Victoria Palace Hotel

stained mattress (not our stains!). On several occasions the \'clean\' sheets also had stains on them. The \'fancy\' bed throws disappeared after the first day, we found them in a linen box, presumably this is to economise on cleaning. All four of the \'quilts\' were also stained.

My wife and I had a bath with shower over and the kids had just a shower. The showers were positioned so that the water sprayed horizontally, useless in the shower cubicle, and the loose fixings made the situation worse.

The shower, bath and both toilets leaked which explained the disgusting damp smell in the rooms (and many other locations in the hotel). As the week went on the damp patch in our bedroom reached over one third of the carpeted area. The corridor and \'wardrobe\' in the kids room flooded whenever the shower was used in the next room along. The bath and sinks built up a nice crust of scum which we refused to clean ourselves.

On one occasion we returned from a day out to find no clean towels, all but one of our towels had been removed. I phoned to have towels brought up and our \'maid\' appeared at the door, stomped into our room and demanded we \'exchange\' towels, pulling the only towel from my wife\'s head!

The food in the restaurant was bearable but too similar each day. I like meat, protein and salads and from that point of view I enjoyed most of the meals I had there. It\'s cheap enough to dine elsewhere or grab some of the fast options outside, Kebabs, Jacket Potatoes etc. (I can\'t believe there\'s three bloody McD\'s on Sunny Beach!).

The restaurant itself was a fiasco, a constant fight for cutlery and cracked mugs. It was not unusual to take 25 minutes just to get the required combination of food, cutlery and table - then at \'shut off\' time the staff appear and start filling their own plates!

The hotel has three irons to service 600 rooms, it took four days to get one.

On our last day I had the misfortune of using the lift when the power went off in the hotel, I was stuck in total darkness with a very frightened elderly couple for over ten minutes. There are no safety lights or communication system within the lifts.

I complained to my Airtours rep on the first day and on several subsequent occasions. I also conversed with the hotel reception and their customer representatives. Nothing was put right in our rooms and the service did not improve. We were offered alternative rooms after four days, these were a slightly better size, a worse location and smelt worse than our existing rooms, we declined them. (We were only booked in for seven days).

The bars in the hotel and by the pool were pretty unexciting and relatively expensive.

The pools and pool area are far too small for the size of hotel. Yes, the sloped bridges are daunting initially but surprisingly non-slippy, except when they are cleaned at peak time each evening, in darkness!

I do have some photographic and video evidence which will accompany my official complaint but, in hindsight, I wished I\'d collected more. This is the first time we\'ve experienced anything like this and I certainly didn\'t expect to have to endure it for the whole week which is why I didn\'t record more.

You can make your own minds up about the real purpose of this hotel but the fact that it was built so quickly, has a very \'bling\' exterior and the black Hummer, black Cadillac Escalade and two very impressive black Mercedes in the security guarded part of the car park, and the shaved headed, tight tee-shirted heavies who rode in them might just be a bit of a giveaway!

provide a far superior service than this 4plus rated accommodation. hope in time maybe this hotel will improve.

caused them to spray round like a snake.

The staff, some very nice others, you felt every thing was to much of an effort,

The bridges at the rear of the hotel was quite steep and again dangerous when wet. To get a sun bed you had to be up by 6.30 am to put your towel out even tho signs said they would be removed if left unattended.

Finally this Hotel is at the far end of the resort (others are being built) so to get into the centre was a long walk.

We knew there was no entertainment as advertised but trying to find some in the evening was hard.

which we got the next day.

It was very nice with sea view. The food was terrible but its so cheap to eat out and there are some nice eating places in Sunny Beach we didnt care about the hotel food!!

I found some of the female staff quite ignorant after being tutted at after asking for mayo. There was one bar man who worked in the pool bar who was very nice and ver helpful ( many thanks Effle).

The rooms were kept clean enough but we had to complain about not getting clean towels which was sorted out very quick.

The spa is very good and we would recommend it... I hope this doesnt put people off as I love Sunny Beach as it was my second time there. I just wouldnt pay the money to go to this hotel again... happy holidays for any one that is just going!

the front of the hotel every 20 minutes or so. The first shops and bars are with 50 metres of the hotel.

give sunny beach another couple of year and I\'m sure 90% of the hotels will have this for their guest, all these moans about the hotel, food etc all I can say is go to blackpool then for 2 weeks and stop MOANING.

Oh and yip we will be back. So go on try it if you haven\'t already its the best, better hurry though heard its getting knocked down in 18 months pity.