Eurovillage Achilleas Hotel

NOT FOR LARGE GROUPS!!

We stayed at this hotel last week, returning yesterday (3/8/26). We were a large group of 6 families combined, making our party total 23, with ages ranging from 6-71.

It's lengthy, but please bear with...

CHECK IN... We arrived at around 13.15, after speeding through security at the airport. Kos was a dream, no delays, no issues. Transfer from airport to hotel was no more than 20 minutes.

On our arrival we had already been up and traveling since 02.00, so you can imagine how tired we were and the kids hyper. The ladies at the reception desk on 27th July were beyond helpful, happy and just a dream. We (family of 4, 2 adults, 2 kids 12,13) had no issues and check in was efficient and easy. Other members of the group had a few teething issues with room allocations, but they dealt with that on an individual basis and whilst initially it looked like it was going to cause issues, the hotel dealt with it and they were happy with the eventual outcome of room upgrades and some free tickets to the water park.

ROOM... We had a standard family room. This consisted of 2 rooms, both with twin beds in (one had beds pushed together to appear as if it was a double, as most foreign hotels do). Only 1 of the rooms has air-con. Which made the back room uncomfortable at times for the kids. Our backroom was lucky enough to have shelter from trees etc and did not get direct sunlight, but I can imagine other rooms would have been very uncomfortable with the heat. Overall, we found the room dated with some odd features. The shower curtain was not attached, it was one of those temporary ones, it fell down a few times. It was a shower over a bath, but bath had no plug. We did not request one, so not sure if a plug was even an option. The bathroom had no ventilation other than a frosted window that opens up into the back bedroom. We found this troublesome for the kids at night, as turning the light on to use the bathroom in the night lit up their whole room. Adding a blind or curtain to this would avoid annoying anyone sleeping in the backroom. There were 2 huge wardrobes, bedside tables with 1 drawer and small gap underneath and 2 larger drawers in the main part of the room, but no shelving in the wardrobes. This would have made a big difference for a family of 4. Our room was cleaned 3 times throughout our 7 night stay. However, other group members found the cleaning inconsistent and 1 family had to request that their room be cleaned. As you cannot flush the toilet roll, I would suggest to the hotel that you have bigger bins in the bathroom or provide spare bin bags so we can change them each day, particularly as the overall, cleaning frequency is not the same for all rooms. We ran out of toilet roll one day and it was replenished very quickly after we asked at reception.

Food.... There is a buffet style restaurant and an Italian restaurant that you can book into once during your stay I believe. Although the Italian restaurants indicate that gluten free is available on request, I found this not to be the case and was told there was never any gluten free. I am used to this, so just went down to the buffet.

The food was nothing exciting, but I enjoyed what food I ate. I have a wheat intolerance and found most days the food allergens were labelled well. However, some days, no allergens were ticked at all when obvious allergens could be seen. If you are blessed with children that will eat or try anything, then you will be ok. If, like me, you have an autistic child that is particular about food, you will struggle. None of what I would call child friendly options in the evening, such as nuggets, pizza etc. I found the greek night was my favourite. The breakfast was by far the best meal of the day. The hash browns and greek yoghurt with honey being a particular highlight for me. The pool snack bar was disappointing. It only served the hot snacks for a short time, I say hot, the hotdogs and gyros that were on offer I have been told were either luke warm or cold. The chips were the only food that was actually at the temperature it should be when served to you. The cocktails at all bars were nice, a bit sweet, but my gosh they do not skimp on the alcohol, particularly in the Margherita. The beer on tap is a greek beer, brewed in Rhodes and I found it very nice. The one thing about the pool bar that just did not make sense, was the fact you had to line up at the bar to request a cup for the self service drinks, they were only soft drinks (glasses are provided next to the machine in the main bar), a paper cup at the pool bar. A lot of waste could be reduced if you had reusable cups for all drinks and a lot less lining up for people if you left the cups next to the self service soft drinks. The ice cream is served at the pool bar, only 3 flavours, but they were all really nice.

Pool... the pool is huge and the water temperature perfect. We found it ok getting loungers, but we are early risers and spend time at the pool from the moment we put our towels down. As with most hotels abroad, all loungers were either occupied or had a towel on them by 10 am. Despite being a lot of space for more, no extra loungers were ever brought out. In comparison to other hotels, I found this odd and for some arriving after 10 am, frustrating. Downside of the pool, (which unfortunately means you lost 2 stars on my overall review). The rules of the pool are not executed consistently, some not at all, and there is no lifeguard. I found no lifeguard odd, given that the pool is so large. I understand you are responsible for your own children etc, but I felt the overall safety of the area lacked without the lifeguard presence. Some of the pool rules, particularly the no diving rule can be open to interpretation. We, and several other adults and children all around the pool took this as we are not to enter the pool HEAD FIRST, and that jumping in feet first would be acceptable, but of course at your own risk (other hotels that we have stayed in specified no diving and no jumping) upside here is you are allowed inflatables. We arrived on Monday 27th at lunchtime, and from that afternoon us and other families were jumping in the pool, overall having a great time, causing no harm. However, on day 4 (Thursday) our group (and our group ONLY) was approached by one of the bar staff (I will not name as that is unfair). He was very aggressive in his tone and said we are not to be jumping in the pool, it was dangerous etc and was concerned for the kids safety. We pointed out that in the pool rules it did not say 'no jumping' and we had interpreted no diving as simply not going in head first. He did not like that we had challenged him on the rules, but also, did not approach any of the many other children and adults that were continuing to jump in the pool, whilst our group were being reprimanded. It was at this point he made a comment about our nationality and that we are always trouble and we have the smallest island. We found this comment to be both inappropriate and offensive. This was not the first comment this staff member had directed towards our group, the Tuesday afternoon he described our group as 'migrants on an island'. We laughed that comment off initially, but soon realised that there was malice in it. He reported that he was going to get the manager, which we welcomed, but the manager never came. So we are uncertain if he did indeed go to the manager at all. I will add again, that while we were being told off, others continued to exhibit the same behaviour without consequence. Jump forward to Sunday, our last day. As previously, our children and us and many other adults and children were jumping in the pool, having fun, causing no harm. Our group was approached by the same member of staff again. This time, his tone was much more aggressive and actually threatened to physically stop our children from jumping in. Whilst 2 other children separate from our group were jumping in directly behind him without consequence. It was at this point we felt we, as a large group of English people, were being singled out. This was when I had been pushed too far and went to reception to speak directly to the manager. I am not usually a person that will complain, but at this point, we felt our kids were under threat and as a parent I was not going to stand for that. We repeatedly asked why he was not asking others to not jump in, but he could not respond. The previous day (Saturday) 19 of our group were out on a trip, whilst the remaining 4 of us stayed by the pool. Throughout the day I observed adults and children diving, summersaulting, jumping, bombing into the pool etc WITH NO REPRIMANDS FROM THAT STAFF MEMBER, who was there most of the day. I will also add, that as part of the water aerobics class the instructor actually jumps in the pool EVERY TIME!!

At reception I spoke calmly (despite being angry inside) with the most lovely lady. I cannot remember her name, but she was guest relations for that day (Sunday). Unfortunately as it being Sunday no management were available. She listened carefully to my complaint and made me feel like I was not wasting their time or being silly. She added that their culture see diving and jumping as the same thing, but could see how that can be confused. I advised that they must write 'no jumping' if that is the type of behaviour that they as a hotel wanted to avoid. She added it to the log book and advised that if she saw any management today (as some stay on site), she would endeavour to get them to call me. I sadly missed a call whilst we were out exploring the local village that evening and with no message left, I did not return the call. So I felt that our complaint remains unresolved, but having now left the hotel, it is not worth pursuing. However, I am confident that the member of staff in question was spoken to on the day of our complaint. We were offered to talk with the manager on check-out also, but felt that nothing could be achieved at that point. I just hope other groups do not get the same treatment we did. Another disappointing part of the pool area is that people were smoking. There were not any no smoking signs, but also no ashtrays offered, so found the smoking uncomfortable and inconsiderate.

THE LOCAL VILLAGE... You must make it a priority to walk down to the local village during your stay. There are many beautiful bars and shops and the sunset from there is beautiful. I had the best Pina colada and the freshest of orange juice. The walk from the hotel is flat and accessible provided any pushchair etc can handle a little bit of sand on the path. We also found a beautiful cocktail bar/restaurant mid way between the hotel and the village. I was gutted to try this out on our last night, as the view over the beach, sea and beyond was spectacular. I would have liked to have come back to that bar again. The hotel has a beach and beach bar. The loungers on the beach are free, but also fall foul to those that plonk their towels on them and disappear for hours. The far end of the beach is where you will access the water with ease without rocks.

Overall, I found the hotel itself lovely, all but 1 staff member were absolutely wonderfully polite and helpful. However, we would be unlikely to return as a large group in the future. If our group was not singled out at the pool, this review would have been 4 stars, not the 2 I had to give.

Sadly, our stay was disappointing and fell well below the standard we expected.

On arrival, we encountered an issue with our room. Rather than taking ownership or trying to resolve the situation, the hotel initially blamed easyJet. We later saw the paperwork the hotel had received, and we believe the room issue was in fact caused by easyJet. To the hotel's credit, after two nights we were moved to a superior family room, which was a significant improvement. The standard family rooms are adequate but very dated. The separate back bedroom had no air conditioning, making it uncomfortable and inconvenient, particularly during the hot weather.

Unfortunately, the room service after we moved was also disappointing. Our room was only cleaned once, and on that occasion cleaning did not start until around 5:45pm. Having spent the day at the pool, this was far from an ideal time for the room to be cleaned, as we then couldn't properly use the room while it was being serviced. Cups were not replaced and coffee was not replenished, which was disappointing for a hotel of this standard.

The food was one of the biggest let-downs. There was very little choice for children at lunch and dinner, with limited variety throughout our stay. Breakfast was by far the best meal of the day, with the Greek evening being the best dinner we had. The ribs and chicken wing night was also a real hit with our family. Unfortunately, the remaining evening meals were disappointing for an all-inclusive hotel.

The treatment we received around the pool was particularly disappointing. We were a large group and, unfortunately, we got the impression that this was not something the barman was happy about. On day four, he repeatedly singled out our group, telling our children they were not allowed to jump into the pool despite the only posted rule being "No Diving." Other guests were doing exactly the same without being challenged.

To make matters worse, the barman commented, "It's always you English with the small island." We found this remark unnecessary, unprofessional and offensive.

When we questioned why our children were being treated differently, the barman told us he was going to get the manager. We waited, but no manager ever came to speak with us, leaving the issue completely unresolved.

On our last day, the same situation happened again with the barman. He was once again very rude and singled out our group, telling our children not to jump in the pool, while no other guests were being challenged for doing the same.

We then went to reception to make a complaint. Unfortunately, we did not receive a response as we were told the manager was not in on a Sunday. We were later told they had tried to call me, although I had no missed calls. When we checked out, we were offered the opportunity to speak to the manager, but as we were leaving, we felt there was little point at that stage.

I do want to mention that the two ladies working on reception were very helpful and polite whenever we had to speak to them about the various issues during our stay. They were friendly and did their best to assist us, and this was appreciated.

One positive was that there were no real issues getting sunbeds, regardless of the time of day, which made relaxing by the pool much easier.

The cocktails were okay—not the best we've had, but they were perfectly drinkable—and the beer was good. However, it was disappointing that bottled drinking water was not available as part of the all-inclusive package. We had to buy bottled water from the supermarket across the road, which isn't what you expect when paying for an all-inclusive holiday.

The snack bar was another disappointment, with hot dogs and gyros often being served cold.

Overall, there were some positives, including being moved to a superior room, the helpful reception staff, the easy availability of sunbeds, the Greek evening, ribs and chicken wing night, and the drinks. However, these were outweighed by the disappointing food on most days, poor room service and lack of customer service, particularly regarding the repeated issues around the pool.

We left feeling let down by the overall experience. While there were some good aspects to the holiday, we would not choose to return or recommend this hotel based on our experience.