HL Paradise Island

The worst hotel I have ever stayed in.

Even giving this place one star feels too generous. This was, without any doubt, the worst hotel experience I’ve had in all my travels around the world. Nothing else even comes close.

Let’s start with the food.

This hotel is advertised as being family-friendly and ideal for children. Naturally, you would expect a wide variety of meals suitable for kids, with plenty of choice. Instead, there was almost no choice at all. The food was absolutely terrible. This hotel clearly cares about quantity, not quality. There may appear to be lots of food available, but in reality there’s almost nothing worth eating.

Considering how many guests stay here, it’s shocking how poor the food is. The flavours were awful, the desserts were disgusting, and the overall quality was horrific. I’ve honestly never experienced food this bad in any hotel before. I regret every penny I spent on this all-inclusive package because I ended up eating out almost every day. I wouldn’t recommend this food to adults, let alone children.

The second major issue was what happened in our room on the second night.

I woke up in the middle of the night because I felt something crawling on me. When I turned the light on, I saw not one but two cockroaches. One had been crawling on me, while the other was on the bed. I was sleeping with my wife and our daughter. I panicked and tried to kill them, but they disappeared under the bed and into other hiding places before I could catch them.

I was extremely stressed by this, so I immediately went to reception expecting someone to help. Instead, I was completely dismissed.

I explained everything, showed them photos, and they simply didn’t care. They told me not to worry because the cockroaches “wouldn’t hurt me.” But I came here to relax on holiday, not to spend every night worrying whether another cockroach would crawl over me while I was sleeping.

This happened on the second day of our holiday, and from that moment I couldn’t wait to go home.

The staff’s attitude was awful. They treated the whole situation as if it didn’t matter. I even asked to change rooms, but they refused and said there was nothing they could do.

From the second day until the day we left, I kept seeing cockroaches—either in the bathroom or running around the living area. I barely slept for the rest of the holiday. The only decent sleep I got was on a sunbed during the daytime because I was too stressed to sleep in the room at night.

The room itself wasn’t properly cleaned either. Everything felt dirty and neglected.

The children’s entertainment was another huge disappointment. The shows were boring, repetitive and completely uninspiring. Even as a 40-year-old adult, I couldn’t believe how poor they were. It honestly looked like they were putting in the absolute minimum effort just so they could say they offered entertainment.

The hotel was dirty overall. There was a bad smell in many areas, the swimming pools were poorly maintained, and there was even human faeces floating in the pool that nobody seemed interested in cleaning up.

On our very first day, there were drunken fights. During our stay, the police were called three separate times because of fights taking place between midnight and around 2 a.m. It certainly didn’t feel like a relaxing family resort.

I’m honestly shocked that anyone gives this hotel five-star reviews. They seriously need to rethink what they’re rating. I am not a particularly fussy traveller, but even if I tried to be generous, I couldn’t give this hotel more than two stars.

I paid for an all-inclusive holiday, yet I spent most days hungry because the food was so bad that I had to eat in restaurants outside the hotel.

If I had the opportunity, I would ask for a full refund. This wasn’t a holiday—it was a week of stress, frustration and disappointment.

The reception staff were unfriendly and dismissive. They smiled when they had to, but when guests actually needed help, they simply didn’t care.

This hotel claims to be a four-star resort, but from the bottom of my heart, I believe it deserves no more than two stars, and even that feels generous.

Finally, the name of this hotel is completely misleading. It’s called “Paradise Hotel,” suggesting that you’ll feel like you’re in paradise. After what I experienced, I would never call this place Paradise Hotel.

I’d call it “Survival Hotel.”

Between the cockroaches, the terrible food, the dirty facilities, the poor customer service and the constant stress, this was one of the worst travel experiences of my life.

Avoid this hotel at all costs.

nfortunately, our experience fell far below acceptable standards, especially considering the amount we paid for this holiday.

From the moment of our arrival, we encountered several serious issues. There was no toilet paper provided in the room, nor were there any basic toiletries such as soap or shower gel. This lack of basic necessities was extremely disappointing. On the first night, we discovered bugs in the bed, and in the following days, we found large bugs in the bathroom as well. This created an uncomfortable and unhygienic environment for our family especially for our girl that she was afraid to sleep as she has fobia for bugs particularly concerning as we were travelling with a small girl. Additionally, the overall cleanliness on arrival and maintenance of the hotel were not satisfactory. The bed sheets had visible stains, the furniture was damaged, and the pool was not cleaned on a daily basis as expected. There were also no proper facilities or conditions available to do laundry. Another major issue was the food. The variety was extremely limited, and the same meals were served every day. As a result, we were forced to go into the city multiple times to eat, as our baby could not eat the repetitive food provided. Furthermore, no drinking water was supplied in the room, which is a basic expectation. Also on first day when we arrived we requested a feeding bottle to be filled in with milk and the answer that we got back from the restaurant staff was that it is a supermarket on site and we can go to buy from there. One of the evenings I had to wait for about 10 min just to get a straw. After speaking with 6 staff members and being ignored I went to reception where I complained that everyone it is ignoring me and finally a straw was provided from the bar beside reception. As per the pictures, the kettle was unusable, fridge was rusted and could not keep anything cold as the door was not closing. We had to go daily to shop as we couldn’t keep the mild cold enough to be used second day.

Given all of the above, we believe that the service and conditions provided were far below the standard advertised and not reflective of the price we paid. We have documented these issues with photos and videos, which we are prepared to provide as evidence. We submitted a complaint since a week and nobody came back to us ! My worst experience ever!

I am writing this in the 2nd day of a 10 day stay. I read the review with trepidation and was dreading my stay. However, I have been very pleasantly impressed with both the hotel and amenities. Yes I agree with previous reviews it’s not a 4 star as advertised but it is good value, the food is fantastic and the staff very helpful. The clientele let the place down but don’t discount it. It’s a cheap and cheerful and a good base for exploring. There’s plenty of walking and the local volcano is a must in the mornings. Our room is basic but has the necessary facilities we need. I don’t think some of the previous reviews do it justice. Don’t come expecting a four star experience but the staff are fab and they’re trying hard. Some of the people are quite rude and spoil the experience for other holiday makers try to see past this and I am sure you will have a good time.