We have just returned from 2 weeks in Israel, 3 nights at this hotel. The biggest disappointment was this hotel (room and service). It was cold in Eilat and the room had no heat. They promised us to look into it and it never happened. One day they forgot to leave us towels which
was fixed later and In addition we were out on a tour the following day and the room wasn’t cleaned, they didn’t even bother to send somebody until the following day.

When I couldn’t take it anymore I went to complain and you probably know their answer.

Finally for our surprise they wanted to fix things and sent a hotel’s employee at 10:00 PM to wake us up for a fruit plate and mineral water. I wish you saw my expression when I opened the door.

Oh, I forgot to mention the rooms are villages on a hill and you need to get a ride from these golf cars that they have going up and down, they are motorized and make a lot of noise so good luck if you want to
take a nap.

The ORchid hotel is in a beatiful setting - about 5 km south of EIlat City Centre.

The location is perfect. A short walk to an amazing coral beach - where as a hotel guest you get free chairs and snorkel rental. In fact the hotel should take the staff from the beach to run the hotel - fantastic friendly service - clean and tidy.

Back to the hotel. It is trying to be Thai - why I don;t really understand - but never mind. Overall the facilities are average to poor. The food is terrible (who ever heard of Kosher Thai food?)

Service is very hit and miss.

- The main bar is awful,
- front desk average,
- tourist office let down by poor English,
- on site shop expensive and very random approach to opening times,
- Tuk Tuk (a golf cart to take you to the rooms since the hotel is built on very steep terrain) usually good.
- Breakfast clearing staff - overworked by horrible customers

THe clientele is also hit and miss. A lot of Russians who seems to treat the place as their own little pig sty - terrible manners - public drunkeness and inapporpriate behaviour by the pool for a family with children.

One can;t blame the hotel for the clientele as such - one can blame them for not being sensitive to "normal" standards of behaviour and imposing it when things get out of hand.

Overall if they could sort some of these issues it would be a good hotel.

Oh the rooms and room cleaning - average at best. WHen paying top rate I expect a little more luxury (bathroom ??) consistent number of towels and equipment which works. Hair drier wasnt fixed in spite of 4 separate reminders!

You see the picturs on their web site you here the sounds and you think to yourself: this is paradise.... well- think again !!!
This 5 stars hotel in nothing but 5 * !
I was in one of their best suite with a privte deck & jacuzi but the damn thing did'nt work ! when i got to the room and wanted to put some water in the fridge - it smelled like sour milk !
And after 2 nights there (after we asked to clean the fridge and fix the jacuzi) it appered that the hot tube does't work either.
I red some of the other reviews here and one of them said that the service at this hotel is "israely typical" - i hardly disagree !
There are some great hotels in israel with great service this hotel is just NOT one of them !
We asked many times for them to clean / fix the room (one of the best and most expensive rooms at the hotel) the only thing they had to say is :" why did'nt you speak with the manager"
Long story short - this hotel service is a disgrace, with the attitude that we got there i can't even remeber one good thing about it.

We stayed in this hotel 3 days in August for a special occasion that we had planned many months before. So we came with a lot of friends and family (around 15 rooms).

We shared the beautiful royal villa at the top of the hotel with 3 other families. The site and the villa are gorgeous. There is a small private swimming pool and a quite garden. The view is also spectacular!

This hotel could be the best in Israel. But the service is really bad and it is dirty everywhere. We paid a lot of money for this villa because it was a special occasion. The rooms are great but for this price you would expect a perfect service. We had a dedicated valet but he was not really nice and did not speak a word of English ,which is amazing in a 5-stars hotel. It was dirty everywhere from the windows to the bathrooms.

At the reception, the people do not speak English. If you speak Russian or Hebrew, they will probably help. But if you speak English or any other langage, you will notice a complete lack of communication.
Another thing is that they charge your room upfront on your credit card! And it was the same for the royal villa and for the standard rooms.

Some rooms (Siam rooms) are dedicated to families and can accomodate 4 people. There is a double bed downstairs and 2 matresses on the floor on the mezzanine (difficult access through a ladder). But it seems that nobody cleans the mezzanine because it is full of dust! And we had the same feedback from all our friends.

In conlusion, this hotel could be a real gem. The surroundings are great and far enough from the noisy part of the city, the Thai style of the cottages is nice.
However it is really not properly managed and certainly not as a 5-stars hotel. It is DIRTY everywhere (chairs in the dining rooms, windows in the royal villa, forks and spoons...).
The only professional person we met was the public relation manager, a very nice lady.

Anyway, this hotel badly needs a real manager who will check the cleaning and all the details that you can expect at this price.