Houria Palace Hotel

everything about this place is diabolical , food i would not even give to my little dog .nearly everyone who we spoke to had made several journeys to the local pharmacy, diarrhoea was pumping out off everyone . entertainment well that is a joke the french and germans must have sad sense of humours thats all i can say . rooms poor only good thing was the air conditioning . balcony was in need of a rub down and repaint .all tv channels were either french german or arabic we could not even get a news channel.the beach was poor , the horses i felt really sorry for they were lame and showed signs of under nourishment ,poor things. its the only holiday i have been on and lost 3 pound in weight. dump.....

We went on a allocated on arrival deal to Houria palace the hotel is situated in a perfect location walking distance to the Marina and supermarket and right next door to the AQUA PARK which is absolutley fantastic(if your room is facing the park then it can be slightly noisy as they play loud music from about 10 am but i actually enjoyed the music.The only thing missing in the room is a fridge which u can pay locally and tea making facilities/hairdryer. The town of Sousse is also very close and has a wide variety of restaurants ,bars ,and shopping medina. The hotel has good facilities and the food was great a wide choice of salads soups mains and desserts and snacks at the bar and bistro are good just make sure you give yourselves plenty of time in the bistro as the service is slow (food is made fresh and can take some time) The staff do try their best to keep all ages entertained they have a mini disco every evening for kids and later entertainment for all and in the day they many activities for all ages. I would definatley go back to this hotel the staff were friendly and made a great effort.

when i read the others reviews i couldnt believe it, we had such a fantastic time! me and my boyfriend went here for a week and loved every minute and dint want to come home!! The rooms are clean the whole hotel is was clean and the stuff were so kind and we made good friends with them! people have said that the staff are rude and annoying but they are just trying to get you invoveld with the games and for you to have fun, if you tell them no they will leave you alone! the food was ok but do not expect and english breakfasts or steak!! i would say this hotel is best for young couples and familys!! we will be definatly coming back to this hotel!! it was fantastic!!

After reading the reviews about this hotel..i thought for a minute i had stayed in a dufferent hotel. I had no problems with this hotel at all. Ok its not a four star hotel by Irish standards..more a three star, but i have stayed in so called 4 star hotels before in other countries and they were far from 4 star standards also!! I stayed in the horia palace for a week....friendly polite staff...made good friends with them. My room was clean, all towels changed every day...bathroom cleaned etc....loads of space in room and a lovely balcony! Food was good..very good evening meals..cant complain...breakfast was also ok. The food at the bistro at lunch time was also very good. The pool facilites (2 pools and kiddies pools and indoor pool) were lovely and there was loads of space and all was clean etc. The hotel was a tad noisy in the mornings from people getting up but i didnt mind so much as it got me out of the bed and to the pool! i wasnt that botered with the laid on entertainment as i entertained myself. Not into tacky hotel resort entertainment anyway. overall houria was clean friendly and food was fine..i did meet one english couple who moaned about the food saying that it was not good enough for them and was german style, as there were lots of germans staying there....complete hogwash i say. What they expected was burgers and chips and lasagne...in tunisia!! i go on holidays for a change not for the same thing as home! and certainly not take away food as they desired!! Above all the horia was fine....now the locals are another thing entirely...their haggling and trying to nag you into their shops and restaurants will drive you bonkers!!

When I read the latest reviews before I left I was afraid this was going to be the worst holiday of my life but I was mislead. On our arrival there was a bit of problems with allocating the rooms and some people complained including me because the room I was set in was being painted but it was changed for me upon my complaint. To tell the truth the people who work in the reception are not very helpful but you won't need their help much if you are an independent traveller so it didn't affect me much. Regarding cleanliness I must say that the hotel is definetely very clean. Chambermaids work very hard though slow but the results are perfect. Bathrooms and towels are fresh every single day and rooms are tidied too. If you happen to be in the reception early as seven in the morning they will be already washing the floors and the pool areas. During my stay I was on a half board basis and so I opted to have dinner there. Believe me the food is good they have a big salad bar and another hot buffet to choose from both for breakfast and dinner. Variety from day to day is not that much for breakfast but it was every day different for dinner. On Thursday they make a delicious Tunisian night but the rest of the days you will find continental food. No one was sick from the hotel food just beware of Tunisian water because it's the only fault of sickness. Don't even wash you teeth with tap water because just one sip would give you a bad stomach. Always keep bottled water in the room. Besides tables are always clean and tablecloths are changed after every meal You can keep your table reserved every day by using the hotel pink card. In the evening there is very good entertainment, the team is warm and nice with the residents and shows vary each day. The music is a bit loud but they stop at a reasonable hour so it won't bother you if you don't have the intention to sleep very very early. This shows that the bad taste the reviews on this site gave me before I leave turned to be a nice holiday in a good hotel. It may not be a four star level but definetely a three taking also into account that for the paid paid it was value for money. I would recommend it.

Oh dear, possibly not the best hotel we've ever visited, actually probably the worst, but by actually staying away from the hotel as much as possible and finding ways of relieving the hassles, I reckon we turned a potential nightmare of a holiday around. My first impressions weren't that good, either- arriving about midnight, the desk manager gave us keys to our first room on the third floor, which after dragging ourselves up there, turned out to be already occupied. On return he made me wait in the lobby 30 minutes (whist he chatted to a friend) before sorting out another room, apparently because the facts contradicted the computer screen. At least half of the desk staff were at least morose, becoming surly throughout the holiday. The second room was similar to the first - in fact all of the standard rooms are completely identical as far as we could tell; not exactly grubby, and a bit soulless, but we were grateful that there was very effective air conditioning in each. The first night was quiet, but from that day onwards the hotel entertainment blasted out from around 8ish supposedly until 12-30. For the first week the entertainment crew frequently got carried away, raised the decibel level and played ad infinitum beyond all human endurance. I'm sure it was medically dangerous to have music played at that volume, and I'm sorry to say the entertainment was pretty dire, besides, adding insult to injury. Fact is, we couldn't physically get to sleep, with balcony windows and curtains closed, and ear plugs jammed in, the noise actually throbbed through the floor and walls. We insisted on changing rooms, and after another sleepless night, they eventually gave us the original room back. Expect continuous entertainment if you stay by the small pool, too. But the team usually work out who is and who isn't interested qite early on. If you aren't, you will be taunted as being lazy and frequently splashed with water... ho, ho, ho. Take our advice and go to the beach (by horse and cart) for sunbathing, although entertainment is replaced by streams of sometimes quite pushy food and catamaran merchants. Also, there is a lot of testosterone about amongst the men, and some blatent lechery, so be prepared with that sense of humour thingy. The food was passable, with a rotating daily menu of buffet food. I tried quite a lot of what was on offer, but if you make the effort to seek out local restaurants, you will find much better, more interesting, fresher, hotter food. Although the lunchtime pizzas are fresh. The best meal we had was a couscous dish in a tiny restaurant in Sousse. I have to say that the day before we returned home (2 week holiday) I got food poisoning - it was most likely the hotel food, simply by elimination, and it obviously spoilt the finale to the holiday. All the alcoholic drinks in the hotel, other than beer, are expensive. You will find water a quarter of the price in local supermarkets. We met many friendly open people in Tunisia by simply getting ou and around. Last advice - use the louages; get a cab to the Sousse terminus (make sure they put on the meter) and travel around as much as possible. The organised trips were expensive and brief, and it seemed safe and was fun to do it yourself. We would have moved hotel if we had thought we could, some of the other hotels looked very nice. The Houria embarrassingly seemed to be the loudest and brassiest in the entire district, but you could always find your way home in the dark.

This is NO WAY a four star hotel. Panorama are totally fraudulent in claiming this dump deserves 4 stars and we will be taking legal action against them to recover the cost of our holiday. I hardly know where to start in enumerating its deficiencies, but here goes anyway. I have two main complaints. 1. That Panorama must be negligently ignoring customer complaints and continue to mis-sell this destination. That Panorama must know full well that the facilities do not qualify the hotel to be awarded 4 stars but again continue to send hapless customers there. 2. That the hotel, apart from its material shortcomings, is very poorly managed. The reception and restaurant staff are surly and arrogant, the food is of a poor quality, is overcooked and luke warm, the whole place is tatty, the rooms are cheap and shabby, the cleanliness also leaves much to be desired. Other deficiencies include 1. Noise - the hotel is directly adjacent to a main road which becomes a traffic jam between the hours of 10pm and 2am and since the locals use their horns more than their indicators this is very noisy. The traffic noise dies down by about 4 am. 2. Spartan rooms; no mini bar, hair dryer, chairs, draws, kettle etc 3. The bathroom was never cleaned during our weeks stay, and was not particularly clean even on arrival. 4. Apart from the reception area, the rest of the hotel was shabby and cheaply decorated. 5. Insufficient sun beds, at least a dozen of which were broken and unusable. 6. No extra facilities such as tennis courts and extra charges applied for using the gym etc. The only good points were the air conditioning in the rooms, which was free of charge and worked well, and the pool areas, which were perfectly acceptable.

i have just come back from staying at this hotel for two weeks with my family. i think that the hotel has improved a bit from other readers reviews who visited it earliar in the year. however, some things haven't changed. the female staff at reception were very unhelpful and arrogant, if they had of smiled it would have broken their faces, they were very unhelpful, howver the male staff at reception were friendly. our rooms were basic but very clean and changed daily, there was no damp or smell and the maids frequently left designs in the rooom by putting our face clothes in various shapes. we were on the ground floor beside the main road which became electric at night, i couldnt sleep the first few nights but you soon became used to it. the pools were very clean and well looked after and the animation team were fun and friendly. the hotel runs a donkey and cart free of charge down to the beach to save you walking although the walk is not that far anyway, 5mins at most. the hotels main downfall is the food, it was pretty crap. it was edible but lacked variety, you ended up eating the same thing for 2weeks which became very tiring. i lost half a stone. you will find something there for you to eat, but afer awhile it becomes boring. the food served is not typical tunesian food, which is quite spicy. the waiters were quite friendly. all my family suffered from diarrhoea, and two more famillies we talked to also had the same problem. what we noticed was that the majority of people there had paid accomodation on arrival, we were guaranteed our hotel would be 4star, but the houria palace is definately not, maybe 3. it has the potential to be four if it cleaned up its act in a few places. the animation team provided a show every night which was excellent and thoroughly enjoyable. overall i had a good holiday but if youu realy have your heart set on a 4star hotel and what that woudl provide,the houria is not your palace.

We went to Tunisia in November 2004 on an accomodation on arrival deal. We arrived at the hotel at 4am so we just wanted to go to our room and sleep. We were directed to the 2nd floor down a corridoor with no lighting and the floor was covered with sheets from the painters. When we opened the room door we could get this waft of must and dampness. We said we'd try and get a few hours sleep and see our rep to complain in the morning. When I pulled back the sheets in my bed, I was horrified to see mould on the sheets and pillow. I immediately went to reception to complain. The guy at the desk gave me keys to a new room without even investigating our dirty room. This room was slightly better in so far as it had no mould, but it was definately dirty and the shower was broken off the wall. On the landing I met some people from our flight who checked in the same time as us. They were in the same boat as we were and said their rooms were filthy. After a few hours sleep we went down for breakfast. It was absolutely terrible. All that was edible was the toast and tea. At 12 we had our meeting with the Panorama rep Andine. There was a queue to speak to her after the meeting, all complaining about the hotel. Everyone that requested a move to another hotel got one free of charge. We were estatic to be moving out of this dump. I counted 11 couples moving out to other hotels as well as us. We were moved to the Sol Club Kantaoui on the beach along with about 9 other couples, while others went to other available hotels. This Hotel was great. It was such a relief to be out of the Houria Palace and huge thanks is due to Andine for arranging it. Her employers Panorama aren't doing themselves any favours though by using this Hotel (If you can call it a hotel, or a Palace!). Although we were only a few hours in the Houria Palace, it is without doubt the worst hotel I've ever been in. If you want to enjoy your holiday in Tunisia, stay away from this hotel.

We have just returned from a week's stay in Tunisia. The country itself is nowhere comparable to its Mediterranean counterparts. So, one hopes that thwe hotel will make up for this deficiency. Not if you're staying at the Houria Palace. We were shouted at by the Receptionist on our first night (instead, of politely explaining hotel policy to us!). To make matters worse, the hotel manager chose to stay in the restaurant watching people queue around the buffet rather than seeing to our needs. When we reported this incident to our local tour operator, he got offended and informed us that we wanted us out of the hotel since - according to him - it is unethical to involve one's local representative. Food is almost edible; but we will never forget our last meal . . . as the whole group (around 30 of us) got sick after we had fish for dinner. The elevators are extremely slow; and they never cleaned the 'panoramic glass' during the week we were there. If you think that they will change the table cloth after every seating, FORGET IT. You are assigned a table (the hotel 'management' decides for you which table you are to sit on), and you have no choice but to sit on that table for the rest of your holiday. If you're luck to get the pool view, good for you. We were unlucky enough to get tucked in a dull corner. The hotel in general is in a dire need of refurbishment as it's very 1980s. Drinks are expensive from the hotel compared to the outlets outisde. On a positive note, the Room Maid was very sweet. She would come up with different ways of making the bed every day . . . quite interesting. If you have kids, they might enjoy the (very poor) animation offereb by the hotel . . . but it's the same thing over and over again. After 3 days, we knew exactly what was to happen next. If you're looking for a relaxing holiday where you are papmared by hotel employees and made to feel important, than don't even consider this hotel. If you just want to sit by the pool and don't care about the level of service, etiquette, and good food, then this hotel might be ok for you. A very positive note about this hotel is its location . . . . it's only 1km away from Port El Kantaoui.