Kontokali Bay Resort and Spa

This is a fantastic hotel. Its set on the beach and its beautiful. The staff are so friendly and nothing is too much trouble. We had a friendly welcome from all the staff. Id highly recommend the spa and a cretan massage, my therapist Kiki was was amazing. Our rooms were spotless and you get water everyday and a welcome bottle of wine. Id highly recommend this hotel.

What a magical holiday! The hotel is located by the beach and the scenery is stunning. There are two private beaches and several swimming pools. The half board is sensational and the hotel is very flexible to change it to either lunch or dinner based on your plans. The spa is gorgeous, especially the pool at the spa. For us the best part was the staff, from the reception, to the restaurant, bar, cleaning team and chefs. Everyone was super friendly and sooo helpful! Greek hospitality was outstanding and we can’t wait to come back again.

We've just returned from a 5 night stay which we booked via BA Holidays as a last minute break. We've previously stayed at the Corfu Grecotel Imperial but decided to try somewhere new for a change.
Kontokali Bay is a very nice hotel, but lacked a few things that I would expect at a 5 star resort, hence the 4 out of 5 rating. I'll start with the good things:

• excellent food at all of the restaurants, including breakfast & buffet
• the restaurant staff, beach hut staff & luggage porters are wonderful & friendly.
• the whole resort (including bedrooms) is very clean.
• wonderful housekeeping staff who found my diamond necklace which I'd left behind during the room change (more about that below)
• great live music in the evening
• beach and sea very nice. Plenty of sunbeds and towels available at the beach
• lovely views from beach and pool area
• late check out was appreciated

Moving on to the things which could use some improvement:

• not all reception staff are quite as welcoming as the rest of the resort staff
• no offer of a welcome drink at check-in
• beach drinks service was sometimes very slow
• the main restaurant used for breakfast & dinner buffet has indoor seating only. This was a disappointment as we like to dine al fresco
• smoking is permitted in the majority of the rooms, common areas & restaurants (excluding the main indoor restaurant) which we found really unpleasant
• only one main pool, which is nice with salt water instead of chlorine, very busy most of the day and impossible to get a sunbed after 9am
• the spa area is quite tired and uninspiring, so didn't use the facilities or book a treatment
• the beach is not technically private and the sea and beach is open to the public - there is a sign which says the sunbeds are for the exclusive use of the resorts guests, but feel it's important to be transparent. This poses a security risk when leaving personal items unattended while swimming and generally adds to the feeling that we were not in a true 5 star resort. One day we observed a large family walking up and down the beach all afternoon, using the resorts beach showers etc. The resort does not police this in any way.
• the family garden rooms located in the main building face the car park and main road/footpath into the resort, so zero privacy from people or vehicles. I would not recommend booking this room category as the view is more car park than garden.

When we arrived we immediately asked to change rooms, and was told by reception that nothing else was available. After escalating the matter to BA holidays, the resort's Guest Relations Manager met with us the following day and offered an upgrade to a bay view room instead. This was appreciated, but as we had already fully unpacked, had to waste precious time re-packing and moving (and left important items behind in our haste).

We booked half board but downgraded to bed & breakfast mid stay so we could try the resort's other a la carte restaurants for our evening meal and dine al fresco. The a la carte options were very nice and reasonably priced, and we still had the option of paying for the buffet ad-hoc rather than committing up front. If we were staying for longer we'd have also wanted to venture outside of the resort to local taverna's as the resort atmosphere gets a bit samey after a short time.

Overall we enjoyed our holiday, and although were disappointed with the aspects above, can see why other guest do love the resort and continue to return. It just perhaps wasn't for us.

Final special mention to the young male beach hut attendant working last Tuesday evening when we arrived - our daughter was stung by a jelly fish and he was so helpful and kind coming to the rescue with anti-sting cream, towels and cups of salt water to wash the wound. We didn't get his name, but really appreciated all he did.