"Just returned from the Park Hotel & Spa in Tsilivi. If like me you tend to judge a hotel based on the majority of excellent and good reviews, then please read on, because in my experience, this hotel is not all it seems.
This is an adults-only hotel, but unfortunately, I found there were so many rules and restrictions that it didn’t feel particularly adult or independent.
I am a 61-year-old woman who travelled with my 23-year-old daughter. We both enjoy our independence and knew that on some days and evenings we would want to do our own thing and spend some time apart. Unfortunately, this became much more complicated than we ever expected.
Rule 1 — Tourist Tax at Check-In
We were fully aware that the Greek tourist tax was payable. What we didn’t know, because it isn’t stated in the Jet2 brochure, was that the owner insists that the tax is paid in cash only.
The owner was very insistent that the tourist tax had to be paid in cash. Luckily, we had €100 in cash with us on arrival.
If you are travelling with limited cash and no cards, please make sure you have enough cash available to pay the tourist tax when you arrive.
According to the Greek Government information, and as confirmed by the Jet2 representative at the hotel, the information provided states:
“Just so you know, the Greek government has a Climate Resilience Tax in place for all those visiting Greece. It was previously known as the Greek Tourism Tax. It's calculated per room, per night and is payable by cash or card when you check in at your accommodation.”
Therefore, I was left with the impression that the hotel’s decision to accept cash only is a choice made by the owner rather than a requirement of the Greek Government.
Rule 2 — Only One Key Card Per Room
This was, for me, one of the most bizarre rules. Only one key card is issued per room.
When I asked for an additional key card so that my adult daughter and I could come and go independently, I was refused point blank. I also found the owner’s response to my request unnecessarily hostile.
The owner advised me that if we wanted to do things separately, whoever returned to the hotel without the key would be let into the room by a member of staff, as reception is manned 24/7.
I explained that I wasn’t happy with that arrangement. So if we went out for the evening, I would give my daughter the key and I would return to the hotel first, and simply ask to be let into the room.
My daughter did not feel comfortable with the idea of being walked back to her room by a male member of staff in the evenings.
The owner then said that wasn’t how it worked. Whoever was back at the hotel first had to have the master key as the “responsible adult.”
In all my years of travelling around the world, I have never experienced being refused an additional room key, nor have I ever been put in a position where an adult guest has to rely on a member of staff to let them into their own room simply because there is only one key card.
For an adults-only hotel, I found this particularly strange and restrictive.
Rule 3 — Sunbeds and the 30-Minute Rule
The hotel has a rule that towels left unattended on sunbeds for more than 30 minutes will be removed.
I actually think this is a great rule. It should prevent people from reserving sunbeds for hours while they are elsewhere.
Unfortunately, in our experience, the rule simply wasn’t enforced.
I am an early riser, so at around 7:30am I would go down to the pool area. On a daily basis, approximately 30 sunbeds were already reserved with towels, despite only a handful of people actually being there.
I raised this with the Jet2 representative, who told me he would speak to the owner about it. Despite this, the situation continued. I also found that the sunbeds situated on the grass area were not particularly clean.
Rule 4 — No Outside Food or Drink Around the Pool
Another rule is that no food or drink purchased elsewhere can be consumed in the pool area. Anything you want to eat or drink around the pool must be purchased from the hotel pool bar. For example, bottled water purchased from the supermarket, where it costs around half the price of the hotel bar, cannot be consumed around the pool if it wasn’t bought at the hotel. We also witnessed an incident involving some friends of ours. They had purchased an ice cream from the supermarket, which is approximately 50 metres from the hotel, and ate most of it while walking back. When they entered the hotel, they had around half an ice cream remaining. As soon as they reached the sunbathing terrace, a member of staff stopped them and told them they were not allowed to eat it in the pool area because it had not been purchased from the hotel. They were told to either return to reception, leave the pool area, or go outside the hotel to finish it. I found this level of policing over something as simple as an ice cream quite extraordinary.
Rule 5 — Preference on cash
Whilst there is a well-known saying that “cash is king”, I would not have expected to encounter such a repeated and apparent preference for cash payments over card payments during my stay.
Guests were required to decide whether they intended to pay by cash or card when initially placing their orders. I found this unusual and inconvenient, particularly because, at that stage, you have no way of knowing what the final bill will be or whether you will have sufficient cash available to cover it.
There also appeared to be an uncomfortable expectation that guests should pay in cash. On several occasions, choosing to pay by card seemed to be treated as an inconvenience rather than a standard and readily accepted payment method.
Personally, I found the repeated emphasis on cash payments unnecessary and inconvenient. In a four-star hotel, I would reasonably expect card payments to be readily accepted without guests feeling pressured or made to feel uncomfortable for choosing to use a card.
Overall, the approach to cash and card payments felt unnecessarily restrictive and did not, in my opinion, reflect the level of convenience and service I would expect from a four-star hotel.
Rule 6 — Air Conditioning
The air conditioning in the reception/lobby area and breakfast hall is switched on during breakfast service. During this time, the doors leading to the pool bar terrace are also kept closed.
At 10:30am, when breakfast service ends, a member of staff switches off the air conditioning and opens the doors. This is particularly noticeable because there are signs displayed on most of the doors instructing guests to keep them closed so that the air conditioning can remain effective.
However, staff routinely do the opposite, with doors being propped open for much of the day while the air conditioning remains switched off. While I appreciate that this may make it easier for staff to move around and carry out their duties, it creates an obvious double standard. If guests are expected to keep the doors closed to maintain the effectiveness of the air conditioning, it seems contradictory for staff to leave them open throughout the day. If the doors are intentionally being kept open for operational reasons, then the signs should be removed or amended accordingly.
More importantly, for the remainder of the day, I found the lobby area to be stiflingly hot and uncomfortable. There appeared to be little consideration given to maintaining a comfortable temperature for guests once breakfast service had finished. Considering this is a four-star hotel, I found the lack of air conditioning and the resulting heat in the main lobby area both surprising and uncomfortable.
Rule 7 — Nothing Can Be Charged to Your Room
Everything you eat or drink at the hotel has to be paid for at the time.
There is no facility to charge food or drinks to your room and settle the bill at the end of your holiday. This is the first time in 45 years of travelling to four- and five-star hotels that I have experienced this. Again, it added to the feeling that there were a lot of restrictions and rules that I simply wouldn’t expect from a four-star, adults-only hotel.
Our Stay — 27th August to 3rd September 2026
The hotel is rated four stars, but based on our experience, I personally don’t think this is a fair reflection of the standard.
Staff - None of the staff wear name badges.
The only staff member I encountered who consistently had a smile and made an effort to interact with guests was a lady on reception called Maria, who likes to be called Mia. She was the only staff member who took the time to genuinely interact with hotel guests and make us feel welcome.
Unfortunately, I found the restaurant and bar staff to be rather miserable and unwelcoming. During our 7 night stay, in the breakfast restaurant, not one member of staff greeted us with “good morning” or a smile.
I found this uncomfortable because, ultimately, we are the customers, and I feel staff could have been much more welcoming. The chef also appeared to stand with her arms folded and a scowl on her face. There was also very little smiling or interaction between the staff during breakfast.
Food
We were booked on a B&B basis.
If you have the option to book room only, I would recommend considering it.
The breakfast was at best lukewarm. The fried eggs were rubbery, with the yolk being snotty and cold. The choices were limited and the milk for cereal was room temperature. Only full-fat milk was available. On most days the fruit had already started to go brown. There was no show cooking. Instead, the chef would simply top up the dishes whenever they started to look empty, meaning the food had often been standing under the heat lamps for some time. Unfortunately, the heat lamps did not appear to keep the food sufficiently hot. For a four-star hotel, I expected considerably better.
Our Room
We stayed in a pool-view room and paid extra for the upgrade.
Unfortunately, I found the room’s shower cubicle extremely small.
It was two 12 in tiles square. My daughter and I are both small-framed women — I am 5ft 2in and of average weight, when showering, our elbows would touch the glass and the wall. The positioning of the shower fittings also made the space feel even smaller. The shower bar was positioned on the side wall rather than on the back wall underneath the shower hose, while the tap spout protruded into the shower area, restricting the usable width even further. The hotel provides toiletries in small bottles and two small hand soaps, but there was no soap dish. We ended up using a coffee cup plate to put the soap on once it had been opened. Again, these are small things, but for a hotel marketed as four-star, I expected better attention to detail.
The “Pool View”
We paid extra for a pool-view room, but I would question whether the view really deserves to be described as such. The pool-view rooms look towards the back of two other hotels, so I would not describe this as a particularly attractive view. Jet 2 do a great job of photographing the pool view rooms without this view.
The front of the hotel has gardens to the left, which is a much nicer area, but unfortunately it looks out towards a busy main road and car park.
Location
The location itself is actually very good. It is approximately a 10-minute walk to the start of the main strip in Tsilivi, where there are plenty of decent restaurants.
We found the restaurants in the area much more welcoming, with friendly staff and, importantly, hot food served with a smile.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I was very disappointed with my choice of holiday at this hotel.
I went away expecting a four-star, adults-only hotel where my adult daughter and I could enjoy a relaxing and independent holiday.
Instead, I found the hotel to be full of rules and restrictions that I felt were unnecessary and at times, quite bizarre.
The single key-card policy was particularly frustrating, as was the insistence on cash payments and the inability to charge anything to the room.
The lack of enforcement of the sunbed rule was also disappointing, particularly when this was one of the hotel’s stated policies.
Combined with the breakfast quality, the uncomfortable shower, the lack of warmth from most of the staff and the general feeling of being heavily restricted, the experience simply did not live up to what I would expect from a four-star adults-only hotel.
I appreciate that other guests have had very positive experiences here, and I can only speak from our personal experience between 27th August and 3rd September 2026.
For us, however, the hotel was not what we expected from the reviews or the four-star rating and we will not return."
