Despo Hotel

Thought we had an all inclusive room, instead when we got there, we had additional costs such as aircon, tv and fridge which were quite costly for the duration of the 2 week stay. Food was just a joke, we could barely scrape breakfast from the selection. lunch time and dinner time food was disgraceful, We spent a fortune in the rainbow restaurant across the road!! And dont even start me on the road, a woman was badly injured when she was knocked down during our holiday. theres no crossing and its very very busy, beware If you have children. Staff were generally very unhelpful with a certain barman being very cheeky when it came to serving drinks, he would only serve me one drink at a time when i have a family of four, bear in mind the queues after 10pm were quite long, so they were expecting me to queue for 10 - 15 minutes for each drink! when confronted on this issue he was unbelieveably rude, 'i dont care, i dont care, go and complain if u want" was a popular line from him! Charming! When i did complain,what a waste of time! if they ran out of spirits in the evening they wouldnt open more bottles, i could go on all day here! AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

Ok for us. Family of 4. kids 12 and 8. We were also concerened after reading reviews and some things listed on 'by the beach' site not accurate. No kids club but a great single handed animation person that the kids loved. Been watching too much hi de hi me thinks. Yes hotel is basic but clean, family run and friendly ( no member of staff passes by without a cheerful goodmorning and bar staff quick to learn regular orders.). Food adequate for the basic hotel its price indicates. Shop 2 mins away so no probs if kids are a bit fussy and they are always willing to do chips if you ask. Rooms are basic and i wouldn't book less than a superior, god knows what the basic ones are like! But again adequate. How long do you spend in it ? The road that has to be crossed to get to the beach is the biggest problem but fine for the able bodied with their wits about them. I don't think i'd be too keen with a buggy or someone less able mobility wise. Trips availible were great and hotel is very close to pick up points and central to the most important excursions. Greek parties at the weekend - these did go on till 3 am were noisy, and our room was right nixt to the dance floor. Very interesting though and a part of normal greek life (deal with it) as tracey would say. Take earplugs and drink raki and all will be fine with the world! We had a good week in the sun and enjoyed the family atmosphere.

We stayed at the Despo 15 days. We were a little bit afraid because we read bad opinion on this web site before the departure. Our real opinion is a bit different from the others anglo opinions. For an italian person the breakfast was pretty good (even if there weren't brioches). The others meats were good, not so fantasious but good. The superior room is worth the € 100 you pay for it!! We see the other "normal rooms" and there is no compare. The all inclusive finish at 23.00 (there was written on the catalogue), we even drink cuba libre and vodka lemon ... for other more complicated cocktails they want to be paid... The beach is five minutes walking from the hotel, good with sand and it's a blue flag beach. We reccomend to book a car from italy if you want to see all the beautys of this island. Gouves it's not so good fo night life, but with a car Hersonissos and Malia are very close. Last notes.... the animator is alone, so we better call him reanimator... The team of the hotel was kind with us... maybe because we have been kind with them!!

we arrived at hotel 10.45pm july10th2007.left caeses in room up to bar for a drink.sorry all inclusive finished if you want a drink you must pay .welcome to hotel desperato.breakfast next morning very poor cereral sour milk bread cheese and ham .no kids club as advertised. two nights in arow ran out of spirits(vodka).hotel manager not very helpful.todays left over dinner is tomorrows lunch.very close to main road please make sure your kids are safe because road is like a race track.

we arrived in crete the same day the heatwave struck. we were checked into a room in the basement with no air conditioning and were eaten alive by the mossies all night. when we asked if we could have some air con we were told our room could not so we asked to be moved they said no!!!. that night i was bitten quite badly on my lip and face and looked like elephant woman the next day. i spoke to the manager and said if i do not have room with air con i would have to go to hospital. the temperature was 46 degrees in the day and a cool 32 degrees all night. they reluctantly moved us and then charged us 5 euros a day for the air con. we got a cheap deal so did not have high expectations of the place. the hotel was clean with a lovely pool, not much entertainment but we wanted a quiet week anyway so no probs there, did not expect to achieve a half stone in weight loss on my hols though, partly due to extremely hot temperatures but mostly due to the most awful food i have ever experienced and i have travelled a lot but this was my first time to greece and crete. my advice if you get a cheap deal to hotel despo , take it only for the nice pool, beer and soft drinks as that is all you get for your price.or if you fancy a cheap weight loss regime. on the whole we left crete with extremely burnt skin as it was difficult to stay out of the sun as very little shade at hotel despo, no sunshades, and my husband had about 80 mossies bites on him

This Hotel is described as 3* ALL INCLUSIVE. All inclusive means all local drinks, entertainment, air conditioning, tv, currency exchange, choice of foods full board. This hotel only had Rakki, Oozo, Brandy, Beer and Wine and Soft Drinks on the menu, I only drink Gin, and that including Vodka and Bacardi were not on the menu, you had to pay for them. I was not even asking for Gordons, just their local cheap gin. You also had to pay for all cocktails. The food was boring, and served to you like School Dinners. Lunch and Evening Meal, not much choice. Deserts were watermelon everyday, maybe if lucky a jelly (with no cream) or fruit salad (tinned). Breakfast was cold meats, salad, bread and jam, fruit (tinned) and greek yoghart, and cereals. The grapefruit/orange juice was watered down like squash, not pure. No hot breakfast ever. Maybe the odd boilded egg. Not a good choice for children to eat. No fresh fruit. Milk is left on the side by the cereal, not packed in ice or in a fridge, so not ice cold if you arrive late for breakfast. You had to pay five euros per day for air conditioning. The TV and Fridge you also had to pay for. No entertainment, day or night. The only so called games room was a table tennis and pool table which you had to pay two euros. There was no mini club only a little play ground area for children. No currency exchange, you have to go into the nearest town to find a bank. No pool towels, bring your own. No snack bar, the only snack was ice cream at the pool bar (only bar) serving coffee and the ice cream was only served between 3-6pm. In the evening all the guests sat around the pool playing cards, how boring is that. Nothing for children to do. The only good thing about this Hotel is the Rainbow Bar opposite on the other side of the road, which serves good food and cocktails. The bedrooms were adequate, with only one pillow on the beds. I would rate this Hotel as 1* All Inclusive, or maybe 2/3* Full Board. The Hotel Pool and the Hotel Reception and Gardens were the only good part.

Upon booking this holiday we had seen a couple of reviews already on the internet, which were not great and said that the food at this hotel was below average. However, we went into it with an open mind, it was a last minute deal and we only paid £180 pp for 7 nights all inclusive. At the very least we had the view that we have a cheap week in the sun, what difference if we do not gorge and feast ourselves like pigs for a week! We arrived after a nightmare hour long security queue at Gatwick South in the middle of the night. The transfer from the airport was approx 30 minutes in a taxi. The reception staff were still up to greet us (it was about 04:30) and offered us some food if we still wanted it. We declined as were keen to get to sleep and were shown to our room. Our Room: Having been to many other Greek Islands we know how basic accommodation can be. Nothing prepared us for this. The room we had been given was NOT the rooms pictured on the hotel advertisement. The main part of the room contained 2 single beds, set in concrete and one vanity unit with a mirror (minus a drawer!). There was little room for anything else let alone our suitcases, which we had to put on the bed to open up. There was no storage space to put these so they had to stay on the precious little floor space we had! There was a small wardrobe behind the door (that made the few clothes we had in there, odd) and a bathroom containing a shower, a toilet, and a sink. The room was on the ground floor, and outside the double doors behind one of the beds, was a HUGE patio with a table and 2 chairs. The patio area was bigger than the room! The room was clean though and the sheets and towels were changed twice during the week, but the maids came into the rooms every day except Sunday to clean and make the beds. Food: Breakfast was served from 8:00 – 10:00. This consisted of ham with green bits in, sliced cheese, bread, butter, jam, tinned peaches, muesli, Greek yoghurt, cucumber, olives, feta cheese and tomato. On the first day we also had boiled eggs. These then only appeared once again. Tea and coffee were available as well as ‘orange juice’ which was actually orange squash and watered down grapefruit juice. We were pretty accepting of this as have been to resorts before where these kinds of breakfast food items have been served. We were disappointed that the hotel advertises an American breakfast. We thought it was more continental - minus croissants. If you did not arrive before 09:15 the ham and cheese had ran out and supplies did not seem to be plentiful. Lunch was served from 13:00 – 15:00. We only went for lunch 3 times during our stay. There seemed to be plenty of food on offer, including 3 different hot dishes, as well as plenty of pasta and different salads. There was a really nice fish pasta salad, different bowls full of fresh tomatoes and cucumber, olives, feta cheese, and there was always 2 different desserts. These were sometimes either little cakes, ice cream and always slices of melon. The salads however always contained the vegetables left over from the previous evening’s meal. This did not bother us, as we do that at home, and you are pretty safe to eat left over vegetables the next day. However, on 2 consecutive days a ‘creamy pork’ dish was served. This did worry me a little! Dinner was served from 19:00 – 21:00. This again was in plentiful supply and quite varied. Lots of people that were staying there went out to different restaurants to eat at night as did not want their holiday ruined by the food, we chose not too as it defeated the point of a budget week away and stuck with it. It did seem to improve as the week went on. There were always 3 hot dishes to choose from, including creamy pork, meatballs, rabbit in sauce, pasta la crème (kind of like a pasta omelette) ‘beef meat’ in sauce, battered fish in sauce etc. These are just some of the hot dishes on offer, although as the Chef was Greek and not very English speaking, it was not always clear what sauces the food was in, but you could pretty much tell it was either tomato or cream. There were also vegetables to go with it, sweetcorn, mash, carrots, and green beans. For 2 days we also had a tasty aubergine and potato dish. Alongside the hot dishes were always plenty of salads, cold pasta and rice. Dessert was always either chocolate mouse or melon. The staff in the restaurant was friendly, and you had to sit at the same table for the week for all your meals. The table cloth did not get changed once, just rotated or flipped. (We had spilt some sauce on the first day, and we had fun watching it move around the table!) There really was not much to eat if you are vegetarian, it was mainly meat, even in the cold pasta dishes. Also there was very limited food that a child would eat. I hate chips and am quite glad to eat a variety of food and try new dishes, but for kids these were only served once. Each day between 15:30 and 18:00 was ‘snack of the day’ and ice cream. This was a god send. The snacks of the day were either one of these, cheese pie, spinach pie, Spanish omelette. They were delicious. Ice cream was great for the kids as they could have as many as they wanted and a choice of 6 flavours. Drinks: All inclusive drinks were advertised from 11:00 – 00:00, however on arrival at the hotel bar there was a sign stating they would only serve them until 23:00. The only alcoholic drinks available were local beer (which was nice – although despite drinking it all day you never felt tipsy!) red and white wine, as well as a rose, which was red mixed with white! Also, local brandy, ouzo and raki. Soft drinks were Fanta (orange and lemon), sprite, coke, water and tea and coffee. General: The hotel looks stunning from the front; the pool is fantastic and pretty big. There were not enough sun beds for the number of people staying at the hotel, and typically ‘some people’ would put there towels down at 09:00 until 18:00 only spending half an hour actually using them. There was a kid’s pool which was 60cm deep. The main pool was about 2 metres deep. This was not fenced off. I think this is awful considering the only bar in the hotel is outside around the deep end of the pool. Luckily we did not have any kids to worry about them running around it or falling in it in the evening. On our second day there had been a power cut at the hotel, which meant no drinks were available for a few hours. This then led to a water shortage and there was no water for 2 days in a row at ‘peak shower times’. For the first 3 days, the shower water was not hot. We complained to the manager about this, and on our day of departure we were allowed to keep our room, and our all inclusive until we left at midnight instead of it finishing at noon which we thought was a lovely gesture. The hotel is situated about 20 minutes walk from the main town of Gouves and about 10 minutes down hill walk to the beach. The hotel runs a shuttle bus to the beach at 09:30 and 13:30 for pick up. This should be more frequent as the hotel is on a dual carriage way which is the Heraklion new road. This runs the entire length of the island. This must be crossed to get to the beach, the supermarket or the main town. We went into the main town late evening one night but didn’t bother again as the town seemed pretty dead, plenty of bars and restaurants, but it is early season after all. The beach in the main part of town was rocky and small; the one down the road opposite the Despo hotel is much nicer, bigger and sandier. Overall, we would not return to this hotel, the staff were not very helpful or interested in being pleasant to you and unless there was a shake up on the variety of food and drink available, we would not return to this hotel.

My wife & I stayed at the Despo for 2 weeks in Sept 2006.The hotel is very clean & the staff are friendly enough,especially the bar man in the afternoon. The hotel has a very nice pool and garden area and it was easy enough to get a sunbed although it was harder to get an umbrella. Do not expect to get any sleep at the weekend as they seem to have a private party [weddings and christenings] for greeks only with very loud bouzouki music [aaaaaaargh] going on until the early hours.We had the doors closed,the shutters closed and earplugs in and could still easily hear it.The bar stops serving all inc at 11pm so if you are staying up you have to pay. Now, the food. . . .well what can we say? Having had plenty all inc holidays all over the world we got up the first morning expecting a choice of hot or cold food with plenty of choice, not at the Despo, bread,jam,cheese slices,ham with green bits in,tinned peach slices,salad and slices of dry cake every day with not a slice of bacon or a sausage in sight. Lunch was no better with a choice of pasta without sauce,meat [usually pork] carrots one day peas the next then back to carrots and mash with the consistency of thick soup. Dinner was almost exactly the same as lunch except you sometimes were offered something like all the lunch menu mixed together. Needless to say we ate out every evening after the first two. Luckily we took plenty of money with us or it would've been the first all inc where we lost weight instead of gaining it. Gouves has some fantastic tavernas within walking distance if you dare cross the road. Another thing about the restaurant is that they serve red wine straight from the fridge.You would think after Crete has been taking in holidaymakers for 50 years a place like the Despo would know how to serve it's wine! You get the same wine in the bar and that is not from the fridge though so that's a relief. The hotel has no entertainment at all ,which we enjoyed very much,however some people will expect it. It is not really a place for kids either,which pleased us even more but again some will be disappointed by this. You will need to take your own towels for around the pool as these are not supplied.Each room has a safe which is payable at reception. The rooms also have air con but at 5euros a day we didn't bother with it. Thre was no TV in the room and the radio didn't work,but we had enough greek music at the weekends anyway. The hotel is also directly on the flight path to Heraklion and planrs fly over around every 15 mins day and night,this didn't keep us awake thouhg because we were so tired after the greek music we would have slept through anything. To sum up, we had a wonderful holiday because we hired a jeep for a week and ate out most of the time. Crete is a wonderful place with lovely people but the management at the Despo have a lot to learn about all inclusive holidays. Nigel & Diane Field.

We arrived at the Despo and thought it looked ok for a middle class hotel at first. It was clean, the rooms a bit knocked about but ok for a weeks break. We choose this hotel as it was flagged up as a family hotel so with an 18yr old 14yr old and 6 year old in toe it seemed ideal, especially as a kids entertainer and mini bus to the beach were promised. Thats all it was though promise, no mini bus and no kids entertainer, infact no entertainment at all, except the night we left when they were going to hold a greek night, but then even though you had paid for all inclusive they expected you to pay 15 Euros each to attend! Along with no entertainment for the guests, at the weekend we were subjected to fri and sat private celebrations of extremley loud music that rebounded around the complex and although we complained it went on to the early hours of the morning,staff did little to stop the private parties, it was horrendous and spoiled what could of been a nice holiday. Now to the FOOD, it is the worst all inclusive food ever, they use the cheapest cuts of meat, mainly fat and smother it a sauce, everyday its meat, potatoes and pasta, and the very original greek salad, is the same everyday! You honestly cant tolerate any more of it after 3 days. Breakfast is disgusting too, if your lucky boiled eggs, bread jam and dry cake, your kids will hate you for ever if you continue to take them into the dining room, although it could be used as a source of punishment if the little darlings are playing up, just threaten them with Despo food! I cant say the staff are horrible they do the best they can with limited resources, them being if they try to help you, they will get fired by the managemant so they pretend they cant speak English! (they can really). The only decent thing about the Despo is the cleanliness and the pool and pool bar, here we met some wonderful Dutch, German, Polish people as well as us English and we laughed continually about the Dining room, lets face it if we didnt all laugh we would of cried or starved! We all opted to go down to Medusas restaurant for food and also the Rainbow club over the road where George would not only serve you an nice drink and entertain you, he gave you nibbles to eat, looking back on it i wish we could of got camp beds and slept at the rainbow club instead. I read another review from Sept 05, on this review, wish i had read it before we booked as i wouldnt of gone with my family, so if your reading this now, dont go, dont give them your hard earnt cash as they will treat you like your stupid with crap food and you would be better going bed and breakfast somewhere else, above all dont take kids it not any fun for them and they will starve as they dont serve a chip ever! Mrs Rachael Walvin.

My wife and I have just returned from a week in Crete, where we stop at the Hotel Despo, our stay was an all inclusive expereince. The Island of Crete was beautiful, with wonderfull views and a rich culture. The Hotel was clean, unfortunatley that was the only positive point of this hotel experience. The hotel food was very poor, hot dishes were often cold, cold dishes were often several days old. In general terms the staff were unpleasent with a disapointing manner. The reception spoke good english, unfortunatley the remaining staff did not. The Hotel also doubles up as the Island celebration centre. This meant that private celebrations were held often, hotel guest were unwelcome to these events, the events often continued to 03:00 / 04:00 hrs, with very loud music The pool area was also clean, but lacked enough sunbeds for the hotel population, the pool was very cold. The hotel is also located on the side of a very busy main road, this meant that loud traffic was heard most of the day. In summarising, the hotel was a stressfull experience. Mr L Neilson.