XO Cape Arnna Fethiye

This was our first trip to Turkey. We chose it as our first holiday abroad with our little boy (3 years old). My husband likes to do lots of research before selecting a place to stay and this did not disappoint. It was absolutely amazing. Wonderful food choices, fresh, brilliant drinks too! Lovely staff. Baris was our guest relations member and what a brilliant support! He helped us secure a cabana right on the front (twice). The shows at night were brilliant too! We will be booking again!

We’re due to leave XO Cape Arnna tomorrow after a week here as a family of three, and overall we’ve had a genuinely lovely holiday. The hotel itself is beautiful, the grounds are immaculate, and there’s no denying it feels luxurious. One thing that really stood out to us was the kids club and entertainment. Travelling with a 9-year-old can be tricky because they’re in that awkward “in-between” stage, too old for little kids activities but not old enough for teen clubs. XO Cape Arnna absolutely got this right. Our son has loved it, and as parents it made such a difference seeing him feel included and excited. There’s almost no point listing all the positives because many other reviews already cover them well. The hotel is good, and we’ve had a great time here. However, for the price point and 5* reputation, there is one area that consistently let the experience down for us: the buffet service. The food itself is lovely, but the organisation and table service in the buffet restaurant has honestly been baffling at times. There’s nobody greeting guests or helping seat people, so everyone walks in trying to work out which tables are free, which are occupied, and which families have simply gone to get food. It creates unnecessary chaos and frustration. What surprised us most was how slow tables were being cleared and reset, despite there being plenty of staff around and many empty tables waiting to be cleaned. On one occasion we sat at the only available table, which was covered in dirty plates. After asking a waiter to clear it, he removed only half the dirty settings and left the remaining plates behind. It sounds minor, but this became a repeated experience throughout the week. In all our years of travelling, we’ve never had to search for our own table at every meal, struggle to find somewhere cleaned properly, or repeatedly ask for basic table service in a hotel of this standard. For us, this is the single biggest area where there’s clear room for improvement. It wouldn’t take much to elevate the dining experience to match the rest of what is otherwise a really impressive resort. Despite this, we have genuinely enjoyed our stay and this review is more of an observation than criticism of what is a lovely resort.

Stayed for 7 nights 23rd April with my 18 year old daughter Picked up from the airport by a private transfer from Jet 2 which was excellent . Arrived at the hotel to chaos ! The hotel had a Dj and dancers on in the reception and we couldnt hear a word any of the staff were saying which was wasn’t great as they were trying to book us in on the hotel and give us information. Shown to our room , sea view deluxe adult only area . The room was absolutely fantastic , beautiful views , very luxurious. Good points to ours stay - The whole resort is very impressive , immaculate everywhere , pool areas beautiful , padded sunbeds lots of seating areas , beach bar is lovely . Really is a beautiful hotel . Why I wouldn’t return to this hotel - Lack of staff in most areas . They work very hard and especially in the main buffet restaurant but they don’t have enough staff . We walked around the restaurant at 8.30pm evening 3 times and could find a table that wasn’t full of dirty plates , we sat down at a dirty table as had no choice, the staff cleaned it straight away but it didn’t look good at all , not what you would expect from this standard of hotel . The worst experience I had at the hotel was the way I was spoken to at the bar outside the duchess restaurant during the day , the male member of staff just didn’t want to take my order for a drink , he let me stand at the bar for 5 mins , ignored me (there was 2 people standing back from the bar also waiting to be served). Eventually he shouted at me to move round to where he was , pointing and shouting at me ‘here’ ! I walked round to where he was standing I asked for 2 glasses of Prosecco, he said after this and produced a que of tickets which I assume he was making drinks for the swim up rooms . He was so rude and I felt totally humiliated in front of the two men that were standing behind me , I left without the drinks . Might seem dramatic but he made me feel like I shouldn’t be there and it was embarrassing. The same evening we went to the duchess restaurant during, 90 mins after ordering our food it arrived , seafood pasta ONE prawn and an empty lobster shell ! My daughter’s steak was pitiful , she doesn’t eat much at all but was still very hungry the portion sizes were pathetic. Bar areas - No atmosphere at all , the place is so big that everywhere felt empty , very boring . Young adults will find the place very dull, didn’t see anyone having fun , even around the pool areas it was dull ! I decided to visit reception to give my feed back of my experience so far , they didn’t seem Interested at all , looked the part sitting there in there lovely outfits but didn’t care about the feedback , they told me to put it on the chat room App ! Disgusting customer service . They want you to communicate through the app but my experience of that is that it took 48 hours for anyone to reply. To be honest my whole experience was very disappointing, I have stayed at the Fabay twice any enjoyed our stays. We regularly visit the Sensatori Akra a few hotels down the road . Much better value for money, yes the facilities are not as plush but the food and service is a lot better and the place has atmosphere. The reasons above are why I would not be returning to this hotel , very poor service for the price.

From the moment we arrived, we experienced several ongoing issues throughout our stay, including poor room views that were not as advertised at the time of booking, inadequate children’s facilities, extremely slow and inefficient service, and a clear lack of organised children’s activities and entertainment. Considering the premium price paid, the overall experience represented very poor value for money. sending drinks back and asking for them to use the branded alcohol when making cocktails. sending dirty classes back with lipstick on really small things with big impacts. Buffet food been cold even when we attended for it opening to avoid this. We raised our concerns on the very first day and explained that we were unhappy with the room allocated to us. Unfortunately, rather than handling the situation professionally, we were met with resistance and rude behaviour from staff, which resulted in unnecessary arguments before we were eventually moved to another room. we completely understand that occasional issues can arise in hospitality. What truly matters is how these situations are managed, and sadly the level of customer service and overall experience we received was extremely disappointing. That said, the hotel itself is visually beautiful, and the interior design throughout the property is absolutely stunning. The aesthetic and atmosphere are clearly well thought out and luxurious. However, despite the impressive appearance, the overall guest experience simply did not reflect the quality being advertised or justify the amount paid. A significant portion of our holiday was spent dealing with complaints and ongoing dissatisfaction rather than relaxing and enjoying our time away, which was incredibly disappointing. also note if you are travelling with children there is a large portion of the hotel which is adults only. A lot of which is what you see on social media

We’ve stayed in many hotels across Turkey, but this is the first time in Dalaman - so we were very excited to stay at this new hotel which opened last year. First things first - the hotel itself is beautiful, can’t fault it - just as expected from a brand new hotel grounds, rooms, views and quality of decor and space. If I start with the positives first - the room we booked was a triple swim up room which was fab, made it so much easier with our baby to have the luxury of swimming and relaxing on the balcony when he was napping. A lot of activities to do across the hotel - a water park, children’s Luna land, various swimming pools, and an evening show. Unfortunately, some things are still lacking at this hotel - which is a shame as I’ve stayed in similar level hotels in other places in Turkey which were much better. 1) service is pretty poor, although the staff are all friendly and lovely and speak English - we always had to wait for drinks for a long time, especially in the main restaurant - where the staff constantly forgot our orders so we ended up with no drinks at all with our food. 2) cleanliness of the room can be done much better. It feels like the only thing the cleaners do is make the bed and change the towels. In all other hotels we stayed, they cleaned the bathrooms much better; tidied the area where they can without disrupting your personal items but still made it look great. 3) minibar is pretty poor - again, only alcoholic drinks they had is beer - usually you’d have wines and some spirits - and also if you ask to refill the minibar again - you have to pay (if it’s the same day) 4) à la carte restaurants are not free except 2. This is a massive shame considering the price of the hotel (Rixos restaurants are all included!) 5) food in the main restaurant is very mediocre. Although some foods are very tasty , the rest are quite boring, repetitive and not the best taste when comparing to other hotels. We also noticed it wasn’t fresh - especially things like pancakes were served a day or two old! 5) personal assistants are mostly great but again, we’ve been promised a few things and then forgotten about it the next day. 6) baby food catering is not great - until I complained that I have nothing to feed my 11 month old with , it was just one jar of chicken and veg puree. Overall, the hotel is nice but it didn’t wow us unfortunately to the point where we would consider rebooking it again for next year.