Illysion Hotel

3 readers found this review helpful

Last year my parents and I stayed in the Hotel Ziakis and thought it was brilliant. The views were amazing, the food was good and the service was brilliant as well. Unfortunately this year, Ziakis was full so my parents booked at the Illysion Hotel instead. They said that they had read some bad reviews about the hotel but were going to see what it was like instead of going by what the reviews had said. On the second day, my mum was already saying that the reviews were right. The service was average, not as good as you would expect it to be. The staff were quite rude and seemed like we were taking up their time, even though the extra costs were absolutely ridiculous. Luckily, our fridge was open instead of us having to pay for it to keep the water bottles cool. However, we did have to switch rooms as our toilet stopped working and the maintenance man lied and said that he had fixed it, left and we had to call him back because the toilet didn't work. Then when we had called reception, they said it wouldn't be up and running for another week, so we had to move all of our thigns into another room, another manouvre which we were not offered any help with. So a lot of our time was taken up with complaining, and when we had switched rooms, the next hotel room's bathroom light didn't work. Instead of using our whole holiday to make complaints and get what are basic needs, we decided to live without a bathroom light.
The food was awful, so low budget and not greek at all. Everyone was miserable at breakfast time because they knew how awful the food was.
The only good thing I can honestly say about the hotel is that the location was outstanding. Walking out of your room, onto the beach was an amazing experience and that would be the only reason I would return.

we have just arrived back from our weeks holiday and apart from the fantastic views and a lovely pool this hotel has not got alot going for it. breakfast not bad although no toast but evening meal was terrible, did'nt know what we were eating half the time. rooms small and tatty. paying for air con and fridge, no way, what a cheek. drinks expensive. not alot to do but ok if you like rest and more rest. trip to rhodes was a 2 hour trip and shops are awful. bit boring at times all in all.

2 readers found this review helpful

The last comment is spot on ,this hotel could be Great.The rooms are basic,but clean.The beds are the most uncomfortable I have ever slept in.
The staff there are great and do everything they can for you,but when it comes down to food,forget it ,breakfast is ok after all it's Greece and it's what it is,fine.
Evening meal is dreadful,the Germans seemed to like it though judging on the amounts they piled on there plates.But really don't let this put you of as the restaurant up the road is fantastic,massive menu and well priced.Correlis.
Can't believe Germans still put towels on beds every night,unbelievable.

1 reader found this review helpful

Where do we begin with the illysion hotel. After a long journey we were greeted by a man at the front desk that had very few words to say " hello,key for room, 20 euro deposit please for a/c, goodbye". After reading reviews online we went with an open mind and weren't quick to judge on other peoples opinions about the hotel. That night we went downstairs to dinner and was not tempted by the food, it was awful, i only had to look at my girlfriends moody face to see we werent going to stay there for something to eat. The hotel is situated near the local town of pefkos and its one of the best places iv been to for the scenery and food. The staff werent too bad at the hotel, even the man who worked behind the bar who liked to think of himself as a celebrity. Overall the hotel has the potential to be very very nice with fantastic views of the sea and a very nice pool and bar area but it needs a general clean up. Pefkos 100% go back, hotel illysion maybe not.

2 readers found this review helpful

hotel was a nightmare food terrible had to eat out everynight staff were arrogant didnt care about guests atall rooms were very unclean far too many added extra costs such as lock on fridge you had to pay to use the resort was fine but hotel was like fawlty towers gone wrong even saw a rat by the pool area one day

6 readers found this review helpful

We have just arrived home from our week at the Illysion and are desperate to set the record straight on this hotel. After reading previous reviews before going on holiday I was terrified about what I might find when I got there. However, the hotel is not dirty and unfriendly as others have claimed, in fact we found it to be the exact opposite and we never had a problem with anything (apart from the food).

The pool areas were lovely and surprisingly quiet with plenty of sunbeds to spare everyday, and the beach was perfect. You can walk directly from the pool area onto the small but very private beach. The beach is small but it was never crowded, in fact there was hardly anyone on it the whole time we were there (a huge surprise seen as though we travelled in the middle of the school holidays) and we loved spending lazy days moving back and forth from the pools and the beach.
We asked for a quiet holiday close to the beach when we booked the Illysion, and were delighted to find that we got everything we wanted. That is, apart from good food. Many others have already commented on the poor quality of the food and I have to admit it isn't great. Mainly due to a lack of choice more than anything - you have to order what you want from a small menu one night in advance and get no choice of starter or dessert. You will probably find it a waste of money booking half-board like we did. So I really would recommend trying to book on a bed and breakfast or self-catering basis as there are plenty of brilliant places to eat nearby, and you shouldn't miss out on the great location that the hotel offers. Coralli's restuarant is a 5-10 min walk from the hotel and I cannot praise this place enough, myself and my boyfriend said that we would return to Pefkos just so that we could eat here again! You get fantastic food at fantastic prices from fantastic staff. There are also other good places to eat further into Pefkos (a 20 min walk away) so you will be spoiled for choice.
Overall the only downside to our holiday was the food. I would add that there are quite a few steps around the hotel so it possibly wouldn't suit those who are less mobile. Also the drinks in the hotel and in other bars are really not that much cheaper than in England, and for soft drinks you will pay far more than you would at home so head to the supermarket as soon as you get there.
As long as we can book b&b or self-catering we will definately be returning soon - it was the best holiday we've ever had!!! Don't be put off by what others have said!!

2 readers found this review helpful

Lovely hotel in a nice location however i have never experienced such poor service and rude staff!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The staff were never willing to help, very rude always miserable and insulting
The least accomodating place i heve ever visited,
The hotel rep was seen at the welcoming talk and never again, and could not be contacted. The hotel food was always the same and the organisation of the dining room was a joke, you were lucky if you got what you ordered at meal times.
The holiday was ruined by the poor service and the rudeness of the staff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 readers found this review helpful

first visit to rhodes, and loved it.i would recomend this hotel to adults who want a great location!! when arrived at hotel (6am) was greeted and given our rooms. the reception area is very nicely decorated the balcony is lovely and the views are wonderful. hotel location great! with the sea right on our doorstep, only went around the pool once in the two weeks we stayed.the pool area (2 pools)was clean and had plenty of spare beds.the cafe bar around the pool was reasonable priced and had a decent choice of drinks and snacks.jacuzzis were empty through? our room was huge had a sofa, two chairs, wardrobe, and draws, so had plenty of storage, the fridge did have a lock on it,but our friends didnt ,so just used theirs, only needed it to store drinks. airconditioning was a bit steep 70 euros for two weeks plus 50 euros deposit.room was cleaned every day but not very well. breakfast basic but ok. evening meal was a bit hit and miss. enjoyed some meals but couldnt eat a few of the starters!!! location was perfect for us 4 adults but maybe a bit out the way for people with children, and teenagers would be bored stiff!!!! entertainment was..... what can i say ELVIS (sunday and tuesday nights) he was terrible but you had to laugh!!! no other enterainment. usually went to pefos or lardos in an evening, a nice 15 min walk. the bar area in the hotel was open as late as the customers needed it and was friendly and welcoming. recommend hiring transport (we hired bikes 70 euros for 3 days)travelled all around the island lindos is beautiful, st pauls bay is breath taking, we found lots of different beaches and little villiages to explore.rhodes town is great to visit, but very busy, shoppers paradise.

1 reader found this review helpful

we have just came back from a weeks holiday at the illysion hotel, apart from the xl going burst which caused a bit chaos it was a great holiday and we met some great people and had a good time . The Hotel is nice and has a great setting and we had a good room which was spacious beneath the pool bar with great sea views, that made our holiday
however the meals were rubbish to say the least, the salad was the best bit about the meal times the starters apart from the soup were very poor and the main courses even worse, when we saw peas for starters we wondered what was coming but yes you guessed a small plate of garden peas with the odd bit of carrot thrown in and whoever has heard of chicken curry with a chicken leg with little meat covered in curry sauce along with smash potatoes says it all about the meals. we also found staff attitudes in the restuarant very poor they were not interested in being there never mind assisting you, when someone asked for more tomatoes , they were told that they only put them out at certain times and they would have to wait, also if there were no cups for tea or no glasses for juice you may have had to wait for up to 20 minutes for them to bring out more, the reps even had a meal there one night as so many complaints were received about the food and they agreed it was gisgusting so that says it all, and like most people you just have to mention the hotel to correlli,s down the road and they laugh as they are getting so much business from them. we also found them very money grabbing and there is no longer free air con for anyone so everyone has to pay 40 euros for their a/c plus 50 euros for the return of the remote, plus 14 euros per week for the fridge although we heard that your suitcase padlock key might just do the trick to open it if you dare to try, and also 20 euros for the use of a safe for a week . the rest of the staff we found fine and were quite helpful but definately the female working in the restuarant makes it quite clear everything is a hassle for her and she hates her job, or maybe its just everyone that speaks english as we did see her smile at some people who spoke a different language.
the hotel was nice but wont be back, it was too far out of Pefkos and the road was dangerous to walk especially at night, you pass remembrances to people who died on the road and we could understand why !! the rep for olimpic though was really good and she was honest and always available so thank you michelle.a change of some staff and chef and less of the money grabbing would make a huge difference to this hotel believe me

4 readers found this review helpful

Illysion hotel, more like rip off hotel! We stayed there for 2 weeks in June. Firstly, the hotel is not in Pefkos, it's nearer to Lardos, which means it is quite a long walk into Pefkos along the main road, or a nice beach walk during the day, but you have to walk out to sea in places to get past the rocks or climb up the rocks onto the headland, (not very practical, and takes about an hour). The hotel it's self is in a lovely possition with every room looking out over the sea, and sea views from the pool area. Now for the downside. The hotel is run and managed by the owners and their son. The son is very pleasent and helpful on his own, but not when his parents are arround. The wife is the most miserable, rude, unhelpful and inconciderate person we have ever met, she runs the reception and will not do anything to help you unless there is money in it for her. Her husband is not much better. He runs the restaurant at dinner time and is quite pleasent to each guest the first night, but very difficult if you don't do things his way. You have to order your meal the night before, so on arrival day it's pot luck what you get. When you enter the restaurant, he will take your drink order, and then write your meal choice (chosen the night before onto a piece of paper with your table no on it through to the kitchen, if you don't order drinks (which are very expensive) he will make you wait ages before passing the little piece of paper to the kitchen staff. Just because you have chosen your meal the day before doesn't mean you will get it, the only way to be sure is to go in early. The starter was always available, but the salad had often run out during the first 45 mins and always by the first hour, so although dinner was served between 7 & 9pm you need to have finished your starter by about 7.30 if you want salad, (the salad bar was never refilled in the two weeks we were there), when we asked for salad at 8pm we were told it was finished. This was partly because several guests only ate salad because of the state of the kitchen. They had a large salad at 7pm and then went to a restaurant of their choice later. One of the guests was a holiday rep there last year and said the grill is not cleaned more than once a week, which is why she only ate salad and so did alot of other guests when she told them this. The meals are rather bland, dry, usually cold and often very salty, (probably so you buy more drinks). The fish is the worst option of all, and often not what it says on the menu, ie; the salmon is grey, not pink, always ask for the sauce to be served separately as it is so salty, it ruins the whole meal. Father and son will often sit down and eat their own meal during the last 45 mins of dinner time, if you want something during this time you just have to wait. One night we asked all 4 staff for our meal but were told they could not bring it until the owner gave them the piece of paper in the kitchen. Expect to get ripped off for your drinks, a bottle of house wine 'Appella' costs 3E in the super market and 6E in the local restaurants, but in the hotel they charge 25E. A small bottle of water for 1 person costs 3E. The restaurant is very hot as they dont use the air con, and is swarming with insects. I came home with 200 bites and had to have medical treatment, although the bites have gone now I am left with about 30 scars which my GP has said will never go away, I have to use fake tan all the time to try and disguise them. The owners were not present at breakfast and the staff were very friendly then when there was no one to keep an eye on them, however the food was not much better than dinner time. Tinned fruit and cake, cereal that tasted like cardboard, (I tryed 3 out of the 5), no toast machine just dry frnch bread left over from dinner the night before, (after breakfast it was given the the pet dear who refused to eat it and relyed on kind tourists to feed him. On two occasions the drinks machines were not workind due to a 'power cut', however you could buy drinks at the pool bar on the same site and the power was working in the rooms. The rooms in the main hotel block were small,old and tatty. We had a superior room which was quite spacious and had a good size bathroom and a large terrace, but the only window was the patio door, so the room got very hot and we could not leave the door open as we were on the ground floor. Alot of the guests complained about the cleaning of their rooms but we had no complaint with this and the towels and sheets were changed every 3 days, but we did come back several days to find that the patio door had been left unlocked and the curtains drawn back. For the first 2 days we had no hot water, when I asked the owner if we could use the courtesy room, she told me there was no hot water in the hotel at all and the plumber would be calling the following day. We did not beleive her and when we asked other guests they said they had hot water and it was just our block of 7 rooms, but said another block had no hot water the previos week for 3 days. 2 days later I heard two men talking by the pool who said they had had no hot water since the previous day. Looks as if they pick a block each week and turn off the hot water. We asked the rep to move us to another room or another hotel as it was 40 deg C and we needed a shower. She said we could not be moved or get any compy until we had had 3 days without hot water. All the blocks had their water back on between the 2nd/3rd day, so their was no compensation. Now for the extra's, well basicly nothing is free. There is a fridge in every room, plugged in and running, but it is padlocked. The padlock will only be removed if you pay a 3E fee per day for the duration of the holiday. Make sure you hide your electrical appliances as they will be conferscated until you check out and charge you to use theirs. The excuse will be for fire regs as your appliance does not have an electrical safety certificate. We contacted the Olympic manager and pointed out that the T.V. and air con units did not have certificates and they were far more dangerous than hairdryers etc. She confirmed the only reason for this was to make you hire their goods. The air con is advertised as being free from the 16th June, but we found that on every changover day the date had moved to about 2 days after the next departure. The air con is 7.5E per day and only goes down to 23 deg C, and some units didn't work at all and even if they were fixed later in the week, guests were not given a refund for the days it was not working. The hotel has 2 areas of sunbeds, by the pools they are free, but on the concrete by the beach (where it is too hard to lay on a towel,they charge 3E per day and most of the beds were broken. The bar was very rarely used due to the cost of the drinks, most of the English guests ate out due to the poor food on offer for dinner. You can get a 3 course meal for 2 people with wine in Pefkos for 20E which is cheaper than the drinks bill in the hotel. There are 2 restaurants within a 5 min walk of the hotel, both serve lovely meals for about 6-7E. I would reccomend you budget to eat out at night. It's a great shame as we found the hotel to be the best accomodation we have ever had in Greece, in a lovely position by the sea with comfortable rooms, but the owners will not do anything for you unless they are paid. They sell out of date goods in their shop at full price and refused to refund our neighbours juice that was off as it had been opened, refused to inflate lilo's even though they had a machine and the guests had said they would leave the lilo's behind for them. Refused to help with any tourist info which was greatly needed as the rep was also useless. Not only was it her first job with Olympic, she had never done this type of work before (said she was an actress) and could not help with anything, she then left within a week and her replacement had so many hotels to look after that she was never there at the times stated on the board. Olympic were just as bad. they haven't even replyed to my complaint sent 3 months ago. I would not reccomend this hotel to anyone and I probably will not choose another Olympic holiday