"Giving this hotel a 3 * review as I believe it is being mis-sold as a Five star resort. To be fair, it is a perfectly reasonable hotel, but it is not worthy of a five star rating. Whether that be five stars internationally (which it definitely isn't), five stars for Greek hotels, or five stars when compared to other hotels marketed by TUI. I feel that to achieve a 5 star rating by whatever measure, there are too many things missing, or corners being cut. Here are a few observations (although by no means an exhaustive list):
There is no table service either at the poolside, terrace area, main bar or restaurant. This is an absolute given for a 5* rating in my experience of other all inclusive package resorts.
Whilst there are three "al-la-carte" restaurants, being only able to use one a week is a poor show. Even when you do go to them, the food is the same as in the main restaurant in most cases, just less of it, and with pretty shoddy service from some members of staff. Asked what came with the tsatsiki starter - "Bread!" came the curt reply. "Pitta bread?" we asked. "No - Bread bread". And then after a plate of tsatsiki was dumped in from of my wife (with no bread appearing) she had to ask twice for it before it arrived. The Asian restaurant was OK, the Greek one I thought was very poor (didn't try the Italian as we were only allowed to go twice in our £12k family of 4 fortnight!). Similar priced Hotels in Mexico booked through TUI had multiple al-la-cartes, and you could use them several times a week.
The general upkeep of the hotel looks a little rough around the edges, even though it was said that it had had a major renovation in 2025. Away from the main pool, the pool areas of the rooms with the terraces backing onto the private pool were totally neglected, rubbish built up and were sometimes left overnight to then fester in the morning heat.
The cleanliness of the rooms was mostly OK, but we never saw the maid do much more than a quick tidy up in our room. The same single long black (pubic?) hair on the wall of our shower was still there after two weeks! We've stayed at hotels of the class this one aspires to where the rooms are far better equipped, mini bars stocked with soft drinks, beds are turned down every night and the place is spotless.
The bars have a very limited menu of "inclusive" drinks. There is a good selection behind the bar, but much of this has to be paid for as extras. I do like a Negroni, but despite Campari, gin and house vermouth all being on the inclusive list, to have them mixed together with a slice of orange means an 8 euro bill! When I pointed out how ridiculous this was to the bar staff, they agreed and thereafter the "House Negroni" became a thing (shout out to Aristea and Ardian in the main bar). Similar hotels in this class have a far wider selection of premium alcoholic drinks on offer, and bottled wine (not the horrid stuff they have here on draught - the red comes with a head when poured!).
The food in general is a mixed bag - Breakfast is extensive but the "bacon" is sliced and fried wafer thin ham. If you make yourself a pot of tea, you then have to search around for milk and get it from the cereal counter. However, whilst they'd be hard pressed to muster a "Full English" there was a pretty impressive array of other breakfast goods on offer. Other hotels at this price point (and indeed below) would normally seat you first and bring your choice of drinks freshly made to your table rather relay on several bean-to-cup machines to do the heavy lifting. Lunch we seldom bothered with in the restaurant, preferring a sandwich or gyros from the very good poolside creperie and souvlaki shack. Dinner in the main restaurant is the usual scrum familiar to all who frequent such places. Massive selection of salad and cold dishes, hot food had mixed reviews - full of promise but joints of meat were typically overcooked and dry, local dishes lacked authenticity as nearly all the catering staff are South Asian, and it all just lacked punch and flavour. The theme nights were better than the non-themed in our experience. Plus point - no-one got ill - the place is very clean. The waiting staff however, are far to eager to get tables cleared. Dining solo at breakfast time you couldn't leave your half eaten plate on the table to go and refill your drink, as by the time you got back it would have gone and the table been reset. Whilst this means that finding a free table was generally not a problem, you had to take some sort of item with you to leave on the table to mark it as still in use for fear of losing your plate. A 5* hotel's waiting staff should be able to tell the difference.
Ultimately, whilst most of these points could be deemed "first world problems" it is attention to this sort of detail that separates the 5* hotels from the rest, and this hotel has some work to do, it's just quite a way off yet.
I suspect the fact the Roda Beach has its own water park (kids loved that!) is what is adding points that take them over the 5* threshold. But it doesn't make up for the slightly shoddy experience. Note the swimming pools are mostly salt water and whatever chemicals they add to them, everything white that comes into contact with them turns yellow.
Final note, the hotel does seem to cater largely for a French clientele (about 70% are French, with a mixture of other Europeans and Brits making up the rest) and a lot of the events on offer seemed to be only for them. One person we met said their kids had wanted to take part in a darts event only to be told by a French rep that "this is not for you!". The French even have their own wrist bands - go figure. Whether the events are hotel organised or run by their tour company, I'm not sure.
For anyone who is still considering it please note some other points (although these are out of the Hotel's control):
- The photos of the beach may look like there is crystal clear blue water around it, but if you like snorkelling, forget it. The water is not actually very clear and we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces.
- If you've not been to Corfu (or this part of it) Roda town is a 15 minute walk along the beach but is a bit of a dump. So is Sidari, further up the road.
- if you book a trip to Corfu town, or anything boat related that starts at the port in the town, you're looking at at least a one hour trip each way.
- If you go on the trip that says it's going to the Austrian Empresses palace, it's shut for renovations at the time of writing - you can only get to walk around the gardens.
So would I go back? Probably not, but then I seldom go to the same place twice. Would I recommend it? Not at the price we paid. There's far better out there at the same price (or less) for way superior service, standards, decor, amenity and food & beverage quality in a nicer location."
