Не все Хилтоны одинаково полезны, или воровство в 5* Not all Hiltons are equally useful, or stealing in 5 *

Let's start from afar. Last year we rested at the Hilton Fairows in Sharm el-Sheikh, the hotel and service were at the highest level, therefore, going to Hurghada, we chose the Hilton Hurghada Resort, deciding (naive! ) that Hilton is always Hilton. Having bought a tour, we contacted the hotel directly with a request to provide us with a room in a specific building.
First, about the pleasant.
Although we arrived more than 2 hours before the official check-in time, we were greeted like relatives - having heard our last name, the receptionist quickly called by phone, the reception manager rushed in (it was with her that we communicated by e-mail), sat down in the lobby bar, treated us to ice hibiscus, tweeted about the weather, and after 10 minutes she personally accompanied us to the room. The room was excellent, front, 2nd building, overlooking the large pool, exactly in the middle of the way from the reception and restaurants to the beach. The bathrobes and slippers in the room emphasized that the hotel had recently been certified 5*. On the TV screen in the room was a greeting from the hotel to dear guests.

A couple of days later we had our wedding anniversary - they sent a cake and a fruit basket to the room with a congratulatory card from the general manager.
Hotel. The hotel consists of two areas - Front (1st line, 6 three-story buildings) and Garden, aka Villa area (2nd line, across the road, a dozen 2-storey cottages for 3-4 rooms each). In this second territory (which the tourists, joyfully clamoring at the reception “we have a villa” learned with horror! ) There is nothing - not a beach - 500 meters across the road to it, not a single restaurant, only a sports center with air prices (prices from its representatives fell directly from 50 to 20 dollars (and this is without trading) in proportion to our tanning and a tiny pool. Cottages on one side overlook this pool, and the other (here they are, 5 *! ) On the road or a neighboring construction site.
The front of buildings 1 and 2 are adjacent to the main building (reception, main restaurants, bank, disco, etc. ), overlooking the pool. Buildings 3 and 4 are located in the middle of the territory. Between them is a cafe with an evening music program (beginning after 9 pm) incl. rooms for night owls. Buildings 5 ​ ​ and 6 are closest to the beach, but the 6th one goes to the beach restaurant and playground. Only a dozen rooms of the 5th building have a sea view, with a bonus in the form of animation located and noisy right under these windows.
Beach. Hilton, together with its neighbor Grand Plaza, created an artificial lagoon in the shape of a strongly elongated horseshoe. On the one hand, this has significantly increased the area of ​ ​ the beaches and protects the lagoon from waves. On the other hand, without a channel, the water is constantly cloudy and the sea looks dead. Oil has not been seen. Corals and fish are also missing.
Now for the oddities.

Beach service. Each umbrella has a raising flag - a signal to the bar that you want to place an order. You can raise this flag, lower it, you can hang yourself on it - no one will come, run for drinks yourself. However, the food at the beach restaurant is delicious, the portions are huge, fast and without short cuts.
Rooms. Standard set, the only feature is a dryer on each balcony. Apparently, for those towels, as discussed below. Cleaning is average, despite the dollar left on the bed. No figures from towels, no flowers (spoiled us in other hotels). Once they depicted a heart from my evening stole, carefully ironed and hanging in the closet. I had to iron again. Before that, I thought that the hotel staff had no right to touch the things of the guests, they could only collect the scattered things, but not open the cabinets at the same time. Linen is not changed daily, as it should be, but every 2-3 days. Shampoo jars in the bathroom are also replaced not as they are used, but after 3-4 days. The jar of cream was generally not full (used? ). The cleaner threw away the broken soap and we never got a new one.
Towel policy. They issued cards for towels, warning - one towel per day in one place. You get a towel by the pool or on the beach - they take the card and cross out your room number. That's it, you won't get any more today. If you are going to sleep in the room and return, bring it with you, because no more here. At first they laughed, then they realized - they are not joking. The Englishwoman by the pool argued for a long time with the service-boy about this - his response speech could be translated approximately as “the bread has already been received on your cards, this is the policy of the hotel, madam. ” Madame was shocked. True, sometimes the room number was not asked, and there was a chance to slip through the second round, but the guests stubbornly dragged wet towels behind them. Issuance officially from 9 am (sunrise at 5.40), the territory was lazily swept like that at 10-11. In Sharm, by 6 in the morning, the territory was not just cleaned, but washed, and trays with towels were already in key places!
Food. The restaurant asked for fresh orange juice on the first day (it is on the menu). The fight ran to the kitchen, returned - no. You will laugh, but all week I asked for this fresh juice in all the restaurants of the hotel already out of sports interest, but it was never there! The food is very monotonous. Dinners, supposedly themed (cuisines of the world), actually boiled down to replacing one single hot dish. Salad, sweet and fruit tables amaze with their poor. No, there are a lot of plates, but it's the same dish served many times. In Sharm (remember, also Hilton) everything was an order of magnitude more diverse.

Confidentiality. Having received a printout of their expenses at the reception, they noticed that on the back of the sheet was a telephone bill for a gentleman from London. With his address in England and at the hotel, phone numbers, arrival/departure details, etc. At the bottom is the inscription "Thank you for choosing Hilton. " I wonder how many people will receive our data?
About theft.
Returning from an excursion to Luxor around 11 pm, we found a “do not disturb” sign on our door, which we did not use and kept in the room on the table. The number was not removed. Worried, they began to look around. In a locked safe, they found a shortage of 500 US dollars! The security guard and the manager on duty were immediately called. For the next two hours, they searched every inch of the room, shuffled through all our belongings, pockets and bags, and left, saying that "the safe is in order, remember better, maybe you didn't have anything. " They regretted not calling the police. In the morning, we turned to Yulia, the representative of the Tez-tour at the hotel, with a statement about what had happened and requested that we be moved to another hotel. Julia informed the management of the travel agency. What started here! The hotel administration pounced on Yulia with reproaches "how can you believe them, we have 5 stars, this is a dirty slander. " At lunchtime, we were called in for a conversation by the senior security guard of the hotel and the deputy manager. We were shown a printout of the hotel's electronic lock system, proving that only we and no one else opened the room that day. It became clear that they had wiped out all the information compromising the hotel (which is why no one had even hinted at the existence of this system the day before and the dismantling was postponed for almost a day) and we would no longer be able to dig legally. Working with a similar system in Russia, I know very well that deleting data is very easy. We were very gently hinted that not only the asphalt melts from the heat, but also the brains, that we are tired and do not remember how we hung the sign and lost money. There were two arguments - no one opened the number (the “do not disturb” sign was hung by a ghost - ha ha! ) and “why didn’t they take your passports then”? We have never felt more disgusting! In the evening, the main representative of the Tez-tour arrived in Hurghada. He, on behalf of the hotel, voiced a proposal to upgrade the class of service (suite, additional services, etc. ). A strange offer from a hotel that just a couple of hours ago called us cheaters. Everything fell into place when we learned that on the same day, another Russian couple lost their last $100 from their safe. They were convinced that they did not lock the safe, and therefore they were to blame (and the staff, apparently, is obliged to punish the forgetful). From informal conversations with guides, it turned out that Hilton was not the first time involved in such a scandal.
We declined Hilton's offer and reiterated our request to change the hotel.

To the credit of the Tez-tour, the very next day we were offered a move to Marriott, where we happily moved and spent the rest of the week in a quiet respectable hotel without thinking about the things left in the room (see review of Marriott "From Hilton to Marriott").
Before the move, they had fun by putting “signals” all over the room and we can say with 100% certainty that the safe was opened at least once more, and they rummaged through the closet.
The Hilton now has a new standard - the staff carefully inspects the belongings of the guests, removes everything superfluous and teaches them to order! True, he is embarrassed to talk about it. While shy.