"⭐ 1/5 – Beautiful sea, but the hotel does not feel like a 5-star property
We have just returned from a 12-day stay at Mitsis Summer Palace, and unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment for us.
We also stayed here in 2019 and remember that holiday very positively. That good experience was actually the reason we decided to come back. This time, however, it felt like a completely different hotel.
To be fair, not everything was bad.
🌊 The sea – 5/5. Beautiful, crystal clear water with plenty of fish to see. The beach has Blue Flag status. Beach towels were always available and there were enough sun loungers. The beach facilities themselves, however, need some refreshing – there were visible stains, dirt and bird droppings.
🍴 The Med – lunch 5/5. Definitely our best food experience during the whole stay.
🛏️ Room – 3/5. We knew that the standard room dated back to 1997, so its age was not a surprise. The air conditioning worked and we had a mountain view, so the room itself was acceptable.
The problem was the housekeeping. After two days we left a note asking for room service. When we came back, basically only the bed had been made – no towels replaced, no floor cleaned and not even toilet paper replenished. Only after contacting reception was the room properly cleaned.
The minibar was replenished only once during our 12-day stay, despite the information stating that it should be replenished three times a week.
🏨 The condition of the hotel was the biggest disappointment.
The contrast between the newer rooms and the rest of the property is enormous. Once you leave the room, you see old and heavily worn corridors, marked walls, old lifts and neglected common areas. The main restaurant also clearly needs renovation.
We had the impression that an old hotel had been combined with new rooms and the whole property was being presented as a luxury 5-star resort.
🏊 Pools.
The infinity pool looks impressive, but if you do not claim a sun lounger at around 7 a.m., finding one later can be difficult. At the other pools, however, we repeatedly saw empty loungers.
At check-in, the receptionist strongly encouraged us to use the infinity pool, even though he confirmed that we could use the other pools as well. The way he presented it made us feel like guests of a lower category who perhaps should not be using the other areas. This was especially strange because we later repeatedly saw empty loungers at the other pools.
👩💼 Service – the biggest negative of our stay.
There were only three members of staff we remember particularly positively: the lady serving breakfast, one of the housekeepers and the gentleman working at the lobby bar in the evenings.
At reception, we often felt that simply approaching staff with a question was an inconvenience.
The service in the à la carte restaurants was even more disappointing. On many occasions, we felt that English-speaking guests received much more attentive service than guests from Poland, the Czech Republic or Slovakia.
English-speaking guests were approached again, asked whether everything was good or whether they wanted anything else. With us, the service often seemed to stop after taking the order and bringing the food.
In the grill restaurant, I had an empty wine glass. The waiter did not ask what wine I was drinking and simply poured white wine, even though I had previously been drinking rosé.
An especially unpleasant situation happened at The Med. One of the Guest Relations staff members approached several other tables and spoke with the guests, but repeatedly ignored our table. When walking past us, she actually turned her back towards us. We did not expect special treatment, but this behaviour was simply very rude and noticeable.
🍽️ Food – a huge disappointment.
The choice in the main restaurant was limited and very repetitive. Meat very often meant chicken, while fish and seafood were practically absent. For a hotel on Kos claiming this standard, we expected much more.
Towards the end of our stay, even basic products such as cucumbers and tomatoes were sometimes missing at breakfast, and eventually there were no olives at all.
Some dishes looked more like cafeteria food than restaurant food. I have a photo of the Alfredo pasta, which looked more like pasta served from a bain-marie than a proper restaurant dish.
There were also dirty cutlery, no pepper on the tables, cappuccino served in a glass without a handle, and water served in a glass containing visible contamination. On another occasion, there was a hair on the coffee/crockery. We have photos of these situations.
Water was also an issue. After being given one glass during a meal, nobody came back to ask whether we wanted more, and bottled water was not freely available.
🍹 All Inclusive Plus?
The snacks were very poor. The “24-hour buffet” in the evenings was, in practice, mostly leftover food from earlier meals. The “Plus” formula did not feel particularly different or premium to us.
The main issue is that we are not complaining simply because the room was old. We knew what type of room we had booked.
The problem is the combination of everything: poor housekeeping, worn-out infrastructure, disappointing service, the feeling of unequal treatment of guests, repetitive food and problems with basic things such as water and clean dishes.
We expected a standard consistent with a 5-star hotel and an All Inclusive Plus package.
We did not find that standard here.
Our positive experience in 2019 was the reason we came back, which makes the disappointment even greater.
The sea is fantastic and Kos is beautiful, but based on our experience, the hotel itself deserves 1/5.
Before booking, I would strongly recommend checking not only the photos of the new rooms and infinity pool, but also what the rest of the property actually looks like."
