Minos Imperial Luxury Beach Resort & Spa

Facts
Resort with two types of packages : PREMIUM (= costs less but you can only eat in the hotel’s special restaurants 3 times for a stay of minimum 7 days) and SELECT (= costs more, access to all restaurants BUT still have to make reservations).
"Leave your luggage outside!" was the welcome that the guests arriving at the same hour with us received.
Dinner at the main buffet : no one greets the guests, the water served is TAP water, the place is amazingly crowded and noisy. The menu is surprisingly poor: not diverse, awful quality for a 5*. For those who wish to eat healthily, this is not the place!
At the main buffet, when leaving our table to take a second dish or dessert, the waiter cleaned up our table and let other guests sit at it; several times!
A bottle of water (0,75L) costs 1,80€ whereas the 1L one costs 3€. SELECT guests also have to pay the bottled water even though their package is more expensive!
Hair found in a piece of cake. One of the Buffet Manager's answer was "It's normal in a place with 200 people."
Plates, coffee cups and mugs are left wet in in the self-serving areas: not wiped, not polished.
Only one quarter of the bar's menu is available! No ice tea, no various types of coffee or tea as listed. Caffe frappe (3.50€+made with tap water) and fresh orange juice (4€) are extra-charge for both PREMIUM and SELECT guests. You only have white sugar and synthetic diet sweetener: no honey, no brown sugar. Only one type of cocktail served per day! Coffee and tea were not served at the bar but on a dirty and wet self-service table!
Hoping for better food&comfort than at the buffet, we went to the «Laguna» extra-charge restaurant. We ordered "chicken marinated in thyme with grilled vegetables" and "beef fillet with mashed carrot". The waiter brought us a simple grilled chicken with french fries and some pork with baked potatoes. The best dishes are extra-charge for both SELECT and PREMIUM clients.
Dinner at the «Grill&Steak» Restaurant : dishes served weren’t the ones listed on the menu. Same problem as above. Instead of «Chicken with grilled tomatoes and peppers, potato with cream&paprika+corn», we received a grilled breast chicken, a half raw tomato, a half boiled potato with cream; NO peppers, NO paprika, NO grilled tomato. Besides, the chicken was almost raw, uneatable!
The beach is not sandy, as it seems to be on the official website’s photographs, it's pebbly. You need water shoes in order to get in the water comfortably.
Dirty towel received in the room.
Conclusion
Huge gap between reality and what the hotel pretends on its website!
The hotel seems to be on a cutting-cost strategy.
Even though the place looks beautiful, the service is really bad ; there’s a TOTAL LACK of respect towards the client!
That’s why the whole experience was FRUSTRATING.

Just spent the worst week at this hotel, spent 2 days in hospital with gastric flu, from the food at this hotel. the negative reviews on here are all true, here is just a small insite as to what you can expect,
rude unhelpful staff.
only should be a 2 star,
the food is lukewarm, segregated eating and restaurant's for Black band wearers, they got the Good food/room/attention it was then vs everyone else,
more like eastern European food,
even the water for tea is lukewarm.
when myself and my sister got there there at 2am/4am gmt, the hotel said that they only had reservation for 1 person, made us wait another hour until they found us a room, this was an extension of some other persons second bedroom, with a promise to change us that day, never happened kept fobbing us off with empty promises. took us 2 days to change room and only then because i had to reputably keep going back to reception. we were there for a week and we only got to sun bath for 2 days and then i was taken ill. cost me 70 euros to get back to the hotel from the hospital, and 40 minuets to come for me. its a good job i wasn't having a heart attack,the hotel is to remote there is nothing there.

Literally returned from a stay at the Minos Imperial.
I looked at individual reviews with an open mind prior to our departure from the UK as I know these can be subjective.
After an interesting journey to the end of the road you are greeted by a rather luxurious reception area, lots of polished granite, plush sofas etc and a nice reception.
We received a very warm welcome and were quickly escorted to our room by the Porter. As we arrived so late, we were given some basic sandwiches of feta and processed cheese, not brilliant, but at least the hotel had made an effort as we had missed the evening meal.
The room was a luxurious family suite with a sea view, balcony, two bathrooms and air con, kettle. Lots of storage space, fridge, two TVs (Only one channel in English, BBC World Service) It would have been great to have a tea/coffee on arrival at the room, but these had to be paid for as the All Inclusive facility ends at 23:00. Consequently we went down to the pool side bar near the beach and purchased drinks (2 Small Beers and two small sprite/7 Up) at a cost of 17 euros. Probably not unreasonable for a five star hotel, but nevertheless rather disappointing after receiving not arrival refreshments. If you use the Piano bar, expect to pay priced not dissimilar to Dubai. The only and only negative aspect about the room, were the beds, very hard mattresses indeed which took a few days to get used to, my wife never did.
If you wish to retain your room after your 12:00 check out time, it can range from 60 - 80 Euros for 3-6 Hours. Not unlike most other hotels int he world.
The main restaurants can be a nightmare and If you do not have the select class (Black) wrist bands, they can at times be have the appearance of a cattle market. Not wishing to sound critical of our Russian friends, I have never seen anyone take so much food piled up on plates particularly the exotic fruits. Unfortunately this has a knock on effect as the food quickly runs out resulting in a wait until fresh/hot food is replaced on the hot plate. The food is varied, but if you are expecting UK cuisine, think again, you are in Europe and most of the clientelle during our stay were Eastern European. You need to be adventurous and try the different dishes on offer and surprisingly some of them are very good.
You may use the Italian and Chinese restaurant during your stay but these must be booked at reception, it is advised you book at least 48 hour before to avoid disappointment.
When using the bar near the Pool, you can queue for up to half an hour at times to attain a drink, but remember come 23:00 the AI facility as no longer available. We personally never had issues with the drinks as we stuck to beer and soft drinks. However there were rumours that many of the spirits (Local Spirits Only) were watered down, the Russians would be complaining after downing three or four vodkas at 10:00 in the morning.
One of the UK guest complained to the resort manager about his Brandy being watered down which was refuted by the management, However when he informed them he worked for a UK distributor of the same Brandy, the bottles were changed by the following day. Obviously this is hearsay, but many of the guests complained about the quality of the drinks, so draw your own conclusion.
I read some reviews about the use of plastic glasses/cups. Two young children had their feet cut on glass around the pool side as our Eastern European friends, would have no respect for the regulations and additionally not even have the decency to clean the area. We always received plastic glasses, but these would be in short supply as many client would take two or three at a time. If clients respected the rules, there would be no issue pertaining to the use of glasses.
The public areas, rooms and gardens are kept immaculate which is a credit to the staff.
Had a one way conversation with the resort manager in regard to smoking in the bars and other public indoor areas of the Hotel as it was blatantly obvious even to him that the Russians we re smoking in these areas. When I reminded him they were part of Europe and it was against the law, signs were quickly erected about the Hotel.
Non of the water sports are free and they charge you 20 Euros for a surf canoe for one hours use. Jet Ski is 60 Euros per 15 Minutes.
A real positive about the Minos are the views from the lower pool. Some absolutely stunning sunsets to die for.
If you are traveling with younger children, please watch the lower pool area and there are alluminium covers on the beach side where my son received superficial burns to one of his feet. A very bad design indeed!
Overall we actually had a nice stay at this hotel, which was let down by a few issues. The owner summed it up it when one of the UK guests approached him in regard to the issues of the bar......Five Star Hotel with Two Star clients! Mind you I have to agree with him, some of them were ;-(

1 reader found this review helpful

After having read reviews on another hotel in May, the coments where totally uncalled for. We stayed int he mitsis roda beach Corfu and the coments where just awful and we loved every secound of the holiday.
So reading the reviews about the Minos Imperial was like water off a ducks back....
On arrival to the hotel i thought mmm the reviews are wrong again, the hotel had beatifaul settings with plenty of pools. the room was very basic but spacy.
Please be care full when booking as if you arrive at ODD times as some people arrived at 4 am in the morning and they could not have their room until 12 noon unless they paid £100.00 to get it earlier. If you leave late at night to keep keep your room on this charge is the same.
We then went to breakfast and noticed the VIP breakfast room and the main restaurant. We were pushed straight into the main restaurant which was like walking into a huge cattle market. there where ques every where no tables it was boiling hot with very few staff.
The food was just cold, and not one member of staff said good morning. the Manager stood their like a head teacher doing nothing but shouting at the staff.
The 2 tier system was lower class yellow bands and upper class black bands. if you had a black band you where a little better off than those with yellow, but just paid a lot more money.
Yellow bands_ no drinks in the room, you can only book one of the 2 a la carte restaurants per week. lunch available is the main buffet restaurant only unless you pay for snacks in the italian a Pizza is about £12.00. And trust me if you fancy lunch it is a long walk and you think oh i'll pay it's easier!! You are not aloud to take anything out of the buffet restaraunt eg fruit, bread water or coffee... (you have to hide it in your bag but watch it they are WATCHING YOU!!
If you would like a bottle of water to drink then think again, you can only have the bottle at the table but they will take the lid off you so you can not put it in your bag. And if you would like water from the bar then you are only aloud a plastic cup full. We all joked and called water Champayne. If you do buy some water from the shop for your room and save the lids. You only have one bar to drink from at night which was okay. you can only go to the other bar if you are prepared to pay over £12.00 a drink.
If you have black bands - you can eat every where as many as times as you like, you can drink at the 2 bars for free. you can have bottles handed to you over the bar for free. basically you can have everything but if you make friends with black bands it may be difficult for you to eat and drink together. We made friends with black bands and they got us water for our baby as other wise we had to pay.
The chinese meal was lovely!!!
I really can go on and on but i don;t want to as the complex is lovely but i spent the whole week just flabergasted the way we where treated. Those that have written reviews are right the hotel i would give it 3 star but the staff i am affraid to say 0 star... and if you are looking to book here i would not pay more than £300 per person we paid £1100 for myself and my husband and our 1 year old. there are people that paid a lot more than us hoping for a 5 star.
If you want to be spoilt and don't want to pay for everything then this is not the hotel for you, I will not say don't go but i am warning you before you go that please do not look at there web site and think youare going to paradise it is more like butlins but in a 5 star hotel.
if you are looking for a greek island please try corfu, we stayed in Roda which is about an hour from the airport, and the hotel is 5 star. when you book please make sure you state superior or family room with pool it is only about £45 extra but it is 555555555555*****************

We booked with Monster Travel but the paperwork showed indivual sections booked by different companies. The hotel was booked by Hotels4U. The hotel was overbooked but would never admit it, blamed no rooms on imaginary faults. 21 of us were bumped to lower accomadation by hotel management who lied to us for hours. The management were very rude to most of our group, almost as if it were OUR fault they had no rooms for us. We should have been grateful for the inferior hotels that they offered us, all other 5 Star hotels on Crete being full. Because I have a mouth, been a managing director for 25 years dealing with customers and standing up for myself, I have been branded "offensive" by the hotel. BTW the 2 meals we had were awful, as commented several times before! The replacement hotel was classed 4 star, "Sissy Bay Hotel" but was little better than Butlins by the Sea. We flew home after 3 nights at our cost!
We have compalined to Monster Travel and Hotels4U by post and have just received (35 days later) a "compensation cheque" for £60 which we consider an insult and will return before continuing our complaint.

I think this hotel should be removed from the internet sites advertised as 5*. This hotel is definitely not worth the money and is the worst hotel I have stayed in. We booked a room for 3 - should have had a family room with annexe for 17 yr old son - Paid for 3 adults and my son slept on a small single sofa that he could not lie fully on. Complaining is a waste of time as people queue all day to complain and you lose the will to live trying. Food is appalling - huge queues - very difficult to get a table - and a clean one at that. Staff are overstretched and grumpy. The whole experience of dining is very stressful and you resort to walking to the nearest village to eat out even though you have paid for an all inclusive. Drinks are disgusting served in plastic cups - unless you venture to the disco bar where the noise is deafening and lots of little children singing the "birdy song". Drinks finish at 10.30 pm and they are quite vociferous about you paying after that. Water is a real luxury to get hold of - only available in dining room - all well and good that you managed to 'bag' your table and sit down! You have to pay for it otherwise. No beach - pools spread out but very disjointed and no atmosphere to the place. Facilities very poor - I would laugh at the sugggestion of 5* and would strongly recommend people avoid this hotel. An absolute rip off.

It can be some what confusing reading reviews as mixed messages can be given. But please dont use this hotel. The receptionist Geogia Was very kind the others mostly rude or stressed i suppose this isnt supprising as all day long complaits continually.
The hotel are so short staffed its unbeliverable expecting them to be happy would be an impossible task for anyone however i lovely girl from moldova could achieve this during her training, i explained i guess it is good experiance for you to see how a hotel is run with total disorganisation. The chinese was amazing why?A clean table service with a smile, its a shock to of had that service as normally you would of had dirty tables and no where to sit in the other resturants. You would have to wait for at least half an hour for a drink. That was to long in the over packed resturant the food was very cold even when you went in when the doors were open.
The ltalian resturant was very bad and you had the company of the chef smoking in the resturant watching you eat very 5 star not. However the maid was excellent the rooms were good and a nice pool as we got moved with a private pool. Still wanted to move hotels. If you want an excellent 5 star in crete go to the hotel Aldemar amazing so i here.
All inclusive not really just one type of beer but drink quick because you pay after 11pm. AND IF YOU WERE EXPECTING A BEACH RESORT YOU GOT IT YES TO LOOK AT YOU COULDNT EVEN GET IN THE BEACH?? I ASW WHATEVER.
Please if you want 2 star go but if you need to relax you wont beable to unless you avoid stressful staff. Dont want to be negative but dont want people to be in a position of disapointment.

4 readers found this review helpful

We booked this holiday last minute at on the beach . com and overall we were very impressed. We arrived late around 4am and were firstly suprised by how friendly and welcoming the staff were at this time!! We checked in and the porter took us by buggy to our room. We had a superior room with a beach view. It was clean modern and comfy and we were happy and even managed a few hours sleep. The first day we were able to wake up late and still catch breakfast as they serve till quite late. Lunch and dinner were up to standard on all days (all inclusive) the food was varied and it really was eat as much as you like!! The staff were always friendly and helpful and assisted in anyway they could. All the facilites were clean and well staffed. The resorts own strip of beach was spotless and safe. The pools were cleaned regulary and the areas kept clean throughout the day. There are a couple of resturants to choose from too, which again provided good food.
I have read several bad reviews of this resort and really would like to point out that its not that bad! The only complaint I would have is that if you dont have children the childrens entertainment in the evening can be a bit loud, but it only goes on for an hour or two and you cant hear it at the other bars. I would really recommend this resort if you just want toi get away and relax in the sun without any chavs and hassels!! The usual 'brits abroad' are absent and its def not a resort suited to that kind of thing as its in the middle of no where. You can walk to a nearby fishing village which has a couple of
bars and small restaurants and again really friendly locals, this takes about 20 mins max.
Overall would definatly recomend this resort and im sure we will go back and after staying in other 4 & 5* hotels would definatly place it in this catergory.

Upon arrival at about 00.45 hours our party of four was welcomed by a very friendly booking-in clerk, who proceeded to book us in. We were taken to our respective rooms by another friendly porter. Whilst my wife and myself had a superior room, the other couple had what can only be described as a box room. My friend complained at once (as he had paid the same amount of money) and was told that he should see the Rooms Allocation Manager at 9 am. He did this and was told that there were no other rooms available, but we could stay in the superior room, providing that we paid for an upgrade. Two hours later other rooms (mysteriously) were found for us. These rooms were family rooms, not really what we had paid for!!! Protesting did not help, even though we had unpacked. A porter would be at our respective rooms to assist in moving us at 13.00 hours. He appeared at 14.00 hours. Our first day of the holiday spent moving rooms.
The food served was more like what you would expect in a two-star hotel. Water, which was bottled, had to be paid for. When asked why was it not policy to have a jug of water placed on the table, the restaurant manager became verbally aggressive. I told him that I expected to have the basic element required to sustain life, payment free!!! Not so at this resort. They had a captive "audience".
The restaurant staff were less than friendly, in fact I would go as far as to say, very rude. The staff at this resort would have been better employed as actors in the TV series "Fawlty Towers"!!!
We found a very friendly Taverna in Milatos, which was within walking distance of the resort. Staying at this resort does require the hire of a car.
This was my first experience at this resort and the last. I have travelled all over the world and stayed in 5-star hotels - this should be at the most a 2-star.

1 reader found this review helpful

Went to this hotel by recommendation, read some reviews before we went and they were not good so got a bit worried.
It was brilliant.
Food was great, had a Chinese and Italian restaurant which AI were allowed 1 visit each, staff were lovely and the hotel is lovely.
Only drawback is the nearest town is Sissi and it is about an hour walk or 15 Euros by taxi, can’t wait to go back
Maggie and Ted