Шикарная гостиница с отвратитльным сервисом Elegant hotel with disgusting service

As of June 2010, there is only one Movenpick hotel in Sousse. The hotel is new, not marked on the maps. To find it you need to find the hotel Tej Marhaba, then towards the sea there is a shopping center, one-way road and the hotel Movenpick directly to the sea.
First about the good.
The hotel is new, all equipment is new. In appearance, definitely the best in Sousse. The standard room has an area of ​ ​ about 30 m2, balcony, 32 ”LCD TV with the ability to view the current balance, weather, news, etc. , hair dryer, bathroom, hot water constantly, central air conditioning with climate control in each room, safe , a good double bed and a hard and uncomfortable folding chair for a child, a large closet, bedside tables, table, chairs. Mini bar - paid (0.25 l Heineken with the date of issue January 2010 - 6 dinars or $ 4). Only 2 sockets for the whole room.

4 swimming pools. One heated with sea water, one with fresh water, one for children and one for indoor use. There are no slides, and there won't be.
Sunbeds and mattresses are new, very comfortable. Sunbeds, mattresses, umbrellas by the pools and the sea - theoretically free. The beach is sandy, the entrance to the sea is gentle. The bottom is sand, no corals, stones, fish. Traders walk along the shore, but do not bother.
The number of bars and restaurants does not matter much, as for AI only the main restaurant during its opening hours, the lobby bar and the bottling plant on three pedestals (a la transit bus station) between the sea and the pools are free.
The food in the main restaurant is good, quite varied, Meat, chicken, fish, rice, beans, pasta, salads, sauces, cheeses, olives, fruit, pastries, ice cream, fresh orange juice for breakfast were every day. Shrimp, squid, mussels, red fish in a day or two for dinner.
Construction is underway at the hotel - but it is not heard or seen.
They don't steal from the room, the acquaintances of the forgotten camera with money in the suitcase stood outside the safe for 2 days during a trip to the Sahara. No one touched.
Well, now about the bad
The standard room is either a room with a view of a fairly busy road, or on the ground floor with a sea view (but the sea is not visible from the ground floor). On the ground floor, accommodation types are SGN or DBL only.
DBL + CHD and more are located on floors overlooking the road. The busy traffic on the road starts at 6 am and lasts until midnight. Soundproofing does not protect against road noise. At night, cheerful tourists walk the road and you can get acquainted with the musical creativity of the peoples of the world.
In order to get Sea View, you need to pay 60 dinars per day on the spot. 10.20, 100 dollars in the passport affect only the length (not the width) of the balcony towards the road. Due to the fact that it is not possible to open it day or night due to noise and turning off the air conditioner - to give something to the Reception at check-in is pointless.
There is a Russian-speaking staff at the Reception.

But he discovers himself only after the rest of the staff freezes at you with the phrase that he does not understand your English and does not know Russian at all. If you don't leave after that, but start raising your voice, at that moment he finds himself, although he is nearby and hears everything. They do not like scandals at the Reception.
The exchange rate for the Reception is slightly lower than in the bank. To count on 0.5-1.5 dinars - is considered the norm (in the bank, by the way, too). When evicting, entering something from the mini-bar or throwing 10% on the services actually provided is the norm.
The location of the hotel (and probably all of Sousse) is such that at 10 am local time the sun is already quite high and very hot, and at 17.00 it is almost gone behind the hotel and the pools are in the shade.
Umbrellas by the sea are small. Two sunbeds are difficult to place in the shade, and in order for them to be in the shade, they must be constantly moved.
There is no animation.
There is a mini club, but it must be found and the child must understand English, otherwise it is necessary to be with him so that he does not get lost. Thalassotherapy - five hotels to the left of the beach (25 minutes walk), slides - 2 hotels to the left of the beach (10 dinars per person), SPA - 2 hotels to the right of the beach. Disco - four hotels to the right across the road.
Now about the very bad
All Inclusive system (although on the tour operator's website even UAI)
- Non-alcoholic beverages of local production include analogues of cola, fanta and sprite, still water, orange and pineapple juice (Yuppi type). And that's it! Theoretically, you can drink them for free around the clock in the lobby bar, from 10 to 17 in the bottling plant, and during the main restaurant.
- Alcoholic beverages of local production (of appropriate quality) include peppermint, vermouth, whiskey, vodka, rum, beer, dry red and white wine.
Theoretically, you can drink them for free from 12 days to 2 nights in the lobby bar, from 12 to 17 in the bottling plant, but not more than 4 drinks (including soft drinks) per room, lunch and dinner in the main restaurant, no more than 1 drink per person, including non-alcoholic.
- Ice cream near pouring from 12 to 17, for lunch and dinner at the main restaurant.

- 2 glass bottles of plain water without gas per room per day. They can be shoved into the mini bar only if you take out the shelf and push the contents of the paid mini bar. There is no opener. You can open the bottle with a lighter, or furniture, etc. If you have patience, you can call, say the word "opener" (this word is understood even in Russian) and in 30-40 minutes you will open it.
- 10% discount on room service and a la carte restaurants
This is EVERYTHING. Somehow it is very difficult to call it AI, let alone UAI.
Now about what is, to put it mildly, worse than very bad. About the service.
The porter brings the suitcases to the room in a beautiful wheelbarrow.
When I gave him $ 1 for it, he stood for a few seconds looking at him with such an offended look, as if I owed him $ 100, and instead spat in his direction. But these are still flowers.
Every day a cleaner and a person come into the room and watch what is drunk in the minibar and bring water. The time of their visit can be any from 10 to 17 hours. The Do Not Disturb light does not stop them. The $ 1 left on the bed is taken away by the one who came earlier. Depending on this, they will either "forget" to put water, or "forget" to leave clean towels, while taking dirty ones. The issue is resolved within 0.5-1 hours by hiking or calling the Reception. The bed is changed often, the windows are washed every day. But the floor is not washed or swept. The stain on the floor from the accidentally spilled cola in a prominent place remained. Shampoo, lotions, etc. are not replenished

According to the tour operator's representative, in order to get a beach towel, you need to sit on a deck chair and the beach workers must bring it. You can sit all day. No one will come. You can catch a beach worker (they are spinning everywhere) and give him a couple of dinars and then the towels will appear and be covered for 5 minutes. If you do not give him anything, you can wait long and hard. You can go to the place near the spill and if you are lucky to take towels immediately, if you are unlucky, then wait until the next wheelbarrow with towels arrives, from which some towels will be laid out for everyone, and some will be taken away for sale. There are not enough umbrellas near the pools. For a few dinars, the beach workers will take an umbrella from the vacationers who are not on the sunbeds and bring it to you. But this does not mean that if you leave your umbrella unattended, it will not be dragged to the next paid vacationer.
It is easier to go to the ashtray yourself and brazenly take it from the table of the paid bar, or go up to the 3rd floor in the lobby bar and take it at the counter. It is not realistic to wait for it. The beach on the sea is removed to the third row of sunbeds from the sea. Further to the hotel the sand is not cleaned. In the sand bulls, sharp stones and some thorns of plant origin. They sting painfully.
Now about the implementation of the already truncated AI system.
The bottling between the pools and the sea is the only place where you can really get the coveted drink for free and quickly. However, sometimes they run out of beer, juice or ice cream, then the beer bottling machine does not work, then the glasses run out. But it is eliminated quickly enough. One question arises here. Periodically, the room number is asked here, without writing it down anywhere. All Russians and Ukrainians are on AI. Germans, French and others are on AI and HB. Several times I watched the Germans tip the bottler.
Well, I do not believe that the German mentality will allow you to tip for the fact that he stood for 5-10 minutes in line received two plastic glasses of 200 ml of beer, which is as good as German as Tunisia to Germany. It seems like a fee in the pocket for a beer on HB. Well, we pay for it by paying AI. It is a pleasure to help the suffering German people.
In the lobby bar with drinks, the situation is about the same as with towels on the beach. You can sit all day, no one will come. You have to pay in advance, for each order or wait a long, long time. What makes me happy is internationally - other Europeans have no preferences.
In the main restaurant, extortion reaches its peak. The room number is recorded at the entrance to the restaurant, and the stewardess leads to a free table, usually at the far end of the hall. Then you go to choose from the buffet. If there is no free flight attendant, you can take any free table.

If you do not leave anything at the table - then at this table or alone, or another stewardess can put someone else. If this happens immediately after the opening of the restaurant - then you have a fully stocked table - three forks, three knives, one spoon, a napkin, two glasses or a cup, a bottle of water. If someone has already eaten at this table, the serving will not be complete. Either there will not be all forks, or all knives, or glasses, or all napkins (paper napkins are not used in the restaurant at all). Teaspoons at breakfast are almost always absent. If you call the waiter - for a couple of dinars he will restore the serving, if not - he will answer that no now, later - well, sit and look at your full plate without a fork. You can solve the problem yourself by removing the missing items from the neighboring tables. This is especially nice to do from tables with a Reserved sign.
Buffet reservations are probably a Tunisian invention. While eating, the waiter can even come by himself! When ordering drinks, ask for the room number. If you do not give him anything when ordering, the drinks are brought exactly at the end of the meal, and a few minutes later a check is brought to sign. The waiters pour the wine from the bottles into the glasses themselves. If there is no clean glass at the table, then even with the dinars paid, he can take a glass from the table for dirty dishes. It is necessary to watch. Twice there was a situation when the stewardess took you to the table, immediately caught the waiter, ordered drinks, tipped and went to choose food. You return to the table with a full plate, and there is already a German sitting and whipping your beer. All the tables nearby are either occupied or not cleaned. The famous waiter spreads his arms and, looking brazenly into his eyes, says that there are no seats, although there are a lot of untidy tables nearby.
The hands are full, the nervous system is heating up, the hands are itching.
The incident on the last day completely ruined the impression of the hotel. As expected, we vacated the room before 12.00, handed over the card, gave the suitcases to the storage room (stay in the room can be extended in principle for 20 dinars per HOUR). Our bus was supposed to be at 3 p. m. At 12.30 we went to the main restaurant for lunch. At the entrance, as usual, called the room number (in principle, you could call any number). At the end of our meal, the waiter comes and says that we have 71 dinars (almost $ 50) for lunch. To our objections, the chief waiter was called and replied that the AI ​ ​ ends at 12.00 and even if we paid for the stay in the room - the AI ​ ​ is not extended and we have to pay.

After that, I told him that we will pay, and for the remaining hour before closing we will eat as many peaches as we can and spoil as many dishes - as much as we have time, for such pleasure it is not a pity to pay $ 100! The conversation began to take place in high tones and attract the attention of other vacationers. They do not like scandals at the Reception. After a short conversation in French, we were told that the hotel was giving us this lunch. They gave out some papers, which we took to the restaurant. During all this, the senior waiter did not let my wife and child out of the restaurant.
This is a 5 * hotel service of the Swiss chain Movenpick!
The excuses that there are not enough employees are unfounded. There are enough of them around the hall, the lobby bar and on the beaches, imitating the hectic activities. Only if in other hotels in Tunisia extortion is open, it is hidden here. And if even not enough - what prevents them from hiring? Or are they studying in Switzerland?
Reading absolutely positive reviews about other Movenpick hotels, I understand that sooner or later they will put things in order here as well. But so far (first half of June 2010) we have what we have…
Raiffeisen Bank Aval (Ukraine) classifies the Tunisian dinar as a risky type of currency. Probably other banks include it in this category. The maximum amount of cash that can be withdrawn per day at an ATM is the equivalent of $ 100. The ATM in the hotel does not issue anything at all, but the attempt to withdraw cash ends with the reservation (blocking for 14 days) of the amount that was attempted to withdraw.
Probably, the rest in any hotel in Tunisia should be considered a risky type. In the country where the bank's cash register is calculated when exchanging currency, in Duty Free the prices are indicated in Euros, and in dollars it is converted at the rate of 1.4 (instead of 1.
2, as at the moment in the world), where for a plate first ask for 200 dinars, and then run after you 100 meters offering it for 30 dinars will obviously be very difficult to achieve the level of Movenpick hotels in other countries