The carpet in the hotel corridors was stained, with marks visible on every floor. There were cockroaches—though it is a warm climate, other hotels typically use sprays to deter insects. The food was repetitive; the same items appeared at breakfast and dinner every day, just under different names. The indoor pool was out of use, the Jacuzzi had been removed, and the table tennis setup consisted only of a table, with no equipment provided. For four consecutive days, a very loud alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., waking the entire hotel. It turned out to be a technical fault that the maintenance team failed to fix; instead of getting a good night's sleep, we were forced to wake up at 6:00 a.m. each day, as the piercing, ear-splitting alarm made it impossible to fall back asleep. Our room wasn't even cleaned every other day—I intentionally left some lint on the floor to see if it would be swept up, but it wasn't. We had to personally request fresh towels. The food was "European-style"—bland and uninspired, though at least it didn't cause any food poisoning. The coffee, dispensed from a machine labeled "Jacobs," was clearly not the genuine brand and was extremely watered down.