Potamaki Beach Hotel

The hotel is in a great location on the coast, in the center of town, right next to the bus stop for Corfu Town. Pleasant atmosphere and good service. Hygiene at the highest level, good food. Excellent and fast internet available on the beach.

We stayed at this hotel for 10 days in August. The hotel itself is in a great location, right over the road from the pebble beach and there are supermarkets, shops and restaurants within walking distance.

We were originally given room 109 which was directly over the bar and stage area. So after a long day of travelling, my daughter (9) who was very tired, kept breaking down in tears, as all her body wanted was sleep, and it was absolutely impossible with the noise. The room was split into two, with 3 of us sleeping in the main room and my mum sleeping in the smaller area that overlooks the bar and stage area.

The air conditioning in the smaller room wasn't working at all. I went to reception about this and was told nothing could be done until morning. The air conditioning unit in the main room wasn't working well and hadn't been switched on prior to our arrival, so the room was uncomfortably warm and taking forever to cool, making sleep an even bigger challenge than already should've been. The bathroom was also really small. On arrival we had not long missed the dinner service, but staff had prepared a plate of food for each of us which was incredibly thoughtful. Unfortunately this gesture was nowhere near enough to counteract an otherwise lousy first impression. The only positive about the room was the view. You could have sat and watched the sunrise on the balcony, and the view of the beach was lovely.

We asked the following morning about changing rooms due to the noise and were offered room 336, at the back of the hotel. We couldn't hear any of the noise from the second room. The view was of the mountains, which was still beautiful. The bathroom was also 4 times the size. One con was that we didn't have hardly and storage space in the second room, which meant us having to resort to using chairs to store our things, or in the case of my daughter, keeping everything in her suitcase and even that had to be stored under her bed. One of the benefits of the room was that it was right next to the stairs to get to the pool. The pool itself is quite small given the size of the hotel but was great for what we needed, we never had an issue getting sunbeds for the 4 of us.

The bar food is ok and reasonable- you can get chips, a ham and cheese toastie and a coke for about 12€. As there is no pool bar, anything you buy will have to be taken from the bar located at the front of the hotel, and carried around the side of the hotel to the pool area. It's not the longest walk, but it might be a bit too much for some. They really don't like you taking your own food/ drinks by the pool. There is a sign and they tell you off if they see you. My husband got stopped by an older man who worked there when we attempted to walk through the side of the hotel. We were going towards the pool with a newly purchased rubber ring to pass to our daughter, before heading back to our room. My husband was carrying an open can of pop down by his side, not drinking it, and the worker stopped us and abruptly just pointed at a sign about not taking food/drink through if not bought at the bar. We tried to explain that we were merely dropping something off. Whether he understood, we don't know, but it was a bit uncomfortable and we didn't much appreciate being treated like naughty children.

The hotel staff are really lovely and helpful. The cleaners always say good morning when you walk past. The rooms are cleaned daily with fresh towels.

We found the hot breakfast was pretty good and there is something for everyone. Having to queue for a juice or hot drinks is kind of annoying but not the end of the world- most places I've been you can self serve for this. My husband tried one of the few cereals on offer and it was incredibly stale and didn't taste like much. Evening meals weren't so great. As far as mains go, not a huge selection, but you have some options. Possibly the biggest problem though, was nothing is labelled and it wasn't always obvious what some things were. The lack of labelling could be partly due to the fact there were people from a number of different countries staying there- pretty sure we heard at least some folks speaking German, Polish, Spanish and possibly some Italian. Dessert was watermelon or nothing. For me, the star meal each evening was the soup- never had a bad one.

We ended up eating out probably more than we'd have liked. One note for the fussy eaters- every night we did eat at the hotel, they always had chips on. I would suggest just getting breakfast rather than half board if you're toying between the two. We were also rarely asked if we'd like drinks in the evenings and it seemed absolute pot-luck as to which tables were asked. One or two of the evening staff that were working looked miserable every night too, so maybe that's why we were rarely asked.

If you do head over to the beach you can get 2 sunloungers and 2 drinks for 14€. The beach is pure pebbles so I would strongly recommend watershoes. Many shops sell them if you need to buy them over there.

When walking to the shops or restaurant the walkways are very narrow or non-existent in places. People with pushchairs or wheelchair users might struggle to get around and crossing the road to the beach can be treacherous. There's no crossing and cars don't slow down if they see people in the road- I actually saw what looked like an accident on our second to last day- 2 older women looked like they may have been in a car accident 😳 While the hotel wasn't terrible, I think the 3 star rating is a stretch. But you get what you pay for, I don't think we'd return here. But if you were looking for B&B, you'd probably be fine staying here.

Arrived here for one night after spending the most incredible time in Albania in the most incredible venues and needless to say it was a huge disappointment. I actually don't know where all these other people have been staying that have written reviews about this hotel.

Arrived and they didn't have the booking, reception staff attended other hotel guests, when we didn't even know if they had a room for us (even though it was confirmed and paid for via booking.com)for about 30 minutes, went and got 1 small beer and a soft drink at the hotel grim bar, asked for a glass of ice, got an empty glass (I'll put that down to miscommunication for now). Eventually the manager sent the booking.com reservation over to hotel staff, they weren't bothered about the first impressions clearly. "Upgraded" us to a balcony room that over looked someone's yard as an apology.

Get to room, ok on first impressions. However it was hide and seek trying to find a plug socket. One plug socket at the bottom of the TV, but the mirror and chair was at the other side of the room, great trying to get ready, that was when I eventually could as the electric went, due to a "storm" these guys clearly have never been to the UK. It was a bit of drizzle, thunder and lightning. So no electric means can't get ready, sitting in the dark, waiting.

Internet didn't come back on until morning, so couldn't watch Netflix etc. We eventually got ready and went out but decided on coming back as there wasn't much around the hotel apart from restaurants. Got back to hotel and paid for ice, never in my life have I ever paid for ice in a hotel until this hotel.

Pool and lounge area best part about this hotel and they were as basic as you could get!