Hi there - rarely do I review hotels except when exceptionally good or bad - no prizes for guessing which this is. I stay in a lot of hotels all around Europe as my partner is a touring musician. This is one of the WORST I have ever stayed in.

The main reason? The sense that, from the second you arrive to the second you leave, you are simply a cash cow for the hotel, to be viewed with derision and contempt.

There is NO customer service. For example, the hotel photographer tried to take my picture one night, I said no thank you very politely, and he swore and flounced away muttering about me. You cannot get service from the staff when you need it - our air con didn't work, in was 40 degrees, and as a result we didn't sleep. We tried to complain about the aircon, no response. Or, there was the time I phoned room service for 40 minutes with no answer, on phoning reception to report this they said 'Go to the restaurant to eat' and put the phone down.

The hotel tries EVERYTHING possible to squeeze extra money from you. They do not care about your repeat business, the tour companies are their customers, not you. You are just a wallet. Drinks prices are extortionate - I mean, when it is 40 degrees and water is priced prohibitively it's pretty bad.As mentioned, you cannot take food or drink into the hotel. One trick is to come via water taxi from bodrum, they do not search you this way.

The breakfast and dinner food was okay-ish, nothing special.
The food at other times is disgusting. A 'Chicken' burger was not made of chicken, a 'beefburger' was not made of beef, but fake meat. The pizza made me vomit for the next two days. For the privelage I paid a fortune.

The waiters are constantly trying to make further money for the hotel. Be careful. For example we were double charged on a receipt for water, when we complained and asked them to cross out one of the charges, they pretended their pen didn't work so they couldnt remove the charge. Worked fine when I grabbed it and did it myself. Another example is that on our first night, we were half board, and the waiters insisted we were not, and that we pay £45 for our meal, they said we couldn't eat another bite until we signed the money over, they didn't even check with reception - it turned into a stand up row.

This is the WORST hotel I have ever stayed in, and it is because of the customer service.

The exception - the maids. They are great, and taught us how to hide our drinks in our room - it's worth tipping them as I bet they are paid peanuts.

The good - the location is gorgeous, and the pool is lovely. However - there are 4 hotels in bardeki bay - try the others. They have the same view, and better pools.

In all serousness, if you have booked this hotel, and do not want to be abused and made to feel like a second class citizen - change your hotel. The Charm hotel next door looked ok.

This was supposed to be a special holiday for me, for a personal reason. It was ruined.

We went in a large group of 26 and found that the hotel staff are very rude, especially day reception staff. They were extremely unwelcoming. However, the night staff (Taha) is a great guy. He was really helpful and mixed with the group well.

The other reviews talk about how the hotel is quite tight about bringing in food and drink from outside, well we managed to bring in over 15 bottles of alcohol with countless mixers without getting caught. remember to put it in a backpack when you are passing the security gate. There is also a market outside the hotel, go buy water and snacks from there, it will save you from the rip off prices at the hotel.

Remember this is no 5 star hotel. Many of us were bitten by bed bugs at night. It was crazy. The level of hygene definitely needs to be addressed! The toilets also smelled really bad and some rooms had yellowish water coming out of the shower!

I would not recommend this hotel for youngsters or large groups of any sort. Come here if you are old and boring.

The view from the sea view rooms is great and the location is ideal to get to bodrum and gumbet.

P.S Watch out for the reception staff riping you off drinks that have not been taken out of the mini bar. Bunch of cons and liars.

We have been to the Azka Otel for a week in June.
The hotel is in a beautiful spot only a short walk down the stairs to the beach.
The food is fantastic. There is something for everyone.
Always a big selection of fresh Fruits, Salads and desserts.
I am not sure about the star rating being 5, but it's a definate 4.
Friendly staff, especially in the restaurant and bar and the ladies at reception are very helpful.
The Hotel staff can also help you find trips you might want to do.
There is a boat nearby ( a Yellow one called Aquasport) which does day trips and is the best thing we have done whilst being in the hotel. Very relaxing and the captain adjusts the trip to your wishes. He also prepares you a lovely lunch and only plays slow music instead of the loud techno music boats which do the same trips as well.
I am going to book my holiday for next year to go to the same hotel again. Loved it..........

I have stayed in many hotels and have never had to write a review, but I feel I should warn people about this hotel.On first impressions, the supposedly 5 star Azka hotel seems like a very nice hotel. However, thats where it stops. We did not pay the extra for a sea view and our room over-looked a gravelled roof top and a wall. The air conditioning in our room was terrible at best - we complained four times about it and each time the same person was sent up to repair it and it was still no better. When we asked if we could change room we were ignored, and we spent the rest of the holiday unable to sleep from the heat. The food was poor. We were only bed and breakfast and were glad that we did not have to eat there any more than that! Communication was extremely difficult with the staff, and none of them were particularly friendly or helpful. You are not allowed to take any food or drink into the hotel as they either confiscate it from you or add it to your bill when you check out. This means that you have to buy everything from the hotel, which is very expensive.

That said, however the pool area is very nice - there are two pools - a main one downstairs and a more quiet one on the 5th floor. The location of the hotel was good - inbetween Gumbet and Bodrum. Gumbet was nearer, but you can get the water taxi to Bodrum which gives you lovely views of the bay. The hotel is at the bottom of a very steep hill, so I would not recommend it for people with walking difficulties.

I would definitely go back to Bodrum, as the area is lovely but I would definitely not return to the Azka.