Mariana Aparthotel

This was a great place and wouldnt change it even if i could. When reading the reviews before i went i started to get worried but once i got there everything was excellent and the whole place was very clean. Met some of the best people there and everyone got on, there was no trouble. Its very safe as they have alot of cctv cameras all around the hotel. They have safe's at reception with a cctv camera pointed at them and you get your own key i would 100% trust them. Its an 18-30 hotel so except it too be wild, people sit at the bar until 8clock in the morning but there is never any trouble. The 2 aussie lads are lovely!, could sit and talk to them for hours dont believe the comments you read about them. You do not get charged for everything just have respect for your room. You get a sheet telling you how much whatever item you break is and they inspect your room at the end of the holiday to make sure no damage is done but for the people that go wild and break things on purpose just deserve to be charged, its easy but just go to parties in other peoples rooms where you know yours is going to stay ok. We only had one little eruption and that was when the key broke in the door coz of the heat as we left it when getting read and we couldnt get out, and one of the aussie guys was messing with us by not letting us out of our room but it was all for fun, so we only had to pay20 euros to replace it which is fair enough. I would definatley go back to laganas all together and wouldnt even think twice about booking this hotel, was excellent and hopefully we will be back soon!!

1 reader found this review helpful

If i could have rated this place 0/10 i would have!
The only good thing about this hotel was the general clenliness of the place as overall the rooms were nice and clean, hear goes with the bad points. The worst point being the arrogant aussie owners Pete and John! They will stitch you for every penny they can. We paid extra to be self catering, this was literally one cupboard a sink fridge and 2 cooker rings, no where to store food (especially considering we had ants) and hardly the best cooking arrangements, if we wanted a kettle/toaster you would have to hire these out at a charge of about 20 euro per week, which was the same with everything -safe 20 euro, air con 40 euro, towels 15 euro, the list goes on an on an on! The prices at the bar were rediculious it was about £2 for can of coke and the same for walkers crisps nd your not allowed any food not purchased from the bar around the pool - even water! I could go on for ages but think have got the picture across!
Laganas was definatly fun and well worth going as i would go back - just not to this hotel!
READ ON IF YOU MUST! EVERYBODY ELSES COMMENTS SAY IT ALL.

1 reader found this review helpful

all i can say is i would not stay at this hotel again!! the two owners completely rip you off!!! fair enough the hotel is very clean and so is the pool area, but the owners just try and get what they can off you. they charge you for towels on arrival for a start which is scandolous!!!! i got robbed in town on the first night, my purse contained my room key and my safe key and the owners charged me 80 euros for another set and i didnt get my 20 euros back from having the safe in the fist place! so anyone travelling to zante do not stay here!!

1 reader found this review helpful

DO NOT GO TO THIS HOTEL!!!!!
The 2 aussies who run the place are the biggest money grabbing thiefs you will ever meet. On arrival they will tell you a lie "we hold onto your passports for 1 day to copy down your details" after 1 day you ask for your passport back and they refuse to give it to you. They keep your passport to basically hold you ransom when you check out. They will come up with a stupid "damage" charge and you have to pay it if you want to make your flight. Just look at all the other reviews, they all say the same!! I was disgusted at how this hotel treated its guests.
They're CCTV system is used as a money maker... if you check out and step into someones room, the charge will depend on how the guy likes you, generally 8 euros but I heard 30-40 euros get mentioned during my stay. If you don't pay and you don't get your passport, its simple as that! If your sick, the charge can vary from £100 to £250, depends on his mood, think thats sick??? don't pay, you don't get your passport, simple as!! its criminal!
If you go, DO NOT give them your passport but If you play this card I can see them refusing you a room so its in your best interest to put this hotel at the very bottom of your list! infact, REMOVE IT!! If this hotel had decent owners it has the potential to be one of the best...
The things I noticed:
a) passports issues, holding you at ransom.
b) stupid prices for drinks that varied, pineapple juice - £4!!! glass smothered in ice. £2 packet of crisps.
c) they have a home subscription for Sky but use it for commercial use (tight fisted) but it shows you the direct mentality of this management.
d) charges, charges, charges, damages... where does it stop?
e) towels are 15 euros deposit, they're ripped and you can kiss those 15 euros good bye. Not one person I know got their deposit back. Your always given dodgey old towels. They claim you damage them, you loose your deposit. Argue it and the guy won't care, you won't get your passport. (spot the theme?)
f) I asked for a receipt for my damages for proof of payment, nothing more, but I did have a plan to write my feelings to the British Embassy and the tour operator. The aussie John was down right ignorant. Refused and called me stupid for even asking.
I have no personal vendetta against this place. The reviews speak for themselves. If you don't stand out or if they dislike you then get your credit card ready. If your liked then you will pay minimum ''damage'' charges.
AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.

1 reader found this review helpful

Zante is pukka!!! However DO NOT STAY AT THE MARIANA - Pete and John the owners are a pair of greedy money grabbing scammers, there was 11 of us in total and they fined us for everything.... 20 Euros for a bedsheet??? 40 Euros if you lose your room-key??? 50 Euros if you jump in the pool at night??? 100 Euros for a shower curtain??? the list goes on. In total we were told on the last day we had to pay 1450 Euros - Well over £1000 - this was on the last day of the holiday when nobody had any money left. If we didnt we were told we wouldnt be given our passports back. This got payed in the end as we had money transfered from England but Pete and John were more than happy for us to miss our flight. AN ABSOLUTE RIP OFF!!!

1 reader found this review helpful

Avoid at all costs.
The rooms themselves were ok. Bog standard really. Sheets got changed about 3 times in the whole 2 weeks we were there. Rooms were cleaned every so often, but you couldn't leave much lying around coz the cleaners would pretty much throw out bottles etc lying around regardless of whether they were finished or not.
Had to pay a deposit for towels (15 euros), didn't even quibble about getting it back after the bother we had checking out - they will charge you for anything they can find fault with. If you do book here, tell the rep anything that is missing/damaged on check in and be adament about it otherwise they WILL retain your passport. They held on to our passports for the full 2 weeks. When we had a disagreement over damages, they refused to give 1 person their passport back until it was sorted out with the rep (this, however, did get resolved after we paid for the damages they wanted).
You get 2 hobs, some pots and a fridge, anything else is extra (such as toaster, kettle....blah blah blah). Shop is ok, I guess, sells lots of British produce like pot noodles, mars bars and shampoo....
The owners ARE ok, as long as you stay on their good side and do what they want really, but all in all....I wouldn't stay here, and I wouldn't recommend it.

2 readers found this review helpful

Before i went on holiday i was so nervous it would be a horrible hotel! But the reviews were all talking crap! Ive never been to such a nice hotel with nice managers, Pete and John! They were such lovely guys and did put up with crap from some of the Londoners!
The hotel was really clean and modern and the pool was also very clean as we went in every day! There was more than enough sunloungers for everyone. When we first arrived we were greeted by john who explained per bed so say there was 2 beds in our apartment there should be 2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 bowls, 2 chairs etc and we also got provided pans n stuff which is fair enough so we just had to check everything in the room was there and nothing was broken on the 1st day and if there was to report it to john then we wudnt get charged for anything. Everything was fine, room was clean, we got a lush pool view and balcony. We decided to get airconditioning which cost us 20 euros which isnt bad but honestly the only time we used it was when gettin ready as it was hot at the night. We also had to pay 8 euros ach deposit for towels but we got that back at the end of the holiday and we cud change it for new towels as many times as we could through the week. The cleaners came in 3 times that week to clean the floor and change the bed sheets and the normal stuff! I felt so happy in the hotel the prices at the bar where a bit steep but the food and drinks were goooood stufff! Had an awesum time in zante and the hotel was the best part of it! If i ever went back to zante i would go back to this hotel! :D Basicallly previous reviews are just wingers and if u break anything u pay! Whats the problem. We didnt pay a thing cos we didnt smash anything.

WHAT A RIP OFF!!!!
Accomodation is OK for the money you pay its the extra charges that are ridiculous!
To hire TOWELS!!!!! 15 euro
AIR CON - 20 euro per wk
Safe - 20 euro per wk
extras you would expect to be there but have to hire that we did not pay for kettle, toaster, and fridge depends on what board basis u are i think. Others but we refused to pay.
What ever you do, do not break anyhin but honestly I think things are set up so they break. But seriously they charged 20euro for a sheet because there was a tiny bit of blood on it because my friend had her bad week. We asked if we could have it back and we would clean it and they said no it was damages, ROBBING BUGGERS!!!!
Apartments rarely got cleaned, no chance of getting ur deposit back for your towels they dont change them so they get dirty and then they say they were damaged seriously these people have never heard of a washing machine.
A fried lost a chair, so they thought instead of paying for theres they would buy a cheaper one and take it back, the Australian guy was examining it and broke it in front of his face so he had to pay for one from him.
It goes as far as if u want to see any CCTV footage u actually have to pay to see that aswel.
We were self catering which techinically means u should be able to bring anything into the apartment, but on two occasions we were told we were not allowed to bring in alcohol into the apartments if it was from another supermarket other than the theres because of "tax purposes" they needed reciepts. So i said we wld keep them from other supermarkets but thats not good enough basically they want you to buy it from theres. On the 2nd occasion they actually screamed in our faces and confiscated it which is out of order whats the point in being self catering.
The parrots OMG the parrots, by the end of the holiday I wanted to kill them!!!!
Dont take people back they follow you wae a camera to prove there was people in your room so they can charge you. One guy refused to pay and got chased out with a metal bat!
And apparently its on rape alley aswel, but never walk down the lane on your own guy or girl always get a taxi, a guy that we met got jumped.
To be honest I am Scottish and so was half the hotel so as long as your not Scottish you'll be fine.

yes
zante was top notch
one of the best places ive been
shame the apart/hotel we stopped at [mariana]
let this holiday down!!
the 2 owners[auzzie guys] gave us a terrible welcoming with a warning on breaking or damaging anything, i dont know whether he was stereotyping due to we were 3 lads looking for a good holiday, but i wasnt impressed on his welcoming pitch.
they never spoke to us all week, the rep was shocking and always lookin for the info on wots gone on, and being very sneeky.
althou we this is an 18-30 resort, its more like a scam, as we was told we had broke the door stopper when it was already broken before.
in result to this experience, during our weeks holiday there, we went to the pool once, with going to the beach instead - so we wasnt scammed by the overpriced food/drink at the pool bar, as you cant even bring items down from your rooms which you may have bought from another shop/supermarket etc..
over all i give this holiday 7 out of 10
as zante / laganas is brill
with plenty to do, i.e goin clubs, goin on boat trips to other islands which we did, booze cruise, schol disco and hed kandi events.
yet the down side if the resort, and its owners, being very rude and giving the impression of wanting just your money... this hotel is also a fair distance away from the beach [20 min walk] and about a 10 min walk from the main bars/clubs.
hope this helps

CAME BCK FROM ZANTE TODAY @ 2PM WRITING NOW AT 6PM TO GIVE YOU THE DOWN-LOW
WENT ZANTE WITH TWO OF MY LAD MATES; STOPPED AT THE MARIANA STUDIOS/APARTMENTS
ZANTE [LAGANAS] IS BRILLIANT, THE CLUBS R TOP NOTCH, GREAT FOR GARAGE, FUNKY HOUSE, COMMERCIAL TUNES.
CLUBS ARE ALWAYS BUSY [AT PEAK SEASONS] AND THE PPL R GREAT!!
ALTHOUGH WE WAS TOLD BY OUR OPERATOR THAT THE MARIANA WAS SECONDS FROM THE BEACH AND STRIP - IT WAS NOT, IT WAS ABOUT A 20 MINUTE WALK TO THE BEACH, AND ABOUT 10 MIN TO THE MAIN CLUBS+ BARS.
THE MARIANA WAS AN 'OK/STANDARD' RESORT, WITH THE ROOMS BEING VERY BASIC, THE TWO OWNERS OF THE APARTMENTS ARE EXTREMELY RUDE, WITH NOT EVEN GIVING A WARM WELCOME, AND WELCOMING US BY INSTANTLY TELLING US ABOUT CHARGES THAT COULD BE POSSIBLY MADE IF ANYTHING WAS TO BE DAMAGED OR BROKEN.
I PERSONALLY FELT AS IF THEY WERE OUT TO GET OUR MONEY, ONTOP OF THE EXTORSIONATE PRICES THEY CHARGE AT THE POOL BAR.
OVER ALL I RATE ZANTE / LAGANAS A RESPECTABLE 7 OUT OF 10.
WITH THE -3 BEING DUE TO THE RUDENESS OF THE HOTEL MANAGEMENT AND HOW FAR THE RESORT ACTUALLY WAS COMPARED TO WHAT WE WAS TOLD BY OUR TOUR OPERATOR [THOMAS COOK]
HOPE THIS HELPS!!
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/NATHANRG
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