Herbert Samuel Royal Shangri-La Eilat

We stayed one night, having booked for 4. In the past I stayed in the old Orchid hotel, which is still part of the same complex as the ShangriLa, and had enjoyed it. Basically, the ShangriLa is an ugly cluster of mini-villas built uphill from the Orchid Hotel, and for some reason priced more highly, though it's inconvenient in every way. Firstly, parking; there's barely adequate parking for the Orchid, and only about 6 spaces at the far end of the car park for the ShangriLa. That's if you can find it at all; the signage is terrible. Transport around the very steep hill it's built on is by golf buggy, and the drivers refused to take our luggage from our car, though one of us was walking with a stick, and clearly had mobility problems. In fact, transport round the resort was a major issue: during the one night we were there, we encountered endless clusters of people struggling with luggage, babies in buggies and shopping, queuing (often aggressively) for the seemingly chaotic and inadequate buggy system. Our room was filthy, and I took many pictures to share with management. One shows an abandoned razor blade on our balcony. We met another couple in the bar who were also trying to escape, due to the dirty state of their room. We stayed the one night as we were too tired to move, but I emailed the manager that evening to tell him we were leaving the following morning, and explained why. No-one bothered to reply. The following morning, I did eventually manage to find the manager, after much insistence on my part. He refused to look at my photographs, but accepted my reasons for cancellation and (via booking dot com) agreed that I would not be charged for the nights we didn't spend there. The whole place is grubby, with an air of disorganisation and poor management; the staff seemed half-trained and pretty much demoralised. In fairness, the bar staff were kind and friendly, and the buffet supper was excellent in every way. My last sight of the ShangriLa as we drove away was of the manager breaking up a fight between a male customer and a buggy driver. Summed it all up for me, really.

Absolutely nothing like the website. Dirty and run down. There is rubbish blowing around the whole hotel, even by the pool (where nobody collects used towels or trash). Food is bad. Pools are freezing. The golf carts up and down are unreliable, nonexistent at night.

(Photos only)