Mitsis Royal Mare

We have been at this wonderful hotel for a week now & wish we had booked longer.. Absolutely blown away by all the amazing food & very helpful & friendly staff ... We could not be happier with our holiday & will definitely return.. Thank you all so much for a wonderful time

Let me save you some money, time and disappointment: I would not book this hotel again. In our experience, it simply was not worth the price, the effort or the five-star label.

And I say that as someone who actually wanted to love it.

We had stayed with this brand before in Kos and were completely satisfied, so we arrived in Crete expecting a similar level of hospitality and service. Unfortunately, this property was a completely different experience. To make the comparison even harder to ignore, only about a month earlier we had stayed at a Grecotel property, and the difference in service, atmosphere and overall guest experience was enormous. Grecotel felt genuinely welcoming and polished. Here, far too often, we simply felt disappointed.

For context, we travelled as two sisters with my sister’s toddler. That gave us two perspectives: we wanted somewhere enjoyable and practical for a small child, but we were also two adults wanting to relax, have a good coffee or cocktail, enjoy good food and feel looked after. Somehow, the hotel managed to miss the mark on both.

The family setup itself was surprisingly strange.

There were daytime activities for older children, but essentially nothing for children in the evening. That was disappointing because our little one loves music, laughter, dancing and simply being around other children. At a large resort presenting itself as family-friendly, we expected at least some evening entertainment where children could have fun together.

Even stranger was the way the pool areas seemed to separate guests with children. If you were travelling with a small child, you were effectively pushed towards a particular pool area — except the pool itself did not really feel designed for small children. It was such an odd concept: separating families into an area without actually making that area particularly suitable for families.

So you somehow get the inconvenience of being separated without the benefit of a genuinely child-friendly pool. Make it make sense.

From the moment we arrived, the experience did not feel five-star. We arrived by bus with a toddler, luggage and our hands completely full, yet nobody offered to help us with our bags. Not exactly the warm welcome you expect when arriving at a hotel of this category.

The check-in itself was fine. We were even asked about food allergies, which initially gave us a very positive impression.

Unfortunately, that was also pretty much the last time anyone seemed genuinely interested in those allergies.

Our room was not ready, which of course can happen. The problem was that there was nowhere particularly comfortable to wait, because available sunbeds were practically nonexistent.

And this was not just an arrival issue. Finding an empty sunbed throughout the stay often felt like a competitive sport. If your idea of a five-star holiday is casually walking down to the pool, choosing a lounger and relaxing, I would adjust those expectations.

The room itself was fine and generally clean. Our cleaning lady was actually one of the genuinely lovely people we encountered at the hotel, and she deserves credit.

That said, housekeeping was inconsistent. Some days the bed was made; some days apparently the bed was encouraged to make its own decisions.

The minibar was completely empty when we arrived and it took two calls to reception before it was restocked. Again, this alone would hardly ruin a holiday. But five-star hotels are supposed to be about attention to detail, and there were simply too many little details missing.

The service was probably our biggest disappointment.

I absolutely love Greece. I come back almost every year, and the warmth of Greek hospitality is one of the reasons. Unfortunately, that warmth was noticeably absent from far too many interactions here.

At the pool bars, we regularly felt as though ordering something was an inconvenience to the staff rather than a perfectly normal thing for a hotel guest to do.

Our interactions with Olga at the Delphin Bar stood out particularly negatively. Her attitude and the way we experienced the service were unpleasant enough that I genuinely think management should be aware of it. I very rarely name an individual negatively in a review, but in this case the interaction left such a strong impression that I feel it deserves to be mentioned.

Then there was the adventure of trying to get lactose-free milk for a coffee.

What should have been an incredibly simple request somehow turned into a small logistics operation involving reception. Eventually, I had to go and collect the milk myself after it had been delivered. At that point, I honestly wasn’t sure whether I was still a hotel guest or had accidentally started my first shift.

Food allergies were handled even more disappointingly. At one point, a chef actually laughed when we explained an allergy.

That is simply unacceptable.

An allergy is not someone being picky. It is not a lifestyle preference. It is a health issue. Being asked about allergies at check-in looks great on paper, but it means very little if the people actually serving and preparing the food do not treat them seriously.

I do want to make a very clear distinction here: the waiters and waitresses in the main restaurant genuinely seemed to be trying their best. Many of them were hardworking, attentive and kind, and my criticism is absolutely not aimed at them.

Ironically, the consistently nicest service we received was in the specialty restaurants. There, the staff finally felt warm, professional and much closer to the level we had expected from a five-star hotel.

The only problem? Actually getting a reservation.

By the time we arrived, availability was already extremely limited. So some of the best food and best service offered by the hotel were also among the hardest parts of the hotel to actually experience.

Another major issue was the flooring around the property. In several areas, the floors were so slippery that we constantly felt as though one wrong step could send us flying. Add wet feet, swimming pools and a toddler into the equation and it stops being funny very quickly. It genuinely felt unsafe.

And this is ultimately why the experience was so disappointing.

It was not one dramatic disaster. It was the accumulation of things that simply should not be happening at a hotel presenting and pricing itself as a five-star resort: no help with luggage, almost impossible-to-find sunbeds, a strange family pool setup, virtually no evening entertainment for children, inconsistent housekeeping, an empty minibar, unfriendly bar service, poor handling of allergies, specialty restaurants that were difficult to book, and flooring that regularly felt unsafe.

What makes it even sadder is seeing the hotel proudly celebrating 50 years while this is the experience being delivered to guests today. With that kind of history behind a property, I would expect decades of experience to show in the hospitality, service and attention to detail. Instead, we were left wondering how the standards had slipped this far.

And because we had already experienced this brand in Kos and had been very happy there, I know this is not simply a case of us expecting something the brand cannot provide. We have seen them do much better.

Likewise, having stayed at Grecotel only a month before, the contrast was impossible not to notice. That experience showed us just how welcoming, effortless and genuinely five-star a Greek resort holiday can feel.

This one simply was not it.

There were a few genuinely lovely members of staff here, and they deserve recognition. Unfortunately, they felt like the exceptions rather than the standard.

If this were marketed and priced as an average family resort, perhaps we would have judged some things differently. But when you present yourself as five-star, guests are reasonable to expect five-star hospitality, professionalism, consistency and attention to detail.

For us, those things were simply not there.

Five stars on the sign? Yes.

Fifty years of experience behind the name? Apparently.

A five-star experience for us? Absolutely not.