kendra stewart

Review of Kempinski Hotel Ishtar, Dead S...

My husband and I arrived on Thursday October 18th ...

My husband and I arrived on Thursday October 18th for three nights, excited for our stay at Kempinski. First impression was good: lovely facilities, great reception and welcome to the hotel - however, that's where it ended for us.

We were told on check-in that there was going to be a wedding that night and there might be 'some noise' and that we should of received an email notifying us of that (we hadn't). As there wasn't much that we could do at this stage, we said okay. Later that night, the power went out for the entire resort. We were told it was an outage across the Dead Sea area (which may of been initially true), however, all of the surrounding hotels had power, long before we did. We were told that the hotel had generators that were routing power to the areas that needed it the most - apparently that meant the wedding dance floor lighting and music and not my hotel room. While the party raged on into the evening, we were unable to get ready and go to dinner (the power was completely out in our room and we were unable to use the shower as it was pitch black). The noise from the wedding was absolutely ridiculous and horrendously unacceptable. We complained to the front desk but found everyone to be very defensive, saying that they sent an email around and there wasn't anything they could do. If we had, in fact, received an email stating that there would be this level of noise, we most assuredly would not of booked.

Additionally, we had a terrible instance of food poisoning. We had ordered from the in room menu, two sandwiches, on our second night. We woke up the next morning in a horrible state, unable to keep any food or fluids down. My husband went down to request a doctor for me and a nurse was sent up to our room. The nurse said that he had no medication on site and that we would need to go to the hospital, at our own expense. Not wanting to get out of bed, as we were nauseous, feverish and dizzy, we obviously declined. We were forced to stay in bed all day and were unable to use any of the hotel's facilities that day.

I went down that evening to talk to management about our experience and I was absolutely appalled with the way they handled the situation. I was still feeling unwell and they had me sit downstairs for almost an hour as they brought various people to come out and speak to me about our illness. I was there by myself as my husband was still too ill to move. They, several times, tried to convince me that we had the flu (at the same time, with the same symptoms, after eating the same thing) and that there was no way that the food was contaminated. I was not met with understanding at all but rather was met with defensive tones and was accused of lying ( as I am literally sitting on the sofa feeling unwell speaking with them!). In the end, they only agreed to pay for the room service that made us sick in the first place.

It was an absolutely appalling way to treat a customer and I was genuinely shocked at the response I received. I would expect a hotel chain like the Kempinski to stand behind their brand of exceptional customer service and to do right by the customer.

I wouldn't recommend this location - there are many other lovely locations close by and you might be able to avoid the horrible experience that my husband and I had!