Kempinski Hotel Barbaros Bay Bodrum

Edit: After this review, the hotel management took time to meet with me, listen carefully, and told me about upcoming renovations and service changes that address many of the points I raised. I got the feeling they genuinely cared to improve my experience and listen to my feedback to improve things. They also made a generous gesture of goodwill during my stay to put things right, which I appreciate. Thank you. Original (unedited) review TLDR; PROs: very friendly staff, great pool area, chilled vibe CONs: lack of variety in food options, no entertainment. Premium price tag without 5star feeling. Overpriced We had a nice week here in Bodrum. Staff is very friendly we liked the pool and pool area If this was a 4 star hotel and 30-40% cheaper than it is my review would end here and I would not have many complaints. However as we spend more than the average annual salary in Türkiye here on accommodation and food over 6 nights I feel either the price was too high or the quality was too low for that sort of money. - Our room was an upgrade to a ‘Grand Deluxe King room’. Great Ocean view and a balcony and nothing wrong with it but for 580 GBP per night it was small and not as luxurious as title and price made me expect. - There are 3 restaurants that serve dinner, there is one more that is open for lunch. If you eat lunch and dinner here you quickly exhaust the small menu especially if you have some dietary restrictions (one of us was Vegetarian) a 2 course dinner with a glass of wine can easily set you back 200 EUR (2 adults and a kid eating from the reasonably priced kids menu). I’d be happy to pay that if the food was spectacular but it only lived up to that price tag once maybe. You are better off (price and quality wise) to get a taxi into Bodrum (30 min , 15 GBP or less one way) and pick a good restaurant there. 30-50% of the cost including the price for the taxi. - There’s a Spa, gym a great pool and a water sport centre at the beach. Outside that I don’t think the hotel offers any other activities, there’s no evening entertainment. We organised things ourselves but again I’m used to having more options here in a hotel of this price category. - There’s a bunch of small things which I wouldn’t normally mention in a review but in the past when I stayed at resorts of the category the Kempinski aspires to, I would have mentioned half a dozen of small things that surprised me positively whereas here there was none of that and instead there were tiny nuisances like they ran out of spoons on the breakfast buffet (which again is good but falls short for 5 star) on every other day, when I ordered a coffee I needed to call the waiter again to ask for sugar, they brought chocolates for bedtime but it was 2 even though we were 3, some parts of the facilities seem slightly dated, there were showers in the spa not working, one restaurant was closed permanently. A sanitary item from the hotel shop has a ca. 6x markup which feels unnecessary for that sort of think (charge silly prices for jewellery or clothing if people want to spend money but not for that sort of thing)… none of that spoiled our stay but it doesn’t give you the premium feel to match the premium price tag. More often I was somewhat disappointed rather than wowed and I would not book here again.

First of all, we would like to thank Guest Relations Manager Mr. Mevlüt Yesildag and Mr. Tunç Yucel, who made us have a very nice time again this year when we visited your hotel, which we see as our home. They are always very interested, they are very professional people who are in contact with my husband even we are in Istanbul, their business follow-ups are super. And of course, we had a very nice birthday celebration my husband Kubilay Aksu with support and additional contribution of Mr. Devrim. Of course, we should not forget the names of Ms. Çigdem, who is very warm, understanding and kind, and we would also like to thank Mr. Tekin at Mammadrau, DJ Aeres and Lady in Red Zehra for their kind interest and attantion.

We have been coming to this hotel almost every year during the last 19 years, with the exception of Covid period. Our children were grown up here and almost every corner, we have very pleasant memories. If you go back, you will read my many 5 star reviews about this hotel. However, this summer has been a major disappointment. The hotel still has an excellent view and one of the best beaches in Bodrum. The property is outdated and under invested. However, our major disappointment was at the Olives Restaurant which is the main dining hall for breakfast and dinner. Air conditioning is not working well in the closed area and open area is too warm in the morning. One morning, I discovered that all plates at the breakfast buffet were wet straight from the dish washer. When I warned them they started wiping with a fabric towel. During dinner, meals were unacceptable for a 5 star hotel. You can get better meals at a school cafeteria. I appreciate they may not make decent Risotto but I cannot accept how they cannot cook proper lentil soup in this restaurant. The funny part is they start collecting the menus before you make your choices. When you ask why they are rushing, they say they don’t have enough menus for the other guests as if we are not the guests. In fact, that is true, not only they don’t have enough menus but some of the menus are from last year with wrong price. I feel very sorry for the young staff members who were brought into this place without sufficient training. They carry all the burden and try to defend and justify the current circumstances. There is an excellent game room with 2 pro size pool tables and a table tennis and also a small auditorium with a projector. However, the area has never been supervised and most of the time used by 4 - 5 year olds without their parents’ supervision. We were not able to play any game because of the noise. Not only the children were creating noise but also have been fighting each other with cue sticks and ruining the very expensive pool tables. To summarise, we would not come back to this hotel again. Not only our money and holiday have been wasted, but also our memories during the last 19 years have been ruined.

I've been to many five-star hotels throughout my life, and I've never been to one this bad. It would have been a one-star hotel at best. The rooms super old and desperately need updating (like the entire hotel). The service is the worst I've ever had in my life. Not a single person serving at the pools or on the beach... to bring two scoops of ice cream an hour... incredible. The same thing happens in the restaurants: lost and slow waiters, with exorbitant prices ( prices are five stars services are one star) In the pool tree umbrellas (two of them broken) for plenty of people.. of course not enough sun beds.. also a lot of dirty dishes and glasses not body takes care of. In short, a complete disaster, not recommended. To say something positive, the bay water is super clean, calm, and clear.

The Food was wonderful . The head of the Guest Services Mevlut Yeşildağ and all the staff were exceptionally helpful and kind and they did all their best to make us feel at home . The location of the hotel is at Barbaros Bay which has the best clean sea and longest beach in Bodrum , including a remote silent beach area away from the general beach with children . I highly recommend Bodrum Kempinsky Hotel.