A honeymoon destroyed

The pictures and reviews online of the Setai Sea of Galilee seemed amazing and the price of the hotel was just too good to pass up.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Setai Sea of Galilee (photo credit: Courtesy)
Setai Sea of Galilee
(photo credit: Courtesy)
It was supposed to be a short but perfect honeymoon after getting married during the coronavirus pandemic: A private villa with a private pool at a luxury resort on the shores of the Kinneret, which is at its highest level in 16 years. 
The pictures and reviews online of the Setai Sea of Galilee seemed amazing and the price of the hotel was just too good to pass up.
The Setai Sea of Galilee, one of the many resorts operating under Jordache Enterprises, the same conglomerate that owns the Herbert Samuel hotel brand, raised the bar for hotels on the low-key but very popular Kinneret when it opened in June 2017.
When guests pull into the property they are greeted with a lovely lobby that opens up to a view of the Kinneret and an infinity pool to one side and a lounge area on the other where guests can gaze onto the country’s largest lake while sipping on cocktails or other alcoholic beverages.
The hotel, which has dozens of private villas (some with private pools and some with Jacuzzis) stretched along the 6-hectare property, also has a spa offering guests pampering packages with massages and pampering treatments such as facials as well as a gym facility and another lovely pool.
The main dining room serves three meals a day, including a complimentary breakfast buffet, which has a wide variety of hot and cold dishes, breads and other baked goods.
The Setai was closed during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and only reopened shortly before Shavuot at the end of May. It even hosted Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi when it reopened.
In a television news report and on its Facebook page, the hotel explained how it has taken a series of steps to adhere to the stringent guidelines set by the Health Ministry to prevent the spread of the deadly virus while allowing guests to enjoy a “relaxing vacation and perfect experience.”
But, unfortunately, for dozens of guests who spent their post-coronavirus vacation at the Setai Sea of Galilee on the last weekend of May, the reality was quite different.
On their website, the hotel offers guests a check-in time of 4 p.m., and if you make the reservation over the phone, guests are told check-in is at 3 p.m., but they could even come before that as rooms would likely be ready earlier.
When we arrived at the hotel, instead of being greeted by a feeling of relaxation, it was one of chaos.
There were dozens of couples, pregnant women and elderly as well as several families with young children waiting for their rooms. All the guests were told by hotel staff that they could enjoy the public pool or lounge until their rooms were ready but no time or even estimation of when the rooms would be ready was given.
But after the COVID-19 lockdown, do people really want to convene en masse in a public area where many would not be wearing masks nor adhering to social distancing? Many had booked the hotel for its capacity to stay away from others.
As time passed and guests still did not receive their rooms, tempers began to flare in the lobby. A manager was called in to speak with guests, and like other hotel staff, he was not wearing a mask and could not provide any answers.
After several hours of waiting, some until 7 p.m., guests got their rooms. But the problems didn’t end there.
Not only did the villas not provide the views promised (I paid for a Golan view but was given a villa with a view of the garden; another couple paid for a Kinneret view but could only see a tiny sliver of blue from their pool), but many of the rooms had not been cleaned.
Several guests were greeted with bags of trash outside their rooms, empty minibars, dirty sheets, pillowcases and towels, bugs in the rooms and more. I realized only the next morning that I had slept on sheets with what seemed like urine stains, and even after the room was cleaned, the same stain was found in the same place. The sheets in a luxury resort had not been changed.
The Jerusalem Post learned that despite the number of private villas on the property, there was only a handful of cleaning staff working and they had been given less than an hour to clean each villa.
Due to the continued concerns surrounding the coronavirus, guests were also given the opportunity to get their lavish breakfasts delivered to their rooms, in a picnic basket. But couples who took the hotel up on the offer waited close to an hour from the agreed upon time and when the food arrived, it not only arrived cold but had hair in the food and no utensils.
In the dining room, while staff did wear masks, dozens of unmasked guests crowded the room and some even took food with their own hands instead of using utensils.
Though several couples complained to the management, many did not receive any explanation for the chaos and lack of cleanliness. The hotel told the media, which subsequently reported on the situation, that guests had been compensated for the experience, but I haven’t seen any of it, and I spoke to several other couples who didn’t receive any compensation either.
We checked out a night early and instead drove to Tel Aviv to stay at the Carlton for the last night of our honeymoon. There my husband and I were greeted with a bottle of Champagne as the sun set over the Mediterranean.
The hotel manager of the Setai Sea of Galilee refused to comment to queries from The Jerusalem Post.