Minos Imperial Luxury Beach Resort and Spa

"Absolutely dreadful from start to finish. Arrived at Minos Imperial Luxury Beach Resort, Crete on 23 September and couldn’t wait to leave on 29 September. The hotel was certainly not 5 Star or Luxury. We were split up from our family straight away and were told they could not accommodate us being close together. Our first day was spent hanging around waiting to see the Manager, who was always too busy to attend to her guests (we were under the impression that guests should at least be acknowledged), not a chance at this hotel. The food was dreadful, same rubbish day after day. Breakfast, well words fail me and dare you as for a spoon for cereal it was almost like you had requested gold, you were given a small wooden spoon, not sure how you could have used that if you had milk on your cereal?? The drinks were awful and some of the bar staff rude and arrogant. We would never come back here again, it was a total waste of money."

"We had a 50 minute journey to the Minos imperial hotel. We arrived at roughly 22.30. Reception was lovely and check-in was smooth. When we booked this holiday, we booked as a family of 2 sisters with their husbands so we requested to be quite close to each other, we had paid extra for a sharing pool outside of our room however our rooms were very far apart and we weren’t even in the same sharing pool the following morning we went to reception to ask if we could be moved closer together to which we were told no we can’t the hotel was full. We asked to speak with a manager and was told that the manager was unavailable that they were too busy to speak with us. The reason we wanted to be closer together was because of the sun loungers which were situated just outside of our rooms were allocated sun loungers which meant that because we were so far apart we were unable to talk to each other or even see each other. When we did eventually speak with a manager, she was totally unhelpful and didn’t offer us a solution to our problem. I would like to say that this is the only problem that we had but it wasn’t, for a five star hotel the food was absolutely terrible. Not one of the meals were hot even though they were supposed to be and when you ordered a cup of coffee, you got half a cup of coffee in chipped cups. When we went for breakfast in the morning if you had cereal with milk you had to ask for a spoon because one was not provided on the tables the only thing that was there was a knife and fork you would be given a small wooden spoon. They were very protective of metal spoons and you didn’t get one. I’m not really sure what’s going on at this hotel, but the staff all looked totally miserable. None of them smiled and it was an effort for anyone to help you with anything. I can honestly say that the only cheerful member of staff that we had was our housekeeper she always had a smile on her face and did a lovely job in our room. I will say that the rooms were really beautiful, they were huge and they looked really lovely and had a great view. The hotel itself was really picturesque and it was in a lovely location and I can’t fault the hotel maybe a little with the maintenance because a few things looked as if it needed updating such as paintwork and so on apart from that the hotel was absolutely beautiful it was just a shame the staff looked so unhappy in their work. I’ve already mentioned that the food was really bad and we really didn’t look forward to any meal time and it took quite a lot of searching for something to eat that was decent even if you went to one of the bars and asked for a drink the drinks were given to you in the most obscure glasses not the sort of glass that you would have a particular drink in there were no cocktail glasses or proper wine glasses it was very odd and should you require an extra glass? The staff was not happy about it and made it known. Because the food in the normal buffet was so bad we decided to try the speciality food restaurants unfortunately on speaking with other guests we were told not to waist your money as they are quite expensive the food in these were just as bad as the normal buffet and when you did eat your food they wanted you out as quickly as possible. The staff were as much unhelpful there as they were in the actual hotel buffet. On the second week we decided to go for a little walk down this dirt path. It was down at the bottom of the hotel and we come across a little restaurant called no name restaurant thank God for this place. We decided to go there every meal time, even though we’ve paid for an all-inclusive holiday, this place was our saviour and it was so lovely there and we were always given a warm welcome. I will write a separate review on the no name restaurant. I don’t write many reviews on hotels, but honestly, if you were considering a holiday in this hotel, I would strongly advise against it."

"Very disappointing experience — definitely not 5-star. We arrived at 6am and, while we understood check-in was at 3pm, reception refused our simple request for towels while we waited. The staff were unhelpful and unnecessarily stubborn. We booked three separate rooms, yet two of us were given a family suite instead of what we had paid for. We also found a mouse in the bathroom, which is completely unacceptable for a hotel claiming to be 5-star. There were water leaks around the hotel and gym, poor maintenance, and mixed-up food labels at dinner. Despite explaining how unhappy we were, we were also refused dinner on the day of check-out. When we asked to speak to management about our concerns, we were told there was no management available at all, which was extremely disappointing. The pools and sea were lovely, but they do not make up for the poor service, maintenance and overall experience. For the price we paid, this hotel was nowhere near 5-star standard. Needs serious improvement. We definitely will not be returning."