We chose the Concorde De Luxe after researching ho...

We chose the Concorde De Luxe after researching hotels in Antalya, we had high hopes, but sadly, the reality failed to live-up to the expectations. We checked into the hotel after 0100 hours in the morning. First of all we were told our booking was 'economy' - though it certainly wasn't. The reception person told us that he could "upgrade the room for free" to a "sea view room" and asked us to see it. Before leaving reception the hotelier said "because we upgraded you for free, I ask that you tip the reception during your stay". I was tired and at this point I handed over a significant tip in pounds sterling, just grateful that the man had resolved the room fiasco. However, we'd booked a twin and the room they offered was a double - it was no good. At this point he said he would find another and summoned me to reception - he found a duplex suite which we then inspected, it would mean one of us had to sleep on a sofa bed whilst the other had a double - it was worth the compromise. We accepted the room but quickly realised that the aircon wasn't working. I returned to reception and reported the problem, he said he'd send maintenance (it was now at least 0130 in the morning), but as I left reception the man said "the tip you gave, in sterling, this is between us, yes?" - feeling obliged to agree and with his arm outstretched, I shook his hand and smiled - just grateful we were into a room with the prospect of working aircon. The maintenance man turned up just 5 minutes after and spent a further 10 mins in the ceiling tinkering. He left and said it would be "okay within 10-20 mins"... 20 mins later the room was still absurdly warm and it was almost 0200 in the morning, we decided to just sleep and deal with the heat. Our first night there was restless due to the lack of aircon and first thing that morning we told reception. The new reception staff were grumpy and fairly unhelpful. We spoke to Guest Relations, who were wonderful and they assured us it would be working by 2100 that evening. 2100 came, but the aircon did not start working and the room was even hotter (as it was clearly a warmer day). We enjoyed the amphitheatre entertainment and returned to our room, with no aircon we lost our patience, returned to reception and were told that maintenance would again attend. This time, two bold, rather rude men came into the room with a step ladder. They appeared to drain dark fluid and air from the system before we felt a sudden burst of cold air! Success! We were really happy and rested well that night.

With aircon aside we could focus on enjoying ourselves. Issues with Thomas Cook aside, the hotel was nice, nice pools and wonderful food, but in the interests of keeping the review shorter, I will abbreviate the points, both negative and positive. Food is great, but there were allegedly over 80% Russian guest who made us feel unwelcome; most appeared rude, obnoxious and discourteous - shoving to get food, piling plates full of the 'better' food options (often leaving it to waste), entering lifts before you'd even tried to step out, not queuing like everyone else for food/reception/bar/restaurant staff. The restaurant staff were largely nice, although a couple were rude, rolling their eyes when you asked for help.
The pool was something else, the main pool was nice, but the music so loud, so, so loud, not only were the speakers distorting, but even with headphones in my ears, turned up to max, I still could hear it clearly over my own music. The +16 adult pool was dominated with Russian guest who, in spite of polite requests, were rude and simply ignored fellow guest requests for them to take their children to the child pool (or main one). This was a sentiment echoed by German, Lithuanian, British and French guests alike (we know because we were thanked by different couples for trying to point out to guests who ignored the rules that they weren't meant to be their with children). This is no 5* hotel, more like a 3 and there is little around it, so be aware of that too.