marketing team We could see people checking out at 2am that should have been out by midday the previous day. I suspect they were allowed to stay in their rooms due to them having similar check in problems Our room should have been ready long before we arrived. We ended up having to wait until 3am to get into our rooms. This was completely unacceptable. The rooms we were checked into were not the rooms we had been promised when changing to this hotel. I returned to reception and was told it was all they had and to speak to the manager in the morning. I was offered a late checkout on our last day, we were due to leave the hotel at 7am for our return flight so a late check out would have been useless to us Thursday morning I went to reception and was promised the rooms we should have been given in the first place. We went to our rooms thinking great all would now be sorted Thursday night and we went to bed, only for my mother and my youngest son to be disturbed all night with the sound of crickets(sound clip can be supplied, they can be heard over and above the sound of the aircon), this was reported to the hotel. They came and could not find any sighting of the crickets (photo can be supplied of one I found in my room not my mother’s) but the noise was intolerable. On the 2nd night of them having to deal with the noise, the crickets could still be heard but not seen, the hotels conclusion was they were in the walls or the AC ducting. The hotel moved them at 4am. By this point my mother was desperate to go home having had no sleep since Tuesday night, but could not as my youngest son would have had to be squeezed into my room. The next day they were moved to yet another room, whereby during the course of the week part of the door frame fell off and very nearly hit my mother and young son on the head. This was reported to reception. Meanwhile in my room the air conditioning was non-existent, this was reported to reception on a daily basis We then had no hot water for 6 straight days, this was reported daily to the reception team. Their response was it is not the hotels problem but the whole of Side had no hot water, however we had made friends with other families in our hotel who had been in receipt of hot water the whole time. We also had spa treatments and yes there was hot water in their showers. Once again we were lied to. The restaurant staff were incredibly rude, we were removed from a table to accommodate a Turkish family on more than one occasion. Multiple members of staff advised us that they have been told to prioritise Turkish customers over all others, this was visible all over the hotel especially when queuing for food or drinks. We also had the lights turned off in our section of the restaurant whilst still eating, this is shown in attached photos The food and drink outlet offerings were way below what we had been expecting to receive at The Raxeria (which I had pointed out when being offered “equivalent” options). We ended up eating out for the last 3 nights which cost me almost £700 Navigating the pool area was at best treacherous. The hotel have somehow managed to cram in as many sunbeds as possible into the smallest space, with no clear pathway through, it was an assault course trying to get in and out of the pool area. Again, Turkish favouritism became apparent when a member of staff tried to tell me I had to give up my parasol for someone else. It was only me sitting on the base of the parasol that prevented it being removed. I booked £295 worth of spa treatments for myself, partner and mother. I specifically asked for no hot stones to be used in my treatment and for a 30 minute reflexology massage. The lady used hot stones and did not perform the reflexology, having finished my massage the head of the spa took me back into my treatment room with 3 other therapists and gave them a 5 minute training session on how to do reflexology. Surely the staff should be competent and trained correctly! In fairness he offered me a return treatment with a discount, at this point however my faith in the hotel was completely destroyed and I declined. No alternate offer of refund was offered for the sub-standard spa treatments. Another family were checking in at the same time as us and experienced the same problems, I listened to the hotel management team offer them an upgrade if they signed a form to say they would not write a bad review or make a formal complaint. I have travelled frequently with On The Beach and indeed have visited Side 4 times in the last 3 years and I can unequivocally say this was the worst hotel and indeed worst customer service I have ever experienced anywhere. I have worked in the travel industry for 35 years from being a travel agent for 12 years and then 23 years in hotels. I would be ashamed and embarrassed were any of my hotels to deliver this sort of experience, especially considering we spent £5500.

The hotel is advertised as a 5-star resort, but honestly, I would say it feels more like a 3-star hotel. The hotel is a bit worn down, and the cleaning could definitely be better. Our room was okay once we finally got it, but it was a little worn, the beds were VERY hard and the pillows were ridiculously high 😂 The AC worked fine, although it wasn't exactly put to the test since it never got hotter than around 30°C during the day. Room cleaning was pretty poor. They basically just changed the towels, made the bed and refilled the minibar. They didn't wipe down surfaces, clean the bathroom or empty the bins. Not really what you'd expect from a 5-star hotel. The pool was okay, but I never saw it being cleaned and there was some dirt at the bottom. It wasn't a big deal during our stay, as the hotel wasn't very busy, but I imagine it could be different during high season. The beach was also okay – nothing special, but having a private beach area was nice. The gym was very small. The food was alright, especially when they had something freshly grilled, but it was pretty much the same every day, with a few exceptions. There was hardly any red meat, mostly chicken and turkey, with fish occasionally. Only two out of the four à la carte restaurants were open while we were there. The food there was a little more interesting than the buffet, but nothing fancy or particularly luxurious. The drinks were okay overall. The beer and mojitos were good, but the juices tasted very artificial and sugary. English was also pretty limited among the bar staff, which sometimes made communication a bit difficult. The spa was nothing special either, and the service overall was a bit disappointing. The reception staff weren't particularly helpful when we had questions, and sometimes it felt like we were bothering them. Maybe it was partly a language barrier, since we spoke English. When we arrived, the room type we had booked wasn't available, so we were offered a family room for the first night in exchange for a "free massage". The massage turned out to be about 10–15 minutes long and seemed mostly like a way to get us to buy additional treatments. I suspect the voucher is something they give to most guests anyway, so it didn't really feel like compensation for the room issue. The hotel seemed to cater mostly to Russian-speaking guests, and English wasn't widely spoken among the staff. This was especially noticeable at the bars, where communication was sometimes pretty difficult. On the plus side, since we were there outside high season, getting sunbeds by the pool or at the beach wasn't an issue as long as we got there before around 10 am. The beach restaurant was just as good as the main restaurant, which was nice! Overall, for the price we paid, it was okay. I think I would have enjoyed the stay more if the hotel hadn't marketed itself as a 5-star resort. When you expect luxury, you also expect a certain level of cleanliness, food and service, and this hotel just didn't deliver on that. If you go expecting a decent 3-star experience rather than a luxury 5-star one, you might be less disappointed. 🙂

I really enjoyed my stay at the hotel. All the rooms were clean, and the food was delicious. The receptionist, Aruzhan, was very kind and helpful. She helped me with everything I needed and was always smiling and friendly.

Fatih (the manager) is great!

Where do I begin,I don’t know how this is being sold as a 5* hotel 2-3 max dirty hotel rooms not cleaned well at all.Staff very rude and dismissive for an ultra all inclusive you only have 2 bars only 1 serves cocktail badly made and if too busy you won’t get one outside by the pool you have to pay 5- 10€ for a fruit pit or cocktail.i seriously don’t know how we stayed there for 10 days it was torture to say the least They don’t cater for English /uk pallets children asked for ice cream and were told come back between 2-4pm and they unlocked the freezer then locked again at 4pm asked for sugar free drink as diabetic and was given regular coke had to go to shop outside the hotel to get sugar free drink