Oleander Hotel

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The Oleander Hotel, Side, Turkey. OK. This hotel, like the region as a whole is overwhelmingly German, Dutch and Russian. Being English is a bit of a novelty and makes communication with the staff VERY difficult at times, although some staff are better than others.
The hotel is large and tastefully designed. The public areas are clean and well serviced. The Rooms are a bit basic - no pictures on our walls to make it homely but again it was kept clean by a wonderful maid who turned our sheets into swans, hearts or shells. The air conditioning in the rooms is fab! NOTE...you need to turn the air con to the temperature you want AND hit the mode button to a snowflake to get it to chill properly. TV isn’t up to much - the only English channels are BBC Prime and BBC World.
Food... Large selection that looks good. I decline to comment further on this. Draw your own conclusions.
Bars...beach bar, pool bar, restaurant bar, and saloon bar. Not a huge choice of local alcohol - plenty of basics - beer, wine, spirits etc but no whiskey and few liquors etc etc. Selection of soft drinks is ok - coke, fanta etc etc.
Pool(s) can get crowded but very clean. Sun beds have cushions but there WAS a charge for pool towels while I was there despite the brochure saying otherwise.
Beach... busy busy busy. Clean and warm sea. Nice for a walk in the evening
Entertainment. Basic. It’s meant to be 'international' but is geared towards the Germans. Heard the kids club was hard for English kids because of communication difficulties. Cinema in hotel - again mostly German films although they do show key sporting events.
Overall. Not bad. Just not to my taste. The brochure says its luxurious - it isn’t. It’s doing its best to cater for hundreds of people and it gets noisy, busy and a bit slap dash - chipped glasses etc. It could be very, very good if the hotel got its act together somewhat. Room for improvement but not a disaster.