Europe Hotel & Casino – Huge disappointment in Sunny Beach

First holiday of the year!

Scratch that, first holiday since September 2020 so you can all guess how eager I was about the trip.

After seeing Spain and Portugal fall on the red list for Covid, we have decided to remain close to home in case something comes up and we need to get back quickly to Romania.

So, we picked Bulgaria and Sunny Beach for our trip, in a way crossing our rule of never going to very touristy places for the summer holidays.

Before starting my review I want to tell you that I been quite a few times to Bulgaria(Bansko, Banya, Veliko Tarnovo, Pyce, Balchik, Nessebar and also visiting places like Bolata, Kaliakra and Tyulenovo) so by no means is this review conclusive for Bulgaria or Bulgarian tourism.

We scouted the internet for quite a while until we settled on a hotel and booked a room for 8 nights in Sunny Beach.

The name of the hotel is Europe Hotel & Casino.

We have selected a room with one large bed and sea view and communicated to the hotel that since we are coming by car we will reach the hotel late at night(23:00 hours).

Days passed and after a 6 hours trip we checked the car at the hotel’s parking and proceeded to the reception.

We checked in, gave our papers for verification and took the card to the room.

And that’s where things didn’t go as planned.

We entered the room and to our surprise, the room did not have sea view.

Yes, the sea was on the right but in front of our eyes lay a small amusement park and other hotels.

To make things more unpleasant, no sign of a bed, instead we had 2 small beds, glued together with quite a big split between them.

We got down to the reception and asked for the room to be changed since none of the things we saw on the site and paid for was there.

But tough luck, we were told that the hotel is fully booked and there is no way we could change the room.

Unfortunately for them, I had the idea to search for a room on booking and as you can see there were at least four other free rooms available.

So I consider I was lied to when I was told that the hotel was fully booked.

I asked to speak to the manager but since it was 23:30 I was told that this is not possible and I could see the manager the next day(Saturday).

I left 3 messages on the booking app to the hotel telling them about my disappointment and that I request to speak to the manager right that night(Friday night)

On Saturday morning I came down looking for the manager and I was told that Saturday is his day off and I can look for him on Sunday.

So I consider that I was lied again when I was told to look for the manager on Saturday.

I went to the beach and started requesting live chat to booking so I can file a complaint and on the beach I noticed that the hotel’s positioning did not allow for sea view rooms.

The hotel is perpendicular to the beach and all the rooms face the sea only to one side(90 degree angle).

Days passed(Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)

On Wednesday evening(around 20:30) after chats with booking’s representatives i received a message on the booking app from the hotel telling me that they are sorry but all the rooms are like this and they are sorry.

I responded telling them that sea view was the main reason why I picked the hotel since i wanted to do some time lapses from my balcony(sun rising over the sea in Bulgaria) and that i was very disappointed.

10 minutes later I received a phone from the reception asking me if i wanted to see another room but I declined for two reasons.

1. 5 nights have passed and we only had 2 more days on our holiday and it was 20:30 hours and was tired and did not feel like moving.
2. All rooms have the same view and even if i was moved to the first room near the sea, my view would still not have been “sea view”

On Thursday afternoon I received a bottle of champagne, glasses and fruits from the reception but I chose to return them.

While I do appreciate the gesture, I think that talking to me sooner(like Saturday, Sunday, even Monday) would have left me more satisfied.

You have to understand, this was the first holiday I took with my girlfriend in 10 months or more and I really had some expectations and unfortunately things went in a disappointing way.

The second problem was that of the bed.

We have asked for one bed and got 2 small ones.

On Saturday morning the hotel staff brought to our room some sort of mattress, cover to put over the two beds so that we won’t feel the gap.

However, even though we welcomed the mat, all the sheets, blankets, etc were for one bed, not two.

So they sat awkwardly on the bed, couldn’t anchor them under the mattress and due to night unrest, they kept coming off the bed.

The hotel tried to help here but i think that this is another big omission from their part.

They don’t have large beds, just beds stuck together and as much as I want to overlook this, it is not the same thing.

Also, we noted a couple of small problems to our room or the hotel but I don’t consider them capital, when comparing to my biggest problems but i will list them anyway:

1. Coffee. There is no water heater in the room so in the morning I had to go down 9 floors, wait for the restaurant to open and pay 3 leva for a coffee.

The price is small but the whole process takes time.

In all of the 4 star hotel I was in, rooms had small coffee machines where you could make yourself a coffee in the morning.

3. Beach hanger. All beach hotels should have small plasticky or metal things where you can hang your clothes to dry after swimming in the sea or the towels to dry. My room did not have such a thing. I had them in Balchik, had them in Nessebar but not here
4. The toilet had a small leak so when I was flushing the water it always dripped a little on the floor.

4.same thing for the shower.

My reason for giving the hotel review 2 stars is the hotel’s restaurant.

The people there were extremely friendly, caring, the food was very OK and for 16 leva/person you could have dinner from the buffet.

So, without the restaurant, my hotel review would be just one star.

I guess this pretty much covers it.

The first holiday of the year(and probably the last due to covid cases rising) was a disappointment but i guess when you travel a lot it was bound to happen at one point or another.

Unfortunately for us it happened at Europe hotel & Casino in Sunny Beach!