Turkey’s newest all-inclusive hotel attracts Lithuanians at low prices – next year there will be no such opportunity

Many full-time visitors to Turkish resorts are familiar with the hotels offered by travel agencies. Not a single option has been checked with his coat, and after the holidays drunk or scolded. Some say that some of those hotels are not different, as if they were copied from each other. There are travelers who visit all the hotels in a row, because they always choose only the cheapest options, but they expect the best comfort, the most delicious food and, of course, rooms with a sea view. But certainly not all places offer such things. Some charge extra for room upgrades. In some places, they just throw themselves at your hands because they can’t offer any improvement.

There are also travelers who choose only the same places year after year, always returning to rest at the same hotel in the same month of the year. And there really are a lot of such loyal vacationers. You can choose something more interesting, but you are afraid to take risks. And where it was, everything is clear: where the pool for adults, where the pool for children, where the best hammocks by the sea, where the bar beats the best cocktails and things like that. Loyal guests like it when the hotel staff recognizes them and, better yet, remembers the stories they tell. Then the tourist feels as if he is visiting his relatives, so safe and well.

Anyway, it would be possible to write a thick book with eloquent photos about all-inclusive hotels in Turkey, an idea that was born to me this year when I visited a score of different options.

And I would start with the most recent and modern examples of hotels, as they really should be, in that Turkey. After all, not for nothing, several full planes fly from Vilnius every day.

Come on vacation and get a new hotel, as well as winning the lottery. This is rarely the case, although sometimes it is fortunate. In the spring I had to meet a Kazakh woman who specializes in these matters. You explore the market long before the start of the Christmas season, find out who is planning to open, find out the exact opening dates, and then rush to reserve accommodation there. A very smart lady gets what she wants. And as he explained to me, he is very satisfied in almost all cases. Logical: both a new computer and a new car are better than a used one. The same goes for hotels. Although personally I have never chosen a place to stay because of age. I usually pay attention to other things.

But this time I had a unique opportunity to see what is very, very new. And I thought I should share it with you, dear readers. I have no doubt that not everyone has seen what a newly opened Turkish hotel looks like. Anyway, I guess for many traveling in this direction, it is a dream. Rest where no one has been before, sleep in a bed that no one has used yet.

“It just came to our notice then. The walls continue to shine, the furniture does not rub, the carpets do not walk. First class,” says Mr. Mahmoud, sales manager of the luxurious five-star Alarcha Hotels & Resorts. This kingdom “ultra all inclusive” has sprung up on the main road between the resorts of Side and Alanya in Turkey’s Antalya region. It catches the eye of all who pass by and indeed many people think that this combination is “new and luxurious “, that is to say, very expensive. But Mr. Mahmoud, who received me, totally disagrees with that.

He has been turning in the Turkish tourism business for decades, so he knows perfectly how to introduce a new player to the market. “In the first season, we want to attract as many people as possible to see the beauty that we have premiered here, so that the speeches and word of mouth publicity spread until next year,” he assures, assuring them by offering prices low for opening. And it turns out that this is a common practice in Turkey: newcomers to the market often advertise at lower prices. However, this only happens in the first season, or only half. And then, depending on the demand, the price skyrockets.

“We will definitely not raise prices this year, because it is already the end of the season. Now, on the contrary, everyone is pulling. We have also announced additional discounts, which are now almost twice as cheap as in July and August”, says my interlocutor, Mr. Mahmoud, and, in fact, he has a rather difficult task: in the second half of autumn he has to compete with the best and most expensive hotels, because in that season, they are all also lowering their prices a lot. After all, this is the last chance to attract a customer.

Now, with a good search, you can find luxury and well-regarded hotels for a thousand or a half, instead of the two or three thousand that they cost a month ago. Popular but not luxurious four-star all-inclusive hotels now cost around € 400-500 per week. Well this one, brand new and positioning itself as a superior class, costs 485 Eur with flights for a week in October. I found that price on the page of the Lithuanian organizer “Novaturas”. The price for three nights would be 365 Eur. Ordering for a longer period of time is more profitable, here as in supermarkets with large packages of any food or drink, take a larger one, pay less.

Another interesting observation: the big tour operators receive completely different prices than what we, the buyers, see in the public space. Here’s an example when booking accommodation at this hotel through the Booking.com website: for a week off, you would have to pay up to 936 euros. Only this price is calculated for two people, unlike the tour operator page, where the rates are published per person. Just keep in mind that Booking.com sells hotels without plane tickets. And this is another advantage of tour operators.

Alarcha Hotels & Resorts has opened so far, but not at full capacity, with only half of the rooms welcoming guests and the other half still in place, opening only next spring, since the start of the new season. . The seven-story hotel has several restaurants, a large spa, a large indoor pool, as well as a huge outdoor pool and a separate children’s pool. There are bars both inside and around the hotel. As the sales manager says, guests from Lithuania are impressed with the choice of foreign drinks. I refused to use this good during work, so I will not be able to comment further.

But I saw with my own eyes how much attention is paid to the cleanliness of the new place. The rooms are run by the entire maid brigade: three girls run away, and everything from the floor to the clothes, the washings, the smells, the curves. Here, one of the places where swans and elephants spin from the beds is dotted with petals. “We want to attract richer guests, so we handle it very firmly. We pay a lot of attention not only to the rooms, but also to the corridors,” says Mr. Mahmoud, who accompanied me to the hotel. He was pleased to receive a great number of guests from Russia and Ukraine this fall.

Although, in fact, I was surprised that the new hotel was quite quiet, empty. Only one other person could be seen in the hallways. Perhaps because I visited it in the middle of the day, when a large proportion of vacationers spent time by the pool, on the beach or on excursions.