Hotel Hermes

I would like to share my comments with people considering to go on holiday to Malia in Crete and use Kosmar as there tour operator and stay in the Hermes Hotel.
We chose a last minute deal and we decided to go bed and breakfast.
We arrived early hours on Saturday 7th October to get dropped at a hotel where even the sign saying Hermes Hotel was broken.
We got to the check-in desk to find out that we would have to pay 25 euros for a safe and another 25 euros to keep the room on for 3 hours the following Friday, as our flights weren't till the evening.
We went to find our room and struggled to open the door with the key as it was so stiff.
Once we got into the room we were shocked to find two single beds with dirty sheets on and a couple of blankets. There was a very small bathroom that you could hardly swing a cat in which was filthy dirty.
The towels had holes in and when I asked a member of staff for another one the following day, I was not allowed as we only had one each for the entire week!
In the morning we decided to go down for breakfast to find stale bread, ham, lumps of feta cheese, cold boiled eggs, peach slices and orangeade.
We decided to go into the town and find somewhere where we could get a fry-up. 10 euros for two huge fry-ups, tea or coffee, that’s more, like it!
On the Sunday morning we woke up and realised my boyfriend had had a nose bleed on the sheets. I went down to reception to ask if we could have a clean sheet and the lady said, sorry the cleaners don't work on Sundays!
On the Wednesday morning, I was approached whilst I was by the pool by a member of staff to ask why there was blood on the sheets.
I said that my boyfriend had had a nose bleed. She said we would be charged 150 euros for a new mattress, pillow case and a sheet. I said I couldn't believe it and surely they had insurance. She said they had our passports and we could not leave until we paid it. I said I would have to see what money we had left and get back to her.
We went over to the Kosmar office to question them about this and they said if we didn't pay it they would call the police and we wouldn't be able to leave the country! Very rude and unhelpful!
We booked an excursion to the waterpark and on the morning we were supposed to be going it was raining however, we thought we were going to get wet anyway so let’s go.
We got ready and were about to leave our room when opening the door we had a little note shoved under the door saying waterpark closed due to rain.
We went over to the Kosmar office to enquire about this any say that we could have been informed earlier and could we get a refund.
The answer was sorry we didn't want to bother you...you can get a refund but it won't be until Friday....the day we were leaving!
On the Friday we had a phone call to our room at 8am....I answered the phone and it was the lady at reception demanding we come down and pay the charge for the mattress, sheet and pillowcase!
I fought my case once more and managed to knock them down to 75 euros! I had to pay it or I wouldn't have got our passports back!
With all that going on we had rain for 5 days, 1 day was cloudy and we had 1 day of sunshine!
However with all this going on, we enjoyed the nightlife and eating out at the different restaurants!
I wouldn't recommend staying at the Hermes Hotel or using Kosmar as the staff are rude and unhelpful.
The Kosmar reps try to rip you off with the cost of excursions as you can go into the town and pay nearly half the price for the same excursion!
Malia is brilliant for young people, the nightlife and the restaurants are brilliant and you can get some excellent deals!
There are a couple towns down the road, Hersonossis and Stalis which are much prettier and quieter for the older generation.

My husband & I have been going to Hotel Hermes since 1999 which was the best ever holiday, so much so, we keep going back. The staff are amazing and couldn't do enough for you, when we first visited, it was basic rooms for b&b, but since then the owners have refurbished the middle floor which we had the pleasure of staying in last May, the maids came in every 2nd day and we had beautiful clean sheets at each visit.
We subsequently returned in September for a week and took our daughter & partner +
3 children, & our son & his pal, what a ball they had, again the staff were very accommodating and bent over backwards for us all, the pool and poolside was spotless and hosed down every morning which has always been a regular occurrence.
When staying B & B we found the breakfast, very palatable, with fresh, cheese bread, eggs, tomatoes, all served by the owner, who is always very hospitable. We have been to Corfu which was horrible, & Halkidiki, which was very nice, but somehow we keep going back to Hermes, it's like home from home.
We look forward to our return this year and wouldn't think of staying elsewhere. The rep was very helpful, but as we go there most years we do our own thing. Loved Bella Pasta, again the staff are brilliant and recognise us every time we go, we have had a good few nights in there!
The Hermes Hotel is set back from the main road and 5-10 mins from the busy strip, we have never lost a nights sleep yet, but still able to join in the action.

I can agree with all the negative feedback on this hotel.
I have literally just got back from this hole of a hotel and I would like to pass comment on the property that Kosmar call a hotel.
We stayed as B&B guests for a week and when I arrived Sunday 8th October to find the room no bigger and more basic than your average empty shed with no effort in making the room feel nice by having at least 1 picture up I was appalled. Looking at the linen, from which may seem to be clean the towels were old and dirty and the bed linen had stains on them and no member of staff seemed interested when you voice your concerns.
The what seemed a 2ft by 1ft Shower, w/c was in a very poor state with water flooding the shower room and the over flow in the middle of the shower room had water coming up to flood the room further. The noise was unbelievable, I have never stayed in a hotel with such echoing before in my life, they did have an over night security guard who was not interested in ensuring the fellow guests were quiet.
Breakfast was a joke, bread, ham, cheese, peach slices and mank tea/coffee, I would like to point out breakfast was until 9.30 and me and my missus popped down Sunday morning at 9 to find 2 slices of bread and Jam! We ended up eating a fry up and the soda bar just down the road 5 euros all in! Oh another thing, whilst I was there, there was a fella had a nose bleed, he was told to pay 75 euros to clean the sheets! If only they spent that cleaning the sheets in the whole hotel.
I do suggest that if you were to stay here then stay in the studios, they were much nicer and had a lot more room it seems that the b&b were an after thought.
We have stayed at cheaper hotels before at a standard which was a lot better than this. The Hermes is the worst hotel I have ever stayed in and many other residents to whom I spoke with last week.

This was the best hotel I have ever stayed in and best holiday ever!
The hotel has a nice warm and welcoming atmosphere and is family run and all the staff are such a good laugh. The bar is great and usually stayed open until around 7am even though it was near the end of season (end September) when we were out there. Antonios will always stay and keep serving if there are a few people in the bar. So you can go clubbing etc down the main strip and always come back to the bar after for a drink or one of Antonio's gorgeous coffees.
Our room was basic as we booked bed and breakfast but if you book self catering you get a much nicer apartment on the first floor which are huge with own kitchen, cooker and fridge etc and nice big balconies. Ours had two single beds next to each other and just bedside units and a bathroom with great shower. Considering the amount of time you actually spend in your room though ours suited us fine and the cleaners come round and change your beds and towels every other day.
Breakfast is served until 9.30am which we usually missed and consists of toast, cheese, ham and tea and coffee whereas we preferred to get full English breakfast in the bar or at Red Lion down on the main strip for 2.80 euros which is such a bargain as you get big portions! All the food you can get at the bar is beautiful though too.
The pool is great and the crowd of people in our hotel were great too, we were all different age groups with it being end of season but we all got on so well. The hotel also threw a free barbeque for us with loads of gorgeous food which I thought was really generous of them!
I would definitely return to this hotel again as it is situated out of the way of the noisy main part of Malia and towards Stalis, so 10 minute walk and is tucked around the back off the main road, so we always got to sleep when we wanted to and we were still close to everything. I would recommend hiring a quad bike or car if you can get used to the nutters on the road as the beaches are quite a long walk away.

Well I totally agree with the others. The hotel was far from great! The holiday was a last minute deal for me and four friends and the web site we were given to view the hotel made it look like the Ritz compared to what we arrived to. DO NOT GO HERE. When we arrived to the hotel the rep was no where to be seen, as she had gotten of the coach at the last stop we made. The coach driver was less than helpful and the coach was brought back from the 60's (more like a multi-coloured camper van! We got off the coach and our hotel was no where to be seen! We asked the coach driver and he just pointed to this dusty dirt track. From the front of the hotel it looked quite pleasant with some pretty flowers and nice trees. The hotel had an awful stench(a bit like a wet dog.) The corridors of the hotel wear probably the nicest and cleanest part of the hotel When we arrived into our room the curtain was partly hanging from the window and was filthy. The beds were about an inch from the floor and one of the legs was coming apart from the bed frame. The shower curtain was held up by a rusty thin chain and the room was far from clean with a musty smell. The friends we were with couldn’t use their toilet as it was constantly flushing. The pool area was disgusting and showed no resemblance to the photos printed on the website. The pool water was swampy looking and the beds were either broken or rusty, covered in fag burns. The view given on the website was gorgeous with mountains. But the view we received was awful. The holiday rep didn’t seem to understand the way we felt about being mislead, and saw no problem with the hotel. However Kosmar were very helpful in moving us and we ended up in a quite very pretty hotel about two minutes up the road, where we had the same holiday rep! I would recommend the quad bikes or moped's as there are many prettier places to visit once you are able to travel. I would recommend Hersonossis. Very busy but alot prettier and only 15 minute drive away from Malia.

The Hermes hotel was the worst hotel my partner and I have ever been to!
The Hotel is about 5 mins walk from the town, and is based on what you would call a waste site (a dump!). The Kosmar rep on the coach didn’t bother to come into the hotel with us. Although she spent about 1 hour with the rest of the people that were dropped off before us.
The rooms were less and I mean less than basic. When me and my partner got into the room we were faced with two single beds instead of a double, which we didn’t request. We complained to the unfriendly staff and eventually got a double bed (which are only 4 of in the whole hotel)
The sanitation was disgusting! Our toilet leaked and came through to the living area. We told the Kosmar reps 3 times and they still didn’t fix it, instead the cleaners resorted to putting down bathroom mats to soak up the water and putting the toilet bush holder under the part that leaked.
Our Kosmar Rep was 1 hour late to the welcome meeting, and after 1 day everyone there didn’t have a good word to say about this hotel. Apparently when you book this hotel you if you book B&B you will get a Basic room, if you go Self Catering your "supposed" to get one of the studio apartments which have a kitchen etc. etc. but this is not the case as we found out with some friends that came Self Catering, they brought food over like milk, eggs etc and were given a B&B room so they had nowhere to store their food.
For those staying B&B, Breakfast was open till 9:30am which was stupid because people that had come in from a late night being on the town and didn’t get up till late that morning, missed breakfast and had to go out and pay for Breakfast instead. The breakfast wasn’t all that great either, the food was laid out like a spread. Pieces of ham and cheese and eggs, bread laid out on the table, which was not covered with nets, so flies and other insects were crawling all over the food leaving you susceptible to germs and other diseases.
The pool area wasn’t great and wasn’t clean either, the sun loungers were either broken or rusty, and you weren’t even allowed to take your own drinks to the pool because you had to buy their drinks as they would be loosing out on your custom. For a beer it was 3.30 Euros during the day and at night time it was 3 Euro (what’s that all about?)
If you went to go bed at about 12 midnight after a long day, don’t think that you are going to have a quiet night because your wrong! be prepared to be woke up early hours of the morning by drunk and stupid people running up and down the corridor and shouting and arguing and slamming doors, believe me they have no respect for neighbours. We were woken up between 2 and 5am most morning due to girls screaming and shouting. Oh one thing about the bedrooms, you should receive a welcome pack from the rep and it states that the bed sheets are changed once a week and the towels twice a week! Yuck! so that mean that you will have been washing your face and body with someone else’s towels that was in your room the week before you arrived, just think someone could of been washing in areas that your wiping your face with!
All in all I rate this hotel as the worst hotel of the century, its disgusting, and not worth the money we paid. Malia is very expensive and full of drunks every night. The Kosmar Rep is a waste of space and didn’t bother to help us. Take some good advice stay away from this hotel its bad news!

Having read the existing reviews I can understand the contrasting opinions. We went for B&B and were given a basic room, emphasis on basic! It wasn't so much that than the dirty stains up our bathroom tiles that were there when we arrived and still a week later but took me less than 30 secs to wipe clean, going to show that cleanliness isn't too hot there.
Floors were filthy and shower head was gaffer taped onto the hose, not to mention the plug wires hanging out of the wall. However, we had friends in the studio rooms there which were far better, ikea-esque. The staff (apart from the bar staff) were rude, dismissive and unhelpful. There are a few nice sun beds but the majority were knackered and rusty. The pool was nice but as previously stated there is no shallow end. Late night shouting and door banging is not unusual and seemed to be tolerated by staff. I think this hotel relies on the fact that young people are less likely to care about their surroundings and won't bother complaining. Had my parents visited this hotel they would have demanded to be moved on arrival! I would rate it as 1star and definitely would not recommend it.
Don't be fooled by the trips that they sell down the bar roads, we took a market tour and a dolphin trip. The market isn't a Greek crafts affair, just fruit and veg, I may as well have gone to Surrey St Market in Croydon! Suffice to say we didn't see any dolphins and the island we were dropped off at was a large rock with a tiny beach so we had to perch ourselves on rocks. I hired snorkelling equipment but there isn't much to see fish wise, it was all a bit of a swiz! Probably best to book through your rep for decent trips.
We had 1 night in the Galaxy hotel near the airport when our flight home was delayed by 9 hours. It's gorgeous and if I ever returned to Crete I would consider staying here. That said, I am unlikely to return to Crete, my 2 weeks there has put me off the place for life. If you want Chavs, street trouble and dodgy accommodation then Malia is the place for you!

Me (21), Ben (22), Nat (20), Heidi (19)
Hermes Hotel is in the best location if you want to stay in Malia but don't want the noise of the clubs when you're trying to sleep (if you plan on doing that!). About 5 mins walk from the main strip!
Our room was excellent, had everything we needed without being too fussy and was contemporarily decorated. We did have an issue with the shower door but was easily fixed! Had beautiful views overlooking the mountains and the old town. Was a bit noisy a few times in the corridors in the morning with people staggering in at 6am, but was to be expected!
The people working at the hotel were lovely and made us very welcome. All the locals were nice and decided to rent out quads to go to the beach as it's quite a walk (and we're all lazy!). Be careful with the prices as they say 30 euros per bike for 5 days but then sting you with insurance which was 60 euros per bike for us. Make sure you read the insurance details as well because we were meant to get helmets which we never received!
Drinks were cheap, recommend a headf***** fishbowl which was lethal! Tend to do a lot of 2 for 1 offers everywhere so make the most of them!
I would definitely recommend this hotel as I've seen other hotels in Malia and this one seems to top them all! Enjoy!

The hotel Hermes was the in the perfect location for this holiday,
Malia is a great place for a holiday, nice beach and food is great. I went in September so the bars were quiet which is what I hoped for. One restaurant that we kept returning to was Bella pasta, they do the best pizza, and if you are really hungry I would recommend the red lion. The serving is so large that on the second visit my friend and I had to share.
The hotel was very clean, the staff were very friendly. The apartments are quite basic but we only ate breakfast there which didn't bother us. Our rooms were cleaned every day.
The pool was cleaned daily but the pool isn’t suitable for children as it has no shallow end.
Over all this was a great hotel in a great location and would definitely book again.

If you are thinking of going to this hotel think again!!!!!!
The hotel is situated in what can only be described as a construction site. The rooms are less than basic. Whilst I was there during my 2 week holiday I only saw a maid on 2 occasions and that was only because i had made several complaints at reception.
Do not be deceived by the photo of the pool as whilst I was there many of the sun beds were broken and rusty, Also the paint on the floor was peeling off.
If watching stray dogs mate is your thing then the poolside entertainment will be right up your street (no joke).
In all unless your looking for a roof and a bed Id look elsewhere!