Mark Warner Phokaia Beach Resort in Foca

I stayed at the Mark Warner in April. It was a disappointment from the very beginning. I arrived at the airport at midnight and the transfer was not there to pick me up, even though it had already been prepaid. After several contacts with the hotel, an emergency driver was arranged. I arrived at the hotel in the middle of the night. At the hotel, while the staff were generally polite, very few spoke English. They would hold a smartphone up and rely on translation apps. For breakfast, I did appreciate the chef’s eggs. Best regards

My partner and I visited the Mark Warner Phokaia Beach Resort and both suffered from food poisoning due to major food hygiene issues. On the first day I witnessed a fly laying eggs on seafood sticks and at most mealtimes we saw flies landing on both cold food (including cooked meat and cheese) and hot food (including pizza). Hot food was not kept suitably hot; even when we arrived for lunch at 12:30 and dinner at 19:30 most food was lukewarm, including meat and fish. Sushi, with rice, was not kept refrigerated and had candles surrounding it. As a result of having food poisoning we were confined to our room for a full day (with the world’s worst WiFi) and couldn’t leave the resort for the duration of the holiday. We ate nothing but bland food and even that didn’t improve our symptoms. I have never experienced this sort of illness before, whilst abroad or in the U.K., with symptoms lasting the duration of the holiday and continuing when we got home. After my partner became ill on the second evening, I spoke to a member of the Mark Warner management team the next morning. She displayed very little empathy and was clearly not pleased at my mentioning of food poisoning. When we got home I contacted Mark Warner customer services to inform them of the food hygiene issues, as we were concerned that other people would suffer in the same way we did. We had the misfortune of having our complaint “dealt with” by Gordon, head of customer service. I have never in my life experienced such shocking customer service. His emails were rude, dismissive, and exceptionally arrogant. There is too much to mention here but essentially he categorically denied that the resort has any food hygiene issues. He said that there were no flies around the food because they have an “air conditioning vent” that stops them coming in. He also said our illness could be explained by the fact that “mixing meats” causes an upset stomach in British holidaymakers. For context I am pescatarian. Both myself and my partner have eaten food in hotels abroad many times, including in Turkey, and never been ill. We spent good money on a holiday where we couldn’t make use of the facilities, enjoy the food, or leave the resort. If you’d rather not get food poisoning on holiday, avoid Phokaia Beach Resort. If, in the event of experiencing any issues on holiday, you’d like your concerns to be dealt with professionally and satisfactorily, then avoid all Mark Warner holidays. (If a member of hotel management or Gordon responds to this review, please take what they say with a massive pinch of salt as they will be desperately trying to cover their own backs)

This is supposed to be a family friendly resort and it feels like you are in Ibiza. You cannot have your balcony doors open at all and when closed it is still intrusive. The demographic doesn’t fit the playlist. Spoiling an otherwise splendid complex.