Gerakas Belvedere Hotel & Spa

My wife had previously stayed at this hotel with friends and was keen to take me, mainly because of the peace, the rural location & the beach. I was well aware that it was not a 5* hotel & have stayed in Greece before. Our flight contained a very disruptive/aggressive passenger who was sitting very close to us. Police boarded the flight on arrival; we were quite shaken & arrived at the hotel at 9.30pm on Saturday 9th September after several hours of travel. It was raining & a storm was due. We mentioned our scary flight experience during booking in, "well your holiday starts here" was the response & we were handed our room key. I asked where the bar was as a drink was desperately required, to be told that it was closed because of the rain. I asked if I could have one beer to be taken to our room, to be added to our bill, to be told that it could not be provided as the bar was closed. It's a hotel, surely a drink can be obtained at 9.30om in a Saturday night, but apparently not. We accepted this, deciding that a cup of tea in the room would suffice, only to find that the room contained only a kettle & 2 cups. I returned to reception & asked if we could have 2 teabags & milk, to be told that this had to be purchased from the shops by us. It's now 10pm, dark, raining & no shops are closeby. I was too weary to argue but could have wept to be honest. Later the receptionist brought a couple of teabags & a cup of milk to us. Not a great start & it set the tone. We visited the outside bar on 4 evenings after eating out & found George unpredictable to put it mildly. If we went to the bar to be served he told us it was table service. If we sat at a table we eventually had to go to the bar to be served. We gave up trying. We only drank soft drinks around the pool but the staff behind the pool bar never cracked a smile. Breakfast was quite basic & the room was run by an excellent, motivated young male who also worked in the bar at night, although in the evening he was supervised by George. Our room was quite basic but acceptable. The area is beautiful & there are nice places to eat out but the hotel was underwhelming, especially our "welcome".

This hotel appears to have no one managing it or a owner in charge.. .. We are a retired couple who booked Half Board through TUi for two weeks. We chose the hotel as it was in a quiet location and being accessible to a number of nearby beaches, with a walk of about a mile. First impressions, nice location, attractive appearance, good decor and clean. We are not people who like to moan and although we have stayed in a number of hotels abroad before none of them had as many problems as this one. On the booking form we had requested a high room in a quiet position. We were shown to a room on the same level as the swimming pool overlooking the car park and some conifers. The reception staff (who were courteous) we approached three times to see if we could be relocated, didn't get back to us after speaking to the manager. Although we had a two week stay no one came back to us to talk about our request. The staff both in reception appeared to not have any leadership and this was also the case in the dining room, with the one/two waiters struggling to cope with the large number of tables. The room had a damaged fly screen on the patio door, a kitchenette cupboard door which fell off and wasn't repaired, a faulty kettle which needed to be changed, and bathroom floor tiles which became very dangerous when wet. The day before we left I mentioned to the reception staff at about 3.30 p.m. that our room had not been visited the bed not made and the bin for toilet paper waste had not been emptied, I also told them again at 9.30 in the evening but they said that the staff who undertook that had now gone of duty. This was not sorted. The waiters in the restaurant said on a number of evenings that the rose wine had run out and this also happened at Breakfast time drinks with there being no tea bags and no cups . Both at Breakfast and in the evening there was only three salt and pepper pots for about 35 tables. A single waiter on duty had to cater for about 45 to 50 people for the requirements of the evening Buffet meals . If this hotel had a manger they must have been hiding in an office somewhere, if an owner was in charge they must have already gone to spend their winter in Monaco.

Been to this Hotel earlier this year, they must be getting something right. Have read other reviews, we totally agree with some of them. New family members are taking over to upgrade the hotel as it is very tired, like the present owners. The food was generally 2 out of 5 with the old chef. Our 2nd week, chef was replaced due to unfortunate circumstances. EVI their new chef, who was a member of the staff stood in to replace the past chef. WHERE HAS SHE BEEN HIDING - Beautiful Greek cooking, throughly enjoyed it - BIG THANKS EVI. Management, you have your New Chef !!