Just returned from a week

The hotel has an excellent location in Plakias. Facing the beach, beside the restaurants and the supermarket. You have the main building of the hotel, as you would see in the brochure. They have however extended the hotel and there is a separate building to the left of the main building. This block is situated behind a restaurant (not related to the Alianthos) and there is a street/alley that runs between the two blocks of the hotel.

The staff of the hotel are very friendly and want to encourage you to use the restaurant for your main meal if you are there only on a bed and breakfast basis. Although we received a discount for using this restaurant (which has a great view of the beach) we found that the prices were still slightly dearer than the other restaurants in the town. We didn't find the food as good either. The main irritating thing with the restaurant was how long it would take you to get your bill after you asked for it. However, this seems to be fairly common in Greece. The head waiter in the restaurant was a pleasant man but would insist on standing in the doorway at the front of the restaurant inviting in passers by. This meant he was standing near our table for much of the time and every time we looked up from our meal we always seemed to catch his eye. It felt like your were being observed whilst eating. The entertainment consisted of live traditional Greek music and dancing. Very good, I'm sure but not really for us. The manager of the hotel was irritated that we did not attend and even more irritated that we soon stopped using the hotel restaurant and starting eating in the town. I remember walking past the outside of the restaurant on our way towards the town when the head waiter said hello and shook my hand. With the handshake he attempted to pull me into the restaurant. Interesting way of getting customers.

The hotel room was quite good. But the beds as well as having wooden headboards also had a wooden part at the foot of the bed. This means difficulty sleeping for anyone 6ft tall who likes to stretch out in bed as the wooden footboard (if that is the correct word) stops you stretching out. Satelite tv is provided but the only English channel is BBC world news. Picture quality a bit ropey. Air conditioning free but the noise of the motor so loud that sleeping with it on was difficult. This may have been just the air conditioning unit in our room. Bathroom incredibly small. Traditional Greek plumbing requires soiled toilet sheets are put in the pedal bin by the side of the WC. Cleaner very good and bin emptied every day. Bathroom only 6ft X 21/2ft approx. Far too small. No shower base, but floor drain. Very awkward to shower even though shower curtain could be pulled round. Showering normally resulting in toilet rolls be soaked and me catching myself rather awkwardly on the door handle. The window in the bathroon opened from the top at an angle of 45 degrees. It opened far too wide and anyone walking past could have looked in the bathroom. Also anyone walking into the bathroom was in danger of hitting their head on the open window.

The room key has a brass keyfob that must be inserted into a special fitting in the room so that you can use the electricity. (except Fridge which is always on.) This was irritating if you came back to the room at night as you had to put this key fob in its hole before you could switch on a light. It also meant that if you were out you could not leave the air conditioning on to keep the room cool. Easy answer to take key of key chain and fob. More difficult than you would think because key chain very thick.

Overall I would say by Greek standards that the quality of this hotel is very good. The location is its best feature. It could not be better placed for the beach and shops. The staff are very pleasant but when we did ask twice if they could fix the drooping shower head and once if we could have another chair for the balcony as we only had one they did not sort out these problems. Pleasantness counts for little if requests are not sorted out. I prefer a surly assistant who sorts out problems to a polite one who sorts nothing out.