Akti Imperial Deluxe Resort

"Arrived after midnight. Our rooms were economy at back of hotel, 3rd floor, overlooking their conference centre. Also small Mountain View and side sea view. On arrival at our rooms we were greeted with a big pool of water outside of room doors. One room had dirty wet towels left in the wardrobe. Not a reassuring start! Hotel was big, decor was modern and clean. Main restaurant -hot food was average and repetitive. There was a microwave for baby foods or reheating if you like your food piping hot. Lovely views out at the ocean. You aren’t allowed to take any food or drinks out of main restaurant. If you do, there is a €15 euro charge (classed as a take out). 2 poolsides bar / food bar. Both offered different choices. Drinks are served in paper cups and start to welt. Sports bar was okay, behind food place - adults side of pool. Didn’t open until 4:30pm though. Handy underground tunnel to hotel beach. Metal sunbeds, many with broken back supports. Bit shabby and unkept look in comparison to other hotels along the same the beach. Beach bar only offered beer on a self serve pull (which was too frothy). No other alcohol choices. Beach bar also had a shabby appearance. Beach water sports are available. We hired jet ski’s. €50 per jet ski for 15mins or €60 for 20mins. Although end of season was our last week, some local restaurants and shops were still open. Taxi for 4 to Old Town was €13 or €2.50 each on local bus one way. Highly recommend Old Town, it’s beautiful. Our room. Comfy bed/pillows. Cleaned or tidied daily upon request. However, bath filled when showering and then flooded up from floor drain several times. Hence the flooding in corridor on arrival. This seemed common on our floor as every morning I’d see the cleaner using towels to mop up puddles. Big gap under hotel room door, letting lots of light in from corridor (and bathroom flood water out) because they have LED strips along skirting. They don’t dim during night. So we had to put sofa cushions on floor to block out light. Bathroom hairdryer was fab. Not the usual pathetic ones. Just didn’t have an attachment on it. Always HAD to use lifts as there wasn’t a stair option. Obviously had fire exit stairs. But in a very large hotel, waiting for a lift gets annoying for a a short distance. Our checkout was 11am but as hotel was so quite due to end of season I asked if we could keep them longer. Our coach transfer was at 9pm. We were allowed to keep 1 room (we had 2) for free until 4pm. Or €85 til 6pm. So DO ASK about this. An a whole we had a pleasurable stay but was disappointed. It’s definitely not a five star hotel in comparison to others we have stopped in. I’d rate it 3star+ or 4 max."

"Came for a week 27th October everything started nicely, arrived to be told room has been upgraded to sea view and the food buffet was open till 3am which we found nice as we had a late flight so good first impression Food: Alright if you don't eat the meat or eggs. Few people with food poisoning so put us off mostly ate the pizza chips salad the stuff what dont make you ill but we was full and enjoyed the cakes. We liked the pool bars but our favourite one shut after 2 days for the season. Drinks: Cocktails are premade from a bottle not that nice, husband couldn't get his jd so we bought one and just got him lemonade White wine wasn't bad and the vodka lemonade was nice when it was smirnoff but they ran out and was just to strong at times to drink. But overall we managed with what we had. Room: Room was small for the 3 off us tv was hanging off the wall, had chips all in the walls and the shower flooded everytime we used it and if you wanted to turn around in the shower the taps hit you! The door is see through so no privacy for a 5 star hotel I've stayed in nicer 3 star hotels. Beware if you sleep in after 8am maids just walk right in this happened a few times to us and check the bedding as mine had yellow stains on. Hotel grounds/ pools: Very clean love that they have there own access to the beach which was also clean. Pools was nice but cold they had a few didn't go to the indoor one Staff: Staff were friendly expecially the waiters in the main buffet restaurant. Everybody we came across was nice except the blonde women what worked at the bar she was rude and looked like she hated her job i asked for no ice once and she looked at me like she wanted to kill me. Entertainment: Went one night lasted 30 mins waited for an abba night to have 3 young girls just dancing so we went. Heard it was good for kids but just not for us. Spent most off the time sat on the terrace bored and looking around everyone else was bored is well and there was loads just playing card games. Overall the holiday was 5/10 it's definitely not a 5 star if I had known it was the last week of season I would not off booked here we was very bored and was happy to be going home i even tried to leave a day early but couldn't get a flight. Also if you go this time off the year there are hardly any day trips so that didn't help us with the boredom either one day we walked to rhodes town just for a starbucks to get out! Would i return sadly no feel like I wasted over 3000 pounds but you live and learn"

"Think Butlins. The Akti Imperial is a 3-star hotel trying (very hard) to be a 5-star. It comes soooo close, and falls at the penultimate hurdle. First, what I liked: Variety of food in the Epicurus restaurant Outdoor seating Children's activities (even though I didn't go with kid, it was clear to see how much they loved the place) The generous G in G&Ts The sea view - stunning sunsets (although this is less about the hotel and more to do with Mother Nature) The never-ending access to refreshments Easy access to the sea Housekeeping (although we had to chase them down a couple of times, and we ended up cleaning our own balcony because they never bothered) On-site shops In-house car rental (not that we used them) What I didn't like: First, we requested and they had confirmed (!) a sea view room with a double bed (our anniversary), but we ended up being stonewalled by a very cold receptionist who refused to give us a double bed; the manager came to see what the issue was and helped sort it out in seconds. The receptionist spoke over my head and at such a fast pace I couldn't make out he was saying - I appreciate I may have been the hundredth person that day he'd given the same information to, but is it so hard to look me in the eye and slow down a fraction to make sure I understand? A lack of care and courtesy by a lot of the staff - a few were lovely, but usually I felt like they didn't really care. At least stop the personal phone call you're on (on loudspeaker!) when you deign to pay me some attention. The rules!!! Can't collect a towel before 10, or after 4 (get yours the day before); can't take your drinks to any of the restaurants; housekeeping can't replace king-size sheets with king-size sheets as it isn't written on their list (so you end up falling between the twin beds!); can't take food out of the restaurant... Drinks: poorly stocked mini-bar in the room - we ended up going up and down to the main bar for our sundowners; they only serve (really horrible) house wine; cocktails are all pre-mixed (and there is no variety to the glasses); no bar snacks; dirty crockery stacked up on the counters... The noise!!! Evening entertainment keeps you up until midnight, noise from people going back to their rooms in the corridors at 1 in the morning; furniture being moved around; noisy and shouting waiters (seriously, we had to ask them to let us eat in peace!); people on loudspeaker on their phones (the staff wouldn't intervene, and sometimes it was the staff themselves!) The themed restaurants just serve the same food as the Epicurus (what's the point?); lack of cleanliness (dirty crockery on countertops, food under tables, dirty tables and glasses...) My husband ended up with food poisoning, and I saw cleaners trying to cope with other vomitting guests 🙁 The litter on the beach (their own section of the beach) Hawking - I really don't want people constantly asking if I want to book a spa, have my photo taken, etc. I don't expect to be accosted IN the hotel. The Spa - the therapists are lovely, but the reception is a nightmare of people and pushchairs wading through to get to the indoor pool via the gym (which is a hazard in its own right) There is no map/plan of the place and we ended up asking the other guests where things were, and how to do things - a little booklet in the room would have been very helpful and made sure we wouldn't disturb the staff who managed to make me feel like a nuisance. It was the end of the season, so I expect they will deal with the damage to the walls, mould, non-working lights, inoperable safe, bath plug that refuses to work, etc. after everyone has left. Meanwhile, I need to get my husband some more Imodium. If you have kids, this place is great (you'll need beach shoes to cope with the pebbles). However, if you're going to pay a large sum of money for a 5-star experience go to the Sheraton (which had already closed for the season 🙁)"