Review of Holiday Inn Resort Dead Sea, an IHG Hotel 5*

Where do I start… Prior to check-in: The booking process (done directly with the hotel) was complicated and quite difficult. When I requested that the sea-view suite I got gets the king bed replaced by a twin bed, the response was that the hotel is full (?! — mind you, I attached my booking along with the request) During our stay: 1. When we first got into the room, it did not look cleaned thoroughly, but it was around 2 AM at that point and we weren't bothered to ask them to send housekeeping to our room. Afterwards, every time housekeeping came to clean the room, a very (very! ) poor job was done, it barely looked like it was tidied up or cleaned 2. The furniture was old, damaged, and very clearly dirty. The couch had stains, the bed sheet as well. The chair had a cigarette burn. The wall on the balcony was carved into by one of the former guests. Facilities within the room were faulty, e. G. The shower nozzle was broken. Even the bathroom walls didn't escape vandalism, they were smeared with paint and cement 3. The stink of the rooms and the hotel (presumably due to it's proximity to the Dead Sea) was hard to bear. 4. The room service… Oh lord! Every time we called to order anything (whether it's a cup of coffee, a meal, or even a bottle of water) we would have to wait at least 30 minutes to get a call back to confirm our order by room service, then wait another hour or so to get the actual order. In one instance, we heard a knock at our door around an hour after we ordered and were met by the room service employee telling us one of the items one the order wasn't available. We then waited another hour for the order to arrive. Cold! I won't even get into how bad the quality of the food was, even for the most basic types of dishes. 5. The restaurants (and alleged lounge) available at the hotel were few and far in between. When we asked the concierge for directions to the restaurant, they pointed us to the pool! 6. The noise, the noise, the noise! Although there was a wedding on one of the days, the sound check started at 11 AM and the noise continued until 2 AM, nonstop! The next day, the noise continued with a pool event. I can understand that hotels have banqueting and event commitments, but that shouldn't come at the expense of hundreds of other guests staying at the hotel. Our room was the best available room in the hotel, and we were the closest ones to the noise pollution. 7. Facilities were shabby across the board. Both interior and exterior of the hotel looks like it hasn't been touched in at least a decade and would require immediate renovation Needless to say, this is the furthest thing from a 5-star hotel.