Irini Hotel

I and my boyfriend stayed at this hotel from the 4th the 11th June. It is advertised as a 3 star hotel but we both was shocked.
On arrival we was greeted by the manager (George) he was very welcoming and carried are bags in to check in. The hotel surroundings are lovely and it looks so nice from the outside but then we was shown to our room!
We had booked a double but was shown to a twin room. When we asked about the double we was told they had all been booked. The room was awful! It was dark and damp and smelt horrible.
We complained and was moved to a slightly better room which was clean but still a twin and the shower wasn’t even attached to the wall! We had to hold it the whole time!
When we went for breakfast the following morning we was devastated. Soggy corn flakes and cold baked beans. I actually sat and cried! The food remained pretty much the same throughout the holiday and we kept going out for meals.
There is a bar just down the road called the Shamrock. They do a lovely breakfast and it’s very cheap. The hotel has an all inclusive light which means it’s only between 11am and 11pm.
We stayed most night at the bar and ended up spending a lot of money because we stayed after 11. However the reason we stayed at the bar was the bar man. (plumen) he is Bulgarian and a lovely bloke. He made our holiday for us. He was extremely welcoming and made us feel at home. He took the time to talk to us and drink with us.
There was also another guy (kostos) he was brilliant. I’m not quite sure what his role was but he did clean the pool every night and every morning and drank most nights at the bar.
The pool area was clean and nice. There was bugs but it is outside and abroad so what do you expect? There are lots of places to hire cars near buy and if you talk to the manager he can get you a discount.
I would recommend hiring a quad bike or a scooter as they are cheap and fun. We used ours to go to the beach as it is quite far to walk.
All in all if you’re just looking for somewhere basic to lay your head down then this hotel would be perfect, but if you’re looking for something amazing then I’d suggest somewhere else.
We would return to Crete as it is lovely, but not this hotel!

We as a family came to this hotel and were not expecting much as the reviews over Crete were not brilliant.
The hotel owner was lovely and did try to help out where possible, although we did not complain. There were snails in the pool and a baby frog came to swim with my daughter, my husband often cleaned out the pool in the morning’s before a swim.
The last four days of our holiday we could not use the pool as algae had appeared in the pool, a lovely green.
The rooms were ok but the noise from the main road was a problem for me, it took a week to get use to the traffic but we were at the front of the hotel.
The chef did a wonderful job with the food, whatever meat he was given to use he cooked it well. There were lots of salad and nice crusty bread to fill you up.
The only thing that really got on my nerves was the flies that ate with you. My daughter and I stood watch, if we went to get a drink with our meal to hit the flies away.
As for the Bulgarian, he was really a nice chap so don’t get put off by him what you should remember we are in their country and they try and speak English do we speak Greek (no).
Any way, what we did was hire a car and got around the island that way it is a lovely country.

The holiday hotel from hell is the best way of describing it. A total waste of money.
I went with my 8yr old daughter. The pool had snail slime in the bottom of it, dead snails floating in it and frogs swimming, not to mention the dead bugs floating about.
The food was terrible, we ate out for the full week what you did not eat at lunch they served it at dinner. The food was cold and the flies were all over it.
The rooms were not much better. The shower had fell of the wall so you had to hold the spray to shower; the toilet was blocked 6 out of 7 days. The smell of blocked drains could be smelt most days.
This hotel is all inclusive light so they only serve wine, beer, brandy, and ouzo if you want another spirit it is 4 euro. Coffee at the bar was 2 euro, there are no snacks available free or to buy.
The staff are miserable and only talk when they feel like it, and totally ignore you when their friends arrive, which is often. After 11 pm you are charged 4 euro for all drinks whilst their friends sit and drink.
My best advice to anyone going is change your hotel even at a cost it would be worth it!!

I spent 2 weeks in Irini Hotel with my friends and we couldn't be more pleased. The rooms, of course, were basic but very clean, comfy and spacious - for the small price we paid it was really nice. We took 2 rooms without air conditioning but it wasn't too hot because the apartments were a little bit lower than the main floor and the trees around gives lots of shade.
The pool was great with clean, warm water and there were lots of sun beds around. The bar was OK as well.
We really enjoyed breakfast and dinner time. There was plenty to choose from. You could eat as much as you wanted, the food was delicious and every day we had something different.
The bus stop is really near just few steps away and the beach is about 10 minutes walk away.
The manager was the best man we ever met and the stuff was great and friendly as well. We loved to talk to them. If we had a problem, the problem was solved in 5 minutes.
The deposit box cost 20 euro for 2 weeks.
What can I say - I don't think my holiday would have been better in a 5 stars hotel. We had everything we needed and even much, much more.

Well what can I say , This hotel had nothing bar shut at 10 pm , or not open at all. And I don’t drink, had to go to the Rainbow Which was good, Hi George, the bar man. And Ann bar maid. 5 min walk away.
Food was really sad, ( take more money to eat out). Breakfast was to early who wants to get up 7 30 on hols? (Well some might )But don’t bother Go to Pig and Whistle in town.
Pool was really lovely shame about not enough sun beds and bar music awful. Long walk to town, bus stop 5 min walk.
Town was really lovely. So was the area. The people are lovely.
Rooms are very basic and some are worse? (But clean) .
Rep What REP.

1 reader found this review helpful

All of the hotel staff worked really hard to make our holiday a success, Alex, Marina and Helen the bar staff were always pleasant and helpful while the owner Yanis, his wife and his daughter saw to all of the cooking etc. Sure, sometimes their English was limited, but there again how good is your Greek! Yanis and his wife were up and about every day by about 6am to start breakfast and there were no restrictions on how much you could have. Not bad from a couple who wont see 60 again.
If I had a complaint it was about other guests, especially those who were leaving, the noise they made at two in the morning was so great Yanis had to threaten them with eviction if they didn’t keep it down and rightly so.
With us on our trip was my grandson aged 8, we felt very safe in letting him roam around the hotel, the hotel staff thought he was wonderful, but then again he knows how to behave.
Jody our rep from Olympic was great, she couldn’t be more helpful but even reps powers are limited and frankly some of the complaints we heard being put to her were ridiculous.
You have to remember this is a two star hotel and this is what you get, clean, good basic.
The hotel is a little way out of the town but it is described accurately in the brochure. Overall you get what you pay for, and the holiday is what you make it, this holiday provided value for money and to be honest we have no complaints worth making.

Well, what can we say about the Irini. To say this hotel was basic (well basic isn’t the word) all we had in our room was beds and drawers with no bottoms in. If these rooms had air conditioning, that would of made the rooms a bit more bearable, but unfortunately we had to have fans.
Food was ok, nothing to write home about, staff were ok.
The pool was lovely and the pool bar was good, with very nice bar staff
The village of Gouves was about half hour walk(quite a way)especially if you’ve got kids, but the shops were good.
Overall our holiday was only ok, if it wasn’t for the lovely people we met, I don’t think we would of enjoyed it (there just wasn’t any comforts about the place).
HI AUNTIE MAGGIE AND PATRICK
HI NIGEL,SIMON,BEN AND BECKY if you read this...love John, Michelle and Sasha x

This was a lovely Hotel with extremely friendly staff, I will agree their English is limited but they were polite and extremely friendly at all times.
The food was really nice (and I am very fussy). The rooms were great and spacious. There was a rule that balcony shutters had to be shut at night, which I think is understandable as it is for the guest’s own safety. The pool was clean and warm, with a nice pool bar that served English style food all day.
My only complaint would be that the town was about a half an hour walk away, but there was an easy accessible bus you could take.
At night it was reasonably quiet, with 2 main nearby bars, one called the rainbow bar which was a favourite with children as it showed films every night, the other bar was called the lucky shamrock, and it showed mostly sports.
My favourite bar was the hotel bar, the bar man Alex was hilarious. One of my favourite things about this hotel was the staff, I understood some people were frustrated at their lack of English, but I got along well with all of them from the janitor to the manager.
The beach was just amazing and about a 5 minute walk away from the hotel. I would recommend this resort to anyone.
XxX