Guest User
June 21, 2024
We booked the 'Presidential Suite' for 2 nights after a wonderful stay at Eliamos Hotel and Spa on Kefalonia, what a mistake! As seasoned travellers who like to stay in wonderful properties we were very disappointed - this accommodation is not 5 Star and does not warrant the room rate. Our first experience was a cross looking man at the gate who was trying to tell us where to park. He didn't speak any English and we aren't as arrogant to assume the world speaks our language BUT as a first point of contact for guests maybe have a welcoming, smiling member of staff with some English. We arrived early and asked for our bags to be stored until check in, the hotel kindly advised that the suite was nearly ready and offered us breakfast, not expected nor necessary but welcomed. We were eventually taken in a golf buggy to the suite, our hearts sank: - the interior furnishings were old, dated and looked a bit grubby, - the suite smelt like it hadn't been used for a while, - there was an odd mismatch of outdoor furniture. The huge sunbeds had cheap plastic covers which meant they got extremely hot, - the parasol was ridiculously small and had clearly seen better days, - the fixed benches had not been well maintained, paint chipped off and ants under the cushions (I expect some ants but not to this degree), - the concrete into the pool also had not been maintained, - we had to ask for the pool to be cleaned, - the jacuzzi was broken, - part of the roof had fallen down and had not been fixed, - electric wall sockets were hanging out of the wall, - the electric opening/closing curtains did not fill the windows, allowing early morning light in, - the showers were poorly finished. The pictures on their website were clearly taken a very long time ago and are not a true representation of the suite. We love dogs but the constant barking from the village below was too much, as were the 15-20 flights a day passing overhead as they came into land. Not at all peaceful. The staff are really lovely but how they are taught to attend to guests is too regimented. The host at breakfast couldn't cope with our simple request of pushing 2 tables together for the 3 of us to sit at, and made us feel quite uncomfortable with a restaurant full of people looking on (the restaurant did have tables for 4 but had stupidly low benches which were impossible to eat at). We expressed our dissatisfaction to 'management' (not entirely sure who was who because there was so many of them). They got the pool cleaned, advised dinner in the buffet restaurant was on the hotel and accommodated our late check out but they weren't really interested... we were not their usual clientele. Thoroughly disappointing.