False change of linen and water in wine: how Turkish and Egyptian hotels save on Russians

After analyzing the complaints of tourists, the experts of the domestic online booking service named the most common tricks for savings used by hotels in places of mass tourist pilgrimage. Turkey and Egypt took the first place in terms of the tricks used – perhaps simply because there are more mass Russian tourists there, and more people – more complaints.

– Tricks for that and tricks that are not striking, – comment on the top list of hotel tricks in a Russian travel agency that sends to Turkish and Egyptian resorts. “But the guests feel them for themselves. For example, delays in check-in – for several hours, it seems not fatal. The waiter is offered to use the pool and bar for the time being at the expense of the establishment, but during these few hours the hotel accepted a surcharge from those who did not want to check out half a day before leaving for the airport. And there are a lot of such trifles, every employee of the hotel business knows them and every hotel uses them – the only question is to what extent.

But what tricks are most often applied to guests from Russia. Most of them are common to both Turkish and Egyptian resorts, although there are some specifics.

Dip and wet your throat – the trick under such a working name won a landslide victory, the majority of the votes of the vacationers. These are the same check-in delays that we have already mentioned. Often travelers remember that “checkout” – the release of the room and, accordingly, the reception of his hotel to prepare for new guests usually occurs at noon. And the settlement of new arrivals, as a rule, from 2 to 3 days.

– This interval provides sufficient time to bring the room in full order, – says the Russian woman, who worked in one of the hotels in Kemer during the summer season. – But you can make money on it, which administrators do. They ask those who have too long a gap between check-out and departure to the airport (and this is almost all Russians, since tours with inconvenient departure times are significantly cheaper), do they want to extend the room for an additional fee? And everyone who has some cash left after the rest, as a rule, does it. Nobody wants to hang out in the lobby for several hours with suitcases waiting for the bus. Especially if they were already so sticking out on the day of arrival. Turkish administrators with experience have a trained eye, they immediately see from whom they can take too much and how much. And at the end of the term, the guest and his wallet are generally an open book for them.

According to the ex-employee of the Turkish five-star hotel, the price of the issue depends on the personality of the administrator on duty, therefore it varies. The new arrivals, meanwhile, are vaguely referred to as “circumstances”, suggesting, for the time being, that they “dip and have a drink”.

“That is why in the lobby you can so often see wet and drunk tourists sitting near the pool with suitcases and glasses,” confirms the presence of this economic trick on the Egyptian Riviera, a Russian woman who worked in a summer in one of the hotels in Hurghada. – And they pour garlic in such a way so that they don’t buzz, and then they wonder why they were so smartly “taken away” on the first day, and then they drank “wine like water” all week.

From this revelation follows (in the most literal sense) the second most popular oriental trick, common to the all-inclusive hotel segment of both Turkey and Egypt – water in alcohol. Almost all alcoholic drinks from the “all inclusive”, according to the complaints of Russian tourists, are diluted so generously that it is felt from the very first sip. But complaining is useless and it is not clear to whom exactly.

– Yes, there is such a thing, – admits the Russian woman, who worked in the Turkish “all inclusive”. – But there are two big differences, who exactly “de-bodied” alcohol. If this is a scheme at the level of the hotel administration, then the manager will look pitifully and disgustedly at the Russian complainant – they say, what to take from you, drunks – and promise to “sort it out”. And he will confirm this intention with a glass of something undiluted, so that the tourist will sharply become kinder. And if water is poured at the level of bartenders, then it is generally unprovable here, unless you call an examination directly to the bar. This glass he diluted, and the next will pour as it should. Bartenders have also become good physiognomists over the years of work, they see with whom it is possible to cheat, and with whom it is better not to mess with.

Egyptian hotels, according to reviews of both vacationers and employees, are also not far gone in this sense:

“I have been going to Hurghada for 15 years, with a break only for the cancellation of flights to Egypt after the disaster in 2015 and the year of the pandemic,” says a Muscovite who loves the Red Sea. – A few years ago, alcohol was also diluted, but carefully, only a very connoisseur of the degree could find fault. And now it’s so brazen that you can see it not only by taste, but by color. And they don’t care, they know that we will come anyway, we won’t go anywhere.

– Yes, alcohol is diluted, – the employee of the Egyptian hotel admits. – Especially in hotels where the majority of Russians. But this is presented to us not as theft, but as concern for the Russians, who already drink a lot. And after drinking, they get rowdy and often cause damage to hotel property – they destroy furniture and that’s it. We have to call the police, and such an incident is minus the hotel. The tourist arrived and left, and then the hotel is reminded of the “oversight of the guests.” The owners have to wear “baksheesh” officials.

But the water in arak (the name of vodka in Turkey and Egypt), according to the reviews of hotel business workers, does not particularly save Russian guests from the love of the green snake: they go to the nearest supermarket for drinks that are normal in strength, and return to the place of accommodation to “blow”. Among the other “economical” hotel tricks common to both popular rivieras are a false change of linen (saving on laundry, they just go through the used steam generator), food and the pool are not available all the time, but strictly by the hour, check-in to a room with a view of the wasteland (with to demand an extra charge for a sea view – about $20–25 in both countries) and other fees of the same kind – for example, a “free trip on a tour” to a factory or a store, during which it turns out that the hotel paid for the road only there, and back yourself, as you wish. As for the “purely Egyptian” trick, this is a transfer to the nearest pharmacy or supermarket. If on the Turkish coast the infrastructure is always somewhere near the hotel, then on the Egyptian coast the nearest pharmacy can be “20 km through the desert”, which is actively used by both the receptionists on duty, offering a transfer at a triple price, and local taxi drivers. A “purely Turkish” trick, sometimes turning into outright arrogance – overbooking. When more tours are sold than there are rooms left in the hotel, and the arriving guest is already there, he is faced with the fact that he will be relocated to an institution that he did not choose.