Very Disappointing Stay – Not the Family-Friendly 4-Star Hotel Advertised
I am Greek myself, speak fluent Greek, and live in Sweden. Throughout our entire stay, I spoke only Greek with all the hotel staff, so there could not have been any language barriers or misunderstandings. Despite this, I never felt that my concerns or complaints were taken seriously.
The only staff who deserve praise are the bar staff, who were always friendly, helpful, and respectful. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the rest of the staff, who, in our experience, were rude, dismissive, and uninterested in helping.
We stayed at Hotel & Village Panorama in Agia Pelagia for one week on an all-inclusive basis with our two children, and the hotel did not live up to its description as a family-friendly four-star hotel.
On our first evening, the hotel knew that we would be arriving late, yet the meal waiting for us consisted of dry chicken, hard-boiled eggs, a few lettuce leaves, and dry bread, which gave us a very poor first impression.
The hotel is advertised as family-friendly, but the bar is located in the middle of the hotel complex, and loud music was played almost every evening until around 1:00 a.m., even though, according to the hotel's information, bar service ended at 11:00 p.m. The rooms are also poorly soundproofed, making it difficult for both us and our children to sleep.
The hotel has four swimming pools but far too few sun loungers. Guests were already reserving loungers with towels as early as 6:00 a.m., even though the pool area did not officially open until 10:00 a.m. When we raised this issue with the reception, we were simply told that we could do the same. Furthermore, the hotel stated that the pools were heated, but throughout our entire stay they were cold, and it was obvious that they were not heated. This was a major disappointment, as it was one of the reasons we chose this hotel.
In our opinion, the food was of very low quality, repetitive, and nowhere near the standard expected of a four-star hotel. As a Greek, I was also surprised that the hotel served virtually no traditional Greek cuisine.
We also experienced problems when ordering a cheeseburger for our youngest daughter. I placed the order directly with the hotel manager and made it very clear that it should contain only ketchup and cheddar cheese. After waiting 40 minutes, we were served a burger with BBQ sauce, lettuce, and an additional meat topping that we had not ordered. When I pointed this out, the manager tried to claim that I had never said that, despite the fact that we had been speaking Greek the entire time. After waiting another 30 minutes, we finally received a new burger, but by then they had run out of cheddar cheese, so it contained only ketchup.
The housekeeping was also far below the standard one would expect. I had to go to the reception almost every day to ask for our room to be cleaned. Even though we were four people, we were often left with only three towels, despite mentioning this several times. The floors were not vacuumed properly, and sand was frequently left on the floor and even in our children's beds after our visits to the beach.
We also noticed that the water from the drink dispensers in both the restaurant and the bar appeared to be ordinary tap water, which led us to buy bottled water throughout our stay instead.
During the week, we also spoke with two different taxi drivers on two separate occasions. Both spoke very negatively about Hotel & Village Panorama and the surrounding area, saying that the hotel is known for serving cheap food and offering low quality. That was their personal opinion, but it matched our own experience very well.
In summary, Hotel & Village Panorama did not live up to its four-star rating or its description as a family-friendly hotel. The only positive aspect of our stay was the excellent bar staff. The rest of the experience was marked by poor service, inadequate housekeeping, low-quality food, cold swimming pools that were advertised as heated, excessive noise late into the night, and an overall feeling that guests' concerns were not taken seriously.
We will not be returning and, unfortunately, cannot recommend this hotel to other families.