Domes Aulus Zante Autograph Collection

Mitigated feelings about this place. At first, it looks great as you arrive, a kind of premium Robinson cursoe experience. Then, small things keeps adding up to make it not worth the money

First, the location of the hotel is in laganas. This is the cheapest part of the island. Where the young crowd goes every day to get drunk on cheap beer. Any other area of the island is so much better and beautiful. That was our first mistake picking the hotel, the location.

Secondly, unless you getting some amazing good deal for the rooms, don’t go. By amazing good deal, I mean €400-500 for one room, max. If you consider like us booking a 2 bedrooms suite with a living room and views, forget it. Much better options available for this kind of money in the summer in Zante. So value for money is really poor. If you’re paying more than €800-900 for 2 rooms in summer, be sure you’ll be disappointed

The kids club is very average, our kids refused to visit it every day. The beach area can get dirty, not the short band of water sand, but the surroundings between the sunbeds and the water. Finding a towel may be a challenge. Finding a sunbed as well. The swimming pool is noisy and crowded, perfect for young kids though.

The food is average. The breakfast buffet more or less ok. The Japanese is a joke, just avoid, really awful. The Meze Greek is good though. Italian super average. We had 50% or our meals outside the hotel, as Zakinthos is full of amazing options.

Activities inside the hotel are limited. One tennis court. A tiny playground for kids (they’d try and not to anymore after 5mn). Youre advised not to visit the Forrest next to the resort alone, which doesn’t add confidence. And anything else you need to book outside the hotel. Watersports, horse riding, …

Very disappointed by the room itself. Booked the highest category 2 bedrooms suite sapphire zen, but it has very basic furniture and decoration. Uncomfortable bedding (unless you like hard beds). Again not worth the money.

The good things about the hotel are: The staff and team are super friendly and helpful, doing their best and very responsive. All made the stay much more likable. That’s a big yes. The water at the beach is really beautiful.

Haven’t tried the spa though.

Will definitely not visit again.

Lovely holiday but not quite luxury 5*

Great things:

• excellent location, short transfer from airport but not bothered by aircraft noise.
• Beautiful plot right on the beach where the sea is calm and shallow, perfect for kids and adults
• Classy decor in muted shades and good condition in communal areas and rooms. We had one small maintenance problem and it was sorted immediately and unobtrusively
• housekeeping team brilliant, our room was spotless and they'd nip in at whatever time we got ourselves out and about
• grab and go fridge and ice-cream by the pool great to help ourselves to drinks and snacks
• main buffet restaurant excellent quality and very well run / friendly service
• the duo guitar / singer who played mid week was very high quality

Things that would make it 5*:

• the unlimited dine around is a stretch of commitment. When we arrived we couldn't get a single booking in the 4 a la carte restaurants and weren't aware that a lot of people emailed ahead to get these bookings. We did finally get 2 lunchtime bookings at meze (really lovely but only open lunchtimes) plus 1 early evening booking at the Maya canteen (not really a restaurant - a street food style patio with great food but should really be open to grab and go) plus 1 early evening booking at the Italian (again very good). We couldn't get a booking at the yellow sea Asian style restaurant (even for 2 people). All the a la carte bookings we could get were in our last 2 days of a week long holiday.

I work in hospitality so could see the bookings available at these al la carte were capped at around 50-60 covers each night - the restaurant table capacity was much higher. This is for a hotel that has probably 500+ guests a night at peak. In short the 'unlimited' a la carte is not a truthful claim and despite the buffet being excellent I wouldn't have paid a premium price if this was the only option (without having to beg / challenge the reception team)

• no poolside service for drinks (I'd expect that in a 5*)
• pool closed at 6pm, felt early especially when it was consistently full with families at this time
• pool area also not maintained during the day, dangerous puddles, rubbish and no help with parasols. Loads of sunbeds on the beach but the cabanas and more premium beds were as usual reserved by families who then were not turning up to use them sometimes for the whole day. I know it's a guest behaviour problem but there must be an answer. To increase capacity of loungers by the pool I would remove some of the rarely used seating and replace with more beds
• all inclusive stopped at midnight and entertainment finished early - we aren't wild party people but it genuinely felt like both the above and pool closing at 6 was to get all the guests out of the way so staff could go home
• no courtesy suite to shower / change in before late flights home. Reception said it was no problem to use the spa but the rather churlish spa manager certainly made me feel like an inconvenience
• various supervisors walk around asking how guests are (awkwardly) and then write things down in their notebooks with zero follow up. It would be better not to ask if they aren't going to do anything with the requests.
• more flexible beds in rooms - we had a sapphire zen suite - 3 rooms but couldn't get twin beds in one room so the kids could have separate beds.

Nothing to do with a 5* rating but the staff uniforms are awful - a cross between pyjamas and prison fatigues. Not sure what the vibe was meant to be but they looked scruffy and even worse showed all the sweat marks.

All in all we had a lovely week but it does not live up to it's 5* claim.

Beautiful hotel, great location on the sea front, very short transfer from airport, away from the main strip but close enough to walk there down the beach if you wish, food was gorgeous with lots of selection to choice from drinks included as well, no fighting for sun beds plenty to go around and staff were always so happy to help and anything and everything, cleaner came round every day to keep room tip top, had to be one of the best places we’ve stayed at abroad Will definitely be returning again in the near future Many thanks mr/mrs Harris