Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Yesterday a party of 12 of us, arrived at the Merit Royal for the buffet lunch. As we had not pre booked (have never needed to before) a member of the party went to the restaurant at 12.30pm to ask about a table. The lunch time starts at 1.00pm He was advised that we could have a table at 1.15pm.We went to the foyer area and ordered drinks, which we eventually got at 12.55!
At 1.30 a waiter(the one who had taken the booking) and a lady (the restaurant reservation's manageress) came to tell us that we could not have a table!! as they were fully booked!!to say the least we were not amused and asked why we had sat for 1hour,before being advised of this.To say an argument took place puts it mildly. It turned out that we should have pre booked, OK, but we said if we had telephoned at 12.30 would we have got a table,answer possibly!!
We asked to see the hotel manager and an underling arrived after a while. Instead of taking a member of the party into a private office to discuss, it was discussed in full view of other hotel guests and became a little heated. If this is the actions of a so called 5 star hotel , then God help them!!
Whilst we were finishing our drinks the underling came back and said we could have a table between 3- and. 3.30, .the lunch menu finishes at 3.30!
The lady in question offered to give me her business card, so that NEXT time we could call her to make a reservation. In her dreams, it will be a long time before I even consider returning, if ever.
There was NO offer of any apology, at any time.
On our way out, I did promise her FREE publicity, but advised it would not be good publicity, N Cyprus shrug!!!
This is only the first stage of the FREE publicity.
We went to Silver Rocks and had a wonderful meal, good food, friendly service and reasonably priced.
Ps NO we did not pay for our drinks!

In the winter we went a few times on a Sunday & had magnificent lunches. in March we just turned up as normal but could not get a table because 'we had not booked & the hotel was full'. However when we tried to book for the next week we were told we could not.
I think they are glad of our custom in the winter but not in the Spring/Summer

Not been going to the royal for a while now as they do get full with casino guests but use the old merit for the lunchtime menu which is cheaper and much better food and service and with your glass rarely empty.

We went about 6 weeks ago and would have to say the service was abysmal, waited about half an hour before the drinks waiter acknowledged our existence for the main course we were told to place an order and someone would bring it suffice to say it never appeared and when we went to find out whatt was happening the grill had closed (we had arrived for lunch at 12.30 and it was now 3pm!!! No not 5star by a long way but I suspect they don't really care.

Easy to sort out,send an e-mail to their head office,put it on Trip Advisor and put it BTT here.

So glad to see the PS Owl Lady, as that was my train of thought

During the Winter we went to Merit Royal for quite a number of Sundays, but about 6 weeks ago apparently they stopped non-hotel guests from either booking in advance or just turning up as the hotel was full. It usually is now that the weather has improved, with guests from the Middle East and Turkey. They should have publicised this in the press but sadly didn't. I don't know what the situation is in the evening though? The Italian Rest. is mediocre I believe and the a la carte menu looked a bit boring and non descript. Sorry you had such a bad experience Owl Lady. We'll certainly be going back in the Winter. We think the extra 10tl you pay for the buffet at the Royal is worth it, over the original Merit (can't remember what its called!!)

sophie wrote:...over the original Merit (can't remember what its called!!)

'Merit Crystal Cove' - if memory serves me right...

Other than the trivial issue you have explained was everthing else OK

where is this merit royal
and is it only 10tl for buffet really?

johnny1, No it not just 10tl - I did say "extra". But Merit Royal is ( certainly was during the winter) 10tl more than Merit Crystal Cove and Merit Platinum next door (or Premium or whatever) is 10tl more than the Merit Royal. The most expensive one doesn't allow children under 12 in the Hotel.

Sophie it is Premier! Kibkom is the first step .Facebook, Trip Advisor, Cyprus Today and a letter to the "Top". Glad to read that we were not the only ones to have had poor service. Thanks for your comments.

Some friends and I went to the Merit Royal for the buffet just before Christmas. We were met by an officious young lady who condescendingly told us as we hadn't booked she wasn't sure if the restaurant was full or not. She came back to say they could fit us in, we waited around 30 minutes before the restaurant opened, went in and found the place almost empty. Not a good look for the Merit Royal although the service, once we were in the restaurant, was fine. Some Merit staff should have a bit of training in customer relations.

cooper wrote:Other than the trivial issue you have explained was everthing else OK

My humour

Ah Ha, do I feel there will be reprisals here and a mysterious amount of "False" bookings during the next winter season - lol.

ham on brown, great comment , I like that kind of humor, it's sort of comical sarcasm.

Sorry to hear people have had a bad time at The Merit. But it is a large organisation and I suppose realistically at this time of year we are small fry.

Is ıt just me thınkıng thıs???....12 people turnıng up unexpected for a lunch??....AND you expect a table ?.Surely ıt ıs good manners to phone and book a table?It looks as though the Merıt dıd ıts best to fınd a table.....My opınıon ıs that ıt ıs the fault of the 'angry 12' not to have the courtesy to phone and tell Merıt at least they were comıng.

Mikelapta: We have been with a large party many time and NEVER had to book. The" officious young lady" that Mobry referred to, is the one we saw. Seems there is only a problem when she is there. Never seen her before!!
Ham on brown: I liked your comment and also the suggestion from Waddo of pre-booking, in the Winter, what a good idea,!!! thank you

Personally speaking I would never contemplate eating out without first making a reservation, common sense dictates!

We had booked and the service was still very poor

May I humbly suggest that if someone does write a review, say on Tripadvisor, that they have it translated and entered also in Turkish, Greek and Russian?

Owl Lady, I can see that you may think that protests are called for, although I have enjoyed a couple of Buffet meals at the Merit Royal - in large groups - always pre-booked...

I would ask you to 'count to ten' before doing anything more drastic, as I don't think that making bookings which you do not intend to honour will help yourselves or any other Expats. If you do succeed in 'punishing' the establishment, and annoying them enough, they may decide to refuse all bookings by non-residents, or maybe just those requests from Expats, if the callers are identified as such...

If you do start such a campaign, and it backfires in this manner, you may well find that the ire of other Expats is directed at you, rather than at the Merit group.

Whilst you may feel rightly that you have a good reason to feel unhappy, now that a few days have passed and hopefully the anger has diminished, why not return to the hotel and ask to see the manager or the lady who caused the issue. Perphaps by returning and having a calm, rational conversation in private may help both sides understand where things went wrong? Just a suggestion.

The last 2 postings make good sense. So good luck Owl Lady and I hope you can get satisfaction from talking with Merit.

I can only speak as I find and I have been many times (not for the buffet) I am always impressed.

Keithcaley; it would appear from an earlier posting by Sophie that that are not taking booking from non guests in the summer anyway!!!
I agree that in the past we have enjoyed the buffet, My gripe on this occasion is why did it take 1 hour to tell us it was full? Surely a look in the reservations book would have told them that at 12.30 and saved the subsequent hassle? We admitted that we had not booked! and were told we could have a table at 1.15pm WHY?

Owl Lady wrote:...WHY?

I'm not arguing with you about any of that.

They were, it appears, in the wrong.

I just don't want you to go and do something that you'll regret.

What Posh suggests, is the right way to go about getting a resolution.

If they refuse to talk, if they won't apologise, if they won't come up with a way forward, then tell the whole world about it, by all means.

You know that they were wrong, I believe you, so does everyone who has read this.

Try to find a solution, to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

But don't resort to childish pranks!

No matter how mad you feel!

Keithcaley: it was not me personally that spoke to the manager and the little Rottweiler, but my friend and her husband. I will pass your comments to them!