Hello everybody, we got back from Greece recently and stayed at this hotel in Fira, Santorini and were, to say the least, not too impressed. This is not a post that requires you to answer, its more so that if people look for info on this hotel they can find it. And I admit before anybody points it out to me that we do have our share in what went wrong just by simply believing their website and answers over the phone...<BR><BR>Here our feedback: We had made the booking beforehand, over the Internet, giving our credit card number as a guarantee, and were supposed to stay for 4 nights there. Next thing I know, the hotel has taken a deposit for the first 2 nights already from my card, 2 days later - and 2 weeks before going. Without notifying me. I only found out by coincidence. Bad start!<BR><BR>Once we got there, we reckoned they have a good reason for doing so - it is so inferior to all expectations they raise that had you not paid for 2 nights already you would probably leave right away. It sells itself as being in the center of town, "close" to restaurants and shops etc. and when making the booking, I had specifically asked for a room with a balcony with view to the sea and the caldera - assuming from its false publicity of "being in town" seaside necessarily meant caldera view.... Given that, we thought the 90 euros per night for a double might be justified and went for it.<BR>Well, the hotel is quite outside the center, and it takes a 10 minutes walk (upwards) to get to the center. When the car left us at the place (they do send a car to pick you up from the ferry for free) before we hadn't even seen any form of urban activity we couldn't believe it - a bit in the middle of nothing. So there goes the Caldera view as well... Our room had indeed a balcony, and a view to the sea - but to the East shore of the Island, nothing really worthwhile contemplating.<BR>The rooms were ok, but the whole place had this feel of "newly put there without having had the time/ressources to really finish" over it, for instance we had a fridge and a dining table in the space supposed to be the kitchen, but no other kitchen amenities like dishes, sink etc. there was an empty space which indicated that at some point there must have been the intention to have an oven.<BR><BR>The worst was the service: the owner of the place - whom we had emailed with before and who had been so keen on getting our money before we even got there - was never there, and there was nobody really at the reception for answering questions. The teenage son of one of the cleaning ladies hung around and could be asked to bring towels, but that was it. The only other staff were 2 cleaning ladies who hardly spoke English - and I probably would never comment about this being an inconvenience in any other hotel but here these were the only 2 adult members of staff of the so-called HOTEL. And they did not make an effort on service either. We asked for some bottled water (they had a card in the window next to the pool saying:"Coffee and drinks sold") and she said she didn't have any right now but there was a supermarket 2 minutes away (true) where we could buy water. - no comment - <BR><BR>Again - had I paid 40-50 euros a night and was expecting a simple place renting out apartments and no frills, I would not be disappointed, but these people call themselves "Hotel" (B category, which is quite good for Greece).<BR>After 7 pm there was no staff around at all and the reception was closed.<BR>Summary: definitely not worth the price they ask for, ok rooms, bad location, bad bad service (if any) - the kind of place where you feel so directly that they are just after your money and do not provide anything remotely comparable to quality service or stay in return.

Blue Sea Suites ? never heard of... must be new!

You were in Greece, why should they speak English?

Indeed, why should they? <BR>Greece's first "industry" is tourism, and hotels are getting a big share of that income. Would it be too much to expect at least 1 person at the hotel to speak a language that would make communication with their guests possible? Maybe... still, I wonder whats the percentage of visitors to Greece that actually speak Greek - what do all the rest of us do? <BR>And - do you only travel to places where you do speak the language?

No, but I don't get upset when they don't speak English. <BR>It sounds like they were not ready for the travel industry to come knocking at their door.<BR>Things can't always go your way, my dear, the world is a big place.