Sousse Palace Hotel & Spa

“Would give a GOOD rating if it existed ”

We stayed at Sousse Palace for a couple of nights & were able to leave our bags in storage when we arrived early. Staff confirmed they had our booking but for some reason the staff who checked us in in the afternoon wanted to see documents from the booking agency. As he was arranging the room f... more

We stayed at Sousse Palace for a couple of nights & were able to leave our bags in storage when we arrived early. Staff confirmed they had our booking but for some reason the staff who checked us in in the afternoon wanted to see documents from the booking agency. As he was arranging the room for us, he sent over some citronnade which was a nice touch. The location of the hotel is very good & is a short walk to the medina & train station. Our room overlooked the hotel pool & had a partial sea view. It was spacious, with ample storage space and loads of hangers. There was a kettle, as well as tea & coffee, which was greatly appreciated. There was a small bottle of water provided each day. There was a hairdryer in the bathroom, as well as toiletries. These were in small bottles, so were not great for the environment. The TV was quite small & positioned at the far right of the room, near the balcony, so it wasn't easy to view the screen from the other side of the room. The pillows were kinda well worn & lumpy - not what you would expect from a 5 star hotel. Breakfast started early at 6 am so that was good but the breakfast area was quite chaotic & staff were unable to keep up with making sure tables were adequately cleaned for the next diners, so it was all a bit grimey. Fresh juices, esp the strawberry one was welcome, but there wasn't a lot of variety on the fruit offered, other than citrus fruit. The hot food section was very limited & poor but there was a range of cold meats & cheeses. There was always a long wait at the omelette station & though there was a sign which said "crepe" at a separate section, staff shunted me to the omelette line, only for me to be told there wasn't any crepe available. They did have freshly fried bambalouni though they were not dusted with sugar. We were pleased to see droo being offered. Probably the most ridiculous thing was the lack of spoons (other than small plastic spoons for drinks) for yoghurt, etc. The most unpleasant thing about the hotel was being harassed about day trips by people who sat outside a shop. It wasn't clear whether they worked at the hotel. One of them followed us to the pool to tell us about a medina tour & another person stopped us another time to try to sell a quad biking trip. They were fine when we said no but the hotel should have some kind of dedicated trip desk so queries about trips can be made without having hotel guests randomly approached. Overall, Sousse Palace was a decent hotel but it wasn't 5 star, as claimed. The green credentials are poor when you would expect replenishable receptacles for toiletries as well as water coolers for water, & not the use of plastic spoons in the dining area.

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