Astir Beach

The condition of the hotel is impossible to categorize - I gave one star (a star it doesn't deserve) so that people don't think I forgot to give a rating: 1. DRINKING water - running at sink and shower! You can't brush your teeth! Does it come straight from the sea? 2. The furniture is excessively old! Probably 1945! See attached pictures! 3. The rooms are too small! I asked for the 3 bed room, and they put another 180cm bed in the 2 bed room! There is no room to get in the room! 4. No care for the furniture! Fallen doors, missing doors...!!!!! You have never seen anything like this in your life! 5. Radio with 3 channels! Probably channel 1-Europa Libera, 2-Zakynthos Radio, 3-Radio Hotel. You've never seen that in your life

On arrival we were sent to the hotel next door for one night because they said they had issues with the booking system (not unusual given the other reviews). They agreed to offer a lunch to apologise, this was appreciated. We were asked to check out the day after at 11am but our room in Astir Beach was not ready yet, so we were asked to come back later, i.e. we had to wait for a few hours without a room. There was a charge of 3€/day to use the sunbeds/parasol in the swimming pool. This was not reported in our voucher nor is mentioned on the hotel website. As such charge is unusual across all hotels we have visited in Europe and because we were with no room, we made a complaint to the manager. I mentioned that such fee was unfair and unreasonable because it had to be clearly and explicitly advertised to be compliant with the European consumer law and EU’s Misleading and comparative advertising directive, it’s the hotel responsibility to make sure that travel agents inform clients of such uncommon charges. The manager refused to make any further offer to apologise for the inconveniences caused and said that it was fine for the matter to be reported to the Police. In talking with 112, it came out that according to Greek law every place with a swimming pool must have a lifeguard on site. This was not the case and therefore a Police patrol promptly visited the Hotel. This is certainly not the family-run business willing to offer relaxing and enjoyable holidays as they advertise on their website. The manager showed no interest in sticking to the Greek value of hospitality, philoxenia. Hence the obligation to leave a negative review. Wifi is quite poor and intermittent, especially in the room. We had to move between reception and pool to find connection for a short time. Room furniture is outdated and there is no high shower head holder. There is a charge of 7€/day to use the sunbeds/parasol in the beach. Food and drinks served via buffet in the restaurant were reasonable and offered a good variety.

excellent value for money

As soon as we arrived to check in, we were told our rooms were not ready yet and that for the first night only we had to stay in a different hotel, Astir Palace Hotel. This is obviously not how we wanted to start our holiday. To top it off, when we went to check in again the next day (as instructed) and our rooms were still not ready until 4pm so we were roomless for 5 hours as check out in Astir Palace is 11am. If you are booking all inclusive, it's very limited. You have to pay for cocktails and the drinks you do get are very watered down and served in plastic cups. We also experienced the cleaners entering our rooms whilst we were asleep and walking around our rooms collecting towels and cleaning which was very uncomfortable. Just to make our experience even better, there was an incident at the pool one night in which a few young individuals were involved. As a result of this, the hotel decided to stop serving drinks to under 25's even if you have booked all inclusive. We spoke to the manager of the hotel about this and there was no understanding or no mention of us getting any monetary compensation.