I stayed at the Melas hotel 16-30th May with my partner. We are a couple in our forties and travel extensively so feel I have enough experience to draw comparisons. I have written a honest review of the place as I found it.
Firstly we had a great holiday and I don’t want to detract from that with my improvement points.
Check in was smooth. We were allocated a family room for two of us which had ample space and a separate loving area although balcony was small which didn’t bother us. The room was kept immaculate for the whole stay and air con was adequate.
The layout of the hotel is great, despite the size of the place you never seemed to be more than a few minutes from something. Tip - the pool at the hotel is quiet with few kids around during the time we was there. The pool at the holiday village is busier with music playing and regular activities. There are fridges with water in scattered around the place.The grounds are beautifully kept and a pleasure to walk round.
The location of the hotel is perfect for a half hour walk into Side harbour and what the old town offers. The glass fronted lifts around the hotel are efficient and offer the chance of views over the resort which is nice.
We didn’t take in much of the evening entertainment having seen most of the acts at various hotels previous but the outdoor disco night was worth a visit at the holiday village and the live music was of reasonable to good quality. 11:30 am is aqua aerobics time at the main pool and hearing the young lady count to 8 in German solidly for best part of an hour each day did get a bit tiring. Not sure there is the need to shout as loud as she did. It became a bit of a joke by the end of the fortnight with other couples we spoke to. The afternoon lady was much quieter.
As per previous reviews the staff make this place. 95%+ are friendly, all are hardworking in very hot temperatures and are a credit to the hotel.
When we booked this hotel through Thomas Cook it was a 5* it looks like it has been downgraded to 4.5* for this season.
I can only conclude this is around the food aspect which for us was the disappointment of the holiday. As I said I travel extensively for both work and pleasure and have stayed in many 4.5 and 5* hotels. The buffet restaurant gave me the impression they were trying to control costs. The quality of the food was fine, I never had anything cold but the variety for me was akin to a 3.5-4* based on my travel experiences. When I speak of variety I am referring to the main aspect of a meal. Usually on 5* hotels I’m deciding what meat to have with my salad as it is plentiful. At the Melas you were extremely limited to choice. One grilled/roast meat on per evening and maybe some chicken wings. Also the fruit always the same each day. Water melon grapefruit and orange cut up with select others out. We were there two week and strawberries came out on out last day. I believer they had them out on a Saturday but we were eating out. The challenge I had with the buffet is we eat late. Around 09:30 for breakfast and 20:00 for evening meal. I complained to head waiter after 4 consecutive days there was no croissants left at 09:30 and breakfast runs until 11:00. This was temporarily resolved for two days but returned back for the last few days of our holidays. We had resorted to pastries as they had problems with the cooker so only one pan on for omelettes so the queue was 10 minutes wait. This did get fixed before we left. Evening meal had its own challengers eating at 20:00 clock. On moe than one evening I had soup as a starter but there was no white bread left and wasn’t replenished despite evening meal running until 21:00. Now I know some of these points may seem trivial but when it’s one or more repeated day in day out it becomes annoying. We book 5* to avoid these issues but the attention to detail and control around the buffet was inadequate for the level of the hotel. We stopped at the sentido perissia a couple of doors up on our last visit and the buffet food was head and shoulders above the Melas. We made this statement on our second day.
In contrast to the buffet We ate at three a la carte restaurants (Western/Eastern/Turkish) all of which were excellent service and food.
We found the beach bar More relaxing for lunch as it is table service rather than buffet and you can watch the world go by.
The pool bar at the holiday village also had self service food on all afternoon and offered burgers hot dogs etc in the evening whilst entertainment was on which was a nice touch.
Overall we had a great holiday. Our only other issue was sunbed reservation. My partner went down and reserved a couple of beds around 8am. We got down after breakfast to find a German couple sat on our towels and beds. They swore they reserved them. After a heated 10 minutes in which they refused to leave we established that some guests are bribing night staff to place towels on their desired beds when the bar shuts. It transpired this had happened on the beds we reserved but it had rained during the night so the pool cleaners removed the towels around 7am only for us to then reserve at 8am. You then spent half an hour trying to get some clean towels as the towel exchange wasn’t manned despite it being opening hours and resorted in me going to reception who then tried to charge me two euros for replacing my stolen towels which I refused to pay. All of this could be avoided if the hotel enforced their own policy around sunbed reservation. Another little point on what’s missing from a 5* perspective.
Despite these niggles we had a great holiday. The hotel layout, rooms, cleanliness and people make the hotel. This could be a very good 4.5-5* hotel were I would happily return but I just felt it was missing some of the basics and would rate it as solid 4*. Would I return? If the price was in the region of similar 4* then yes but if priced as a 4.5-5* then I’d probably go elsewhere.
Any questions please feel free to ask. You
