The sea view junior room was stunning, very comfortable beds with automatic blinds. The free standing bath feels very premium. Pools are beautiful, loved the call bell beside each of the loungers a very nice touch and the views are amazing. Staff were very attentive and food was very tasty. We enjoyed the 50 euro set dinner was superb, and breakfast was a similar lavish affair. If picking a room I’d opt for the front sea view junior rooms again and we will be back.
My girlfriend and I stayed here in early September. We had booked for 6 nights but ended up leaving early as we just got fed up with the consistently terrible service and attitude from the hotel. We arrived at about 3:30pm, so after check-in time. They gave us a bit of a talk about the hotel and a glass of bubbles and all seemed good. They told us we would be waiting 5 minutes but actually it turned into about 40 minutes with no information. Eventually a club car took us to our room, where the cleaners were only half way through cleaning our room. It was a shambles. The club car driver who spoke English seemed embarrassed but just left our bags and left, while we stood on the balcony wondering what to do about the two cleaners who still had to clean our room. I later had to chase reception to have coffee pods and water delivered to our room. The pool area is fantastic but too busy. We were told the hotel was at 50% capacity due to Covid but I just don't see how that can be true. You simply couldn't get a sunbed at the pool unless you arrive very very early. Some other guests we spoke to said that the hotel staff recommended they get to the pool before 7am to reserve a sunbed! One or two days we did manage it and on the others we found sunbeds looking over the sea, away from the pool. Service at the pool/beach is desperate. There were one or two waiters/waitresses but they were just far too busy. I lost count of the number of times I ordered drinks which didn't come and had to go to the bar to chase, or I just couldn't get hold of any staff to take an order. They have buttons on the tables by sunbeds to call staff over but you may as well ignore them. First night we used the shower and it flooded the room - in fairness they did fix that quite quickly. Breakfast - shambles. Literally nothing good to say about it. It was just a free for all. I get that Covid has made it difficult and they have to deliver everything to your table rather than buffet self-service, but the organisation was laughable. Every single day food would arrive cold, or with something missing and just getting coffee quickly was never possible. The staff had too much to do. One morning in particular we arrived to breakfast and there were dirty plates on almost every table which didn't have guests sat at it. We eventually found a table and endured the usual calamity where we had to ask about 5 times for coffee before it arrived, but it was very clear that nobody was properly in charge. As is often mentioned, the hotel advertises heavily via influencer marketing. They are clearly paying these people to post their pretty pictures all over social media and tag them. I note the review below from Holly Walker - she was there while we were and The Abaton was continually sharing her instagram posts about being 'in paradise'. Holly was clearly being paid to be there or had been given a free stay or whatever - there is quite a lot of that going on. My girlfriend left a review shortly after we returned and the hotel replied saying that we didn't leave early due to poor service but for personal reasons. Absolutely laughable. After 4 days of poor service at every level I went to reception and said we wanted to check out the next morning and I wanted a refund for the final night which we had already paid for. After the usual delays while the reception staff answer the phone a few times while trying to deal with you, they asked me to go to breakfast and come back. I did that and after more phone calls I explained that the service was bad and we were disappointed. In actual fact we had decided to go back to The Royal Marmin Hotel in Elounda which we had stayed at for 3 nights before arriving at the Abaton - absolutely incredible there by the way. The reception lady didn't seemed fazed at all and I gathered that we were far from the only guests complaining - we had spoken to a family at breakfast that morning who also had lots of issues and were having a hard job dealing with the hotel. All in all - don't believe what you see on social media. The best thing I can say is that the hotel as a place is really really lovely. They just need an entirely new management strategy and some actual order and 5 star service. I wouldn't go back.…
Great place and location. Very quiet but also close to the center ( 5 minutes by taxi, it costs only 7 euros one way). The food and the service to the bony fish restaurant was outstanding. In general, the staff were so welcoming. We wouldn't hesitate to go back to Abaton, it was a brilliant and unexpected surprise
Just come back from the beautiful island of Crete. My girlfriend and I booked a room in Abaton Island, when we arrived there a bit early in the morning after a cold welcome from the staff of the reception we informed that we had to wait until 14:00 to have our room. We got the room at 15:30 after waiting for a long hours. The room was fantastic, we booked a Thalassa Deluxe Seafront Guestroom, and then the problems was just starting. The air-condition was not cold enough and the shower was blocked, we reported to the reception but until the next day was not fixed. The Buddha Bar was tasty but too expensive, the portions was small and loud music until late at night. The main Bar was also very expensive. Too many Instagram and Facebook influencers where very annoying during the day. The stuff was very kind but looked very tired and the service was not for 5 star hotel.…
We have recently returned from a 9 night stay at abaton island. The hotel itself, grounds and location are stunning, however we did have a few issues with the service during our stay and based on this we would not class it as a five star hotel. First impressions were not great. It took forever to check in, we were told our room would be ready in 10 minutes then a few minutes later we were told it would be another half an hour. During check in the lady was constantly answering the phone, which we found very rude. We were not given any information about the hotels facilities on check in, which I would expect from any hotel, even more so a five star hotel. Once we had checked in we went to the beach area and ordered some drinks. It took a while to get served, and it was not until the 3rd time the waiter returned that we received everything we had ordered. Not what we wanted after a long journey and delays at check in! During the rest of our stay we sat around the pool rather than at the beach, where the service was much better, although still not what you would expect in a five star hotel. Paris deserves a special mention, he was the only one serving at the pool and was rushed off his feet trying to provide the best service he could. The white double beds in the pool have to be reserved and require a minimum spend of 150 euros. We were not told about this on arrival and it took 2 emails and a WhatsApp message to the concierge to find out how this worked. Breakfast was hit and miss, the food was good but things often didn’t arrive together or even at all. It seemed to depend who you were served by. We requested a late checkout which we were told would be 110 euros until 5pm, when we declined we were told we could keep the room until 2pm for no charge, which we were quite impressed with. We would return to abaton island as most of these issues were minor (although annoying) and did not really impact the enjoyment of our holiday. …
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