Elysium Hotel — Hotel in Paphos Municipality

This is long read but it’s utterly important for us to share the feedback.

Transformation from most valued experience for weekend/vacation (we’re locals) to bitter disappointment.

Over the last couple of years, my family and myself have become ardent fans of the incredibly warm, customer-oriented and almost personalized service that Elysium offers. Each visit to the hotel was perceived as an exceptional quality vacation, as a return Home, to a place where guests are taken care of, requests are being responsively and responsibly received and professionally processed. We often visit Elysium (about 7-8 times over the last couple of years), stayed in rooms of various categories, and especially loved the maisonettes. Unfortunately, our perception of the hotel was seriously tested, which I want to tell you about.

By mistake, we booked a Royal Studios with Garden View adults only room for 3 nights for ourselves and our 12 year old daughter.

We did not know the rules of the hotel (12+ becomes an adult in the maisonette category, we followed the same logic, booking adults only Royal Studios with Garden View).

On August 18, when checking in, the hotel staff did not pay attention to this, that is, they also did not notice the mistake and checked us in with our child in adults only.

All our documents were provided. We did not even suspect that something was wrong. We celebrated my husband's birthday and at the end of the evening decided to try to leave our nephew with us and went to the reception to find out the cost of such an increase in the number of guests.

And then the mistake was discovered. The duty manager Evdoxiya, who conducted a dialogue with us, behaved as follows: repeatedly reminded us that WE were the ones who violated the hotel rules and made a mistake, hushing up the part of the staff's responsibility as a solution, she offered us to move to a standard room without changing the cost showed us printouts from the website with the cost of rooms (at the same time, on the hotel's website, Royal Studios with Garden View are more expensive than standard rooms with a sea view) in response to a request to offer another solution, she offered to move to the Royal Garden Villa at full cost. In response to a question about a discount, she offered 10%. We asked for a bigger discount, the manager behaved aggressively and arrogantly (of course, this is our subjective perception) and said that this was utterly impossible, and she was already doing us a big favor. ⁠In the end, she offered us to stay at the Royal Studio with Garden View with the provision that IF ANYONE COMPLAINS ABOUT US, SHE WILL CALL SECURITY. We asked again - will you kick us out of the hotel? We did not receive a clear answer. We asked for a refund and left.

They did not hold us back. It was the evening of my husband's birthday, by that time we had managed to have dinner at an Italian restaurant, it was late, we were really tired. The feeling of disappointment was extremely strong. The employee who helped us load our suitcases into the car apologized to us for the hotel service. There was a feeling that the quality of service subtly shifts AWAY in the direction opposite from the client. There are many good hotels, but few hotels with exceptional service. This is what we have always valued Elysium most of all - for the feeling of a place where you are taken care of.

We really hope that the service will not deteriorate, and our feedback will be heard.

We want to go to our favorite hotel again with pleasure.

Our booking was in August 2024.

Due to circumstances we had to leave the very date of the birthday of...

This is a large beautiful hotel that looks like it could have been a castle in the past. The hotel is also perfectly situated close to old town and next to couple of archeological sites. It is also right on the boardwalk if you wanted to go for a long walk.

The check in process was very simple and front desk was extremely helpful in explaining everything. The rooms are spacious with a strong AC that keeps the rooms cool (if that's how you like it). There is also plenty of closet space if you wanted to empty your bag. The only thing I did not appreciate about the room is the bathroom. It's a single sink (which is common) but the biggest complaint is the shower. It's a high tub with no door so when you are showering. The high tub is difficult to get in and out of if you are short. My wife is under 5'5 and twice she almost slipped getting out of the tub after shower. With no door on the tub, the water tends to splash and spill into the rest of the bathroom. it tends to pool in the corner by the tub and the sink. This is the second hotel where we saw this set up and it did not make any sense to us. I don't know why hotel wouldn't just put a door on the tub. Also, with the shower head as a shower handle (that you can adjust up or down), you essentially have to stand really close to the wall under the shower head, making it a bit more difficult to shower and not being able to use rest of the tub.

The hotel restaurant also does different cuisines for dinner, which is set up as buffet. We did not dine for dinner at the restaurant but seems a good option for anyone not looking to leave the property. We did however have breakfast both days we were there and were content with the bfast. It's a very large bfast with lots of options plus a fresh juice station that can make you a juice combination of your choosing.

The best part of the hotel though is the pool. It's a very large pool with lounge chairs all around, all set up very elegantly and spacious enough that it doesn't feel crowded. Also, given the large hotel grounds, the lounge chairs are also spread out across the lawn area and beyond the boardwalk next to the water. The lounge chairs on the other side of the boardwalk are perfectly placed for you to have a relaxing day in the sun and perfect spot to watch the sunset.

The hotel also offers shuttle service to old town twice a day but they do not offer a shuttle back. I get the complexity of doing a pick up but it's odd to strand the guests in old town needing to find taxi themselves. If you have a car, it's only a 10 min drive to old town from the hotel.

Hotel also has live music in the evenings. Only way to know is by looking at the digital bulletin they have in the elevator and by the lobby bar.

Lastly, the other frustrating part was water. While the hotel provides two large bottles when you check in (in your room), turn down service only provides 2 small bottles every night. Daily housekeeping provides none. There is also no place in the hotel to refill the water (no water station) so if you need more water, they essentially charge you for bottles and that too you have to buy 6 bottles. Note these bottles are the large size so if you decide to that, make sure you do it early in your trip so you have a chance to finish them all.

Overall, this is a wonderful property and we actually wished we made the hotel our base for touring...

Stayed at the Elysium for the first 2 weeks of November and really enjoyed it. What was great; Weather was mid 20's and perfect.Little wind/rain. Hotel room, beds and pillows very comfortable. Service from all members of staff was exceptional. Breakfast was delicious, copious and relaxed on the outside terrrace. Try an iced latte! Busy and noisy however when the outside terrace was occasionally closed due to weather. We had a couple of evenings in the bar. You get a platter of fruit and nibbles when you order a full bottle of wine (start at Euro 22).The bar food was very good. Prices of food and drinks were reasonable given this is a 5* hotel- priced to encourage you to stay and eat at the hotel. The pool and seating areas are large with lots of unoccupied loungers, so never a problem finding a comfy lounger or a cabanna at any time of the day. Beach towels are provided. There's a smooth concrete public walkway/promenade which goes either way along the coast for kilometers- great for jogging, walking, wheelchairs, cycling, rollerblading etc.

What you might want to consider; The atmosphere of this large hotel is very calm and relaxed- we liked this. I don't understand some of the reviews complaining about noisy kids. If you don't want to chance this, then choose an adults only hotel if you are a couple! We went as a couple out of school holidays and didn't have a problem. The hotel stands back a bit from the coastline so a full or partial 'sea view' may be a bit distant. Our partial sea view room was towards the front, so we did have a reasonable sea view from the balcony , but also one of a parking lot and vacant lot. The hotel is a bit far from the harbour front and old town - around 30-45 minutes walk. As we liked the harbour front, we walked there most nights along the promenade which felt very safe and pleasant. There are plenty of buses ( and taxis of course) if you prefer not to walk.There are 2 courtesy buses from the hotel each day to the old town and harbour with no return, so you'd need to walk, bus or taxi back. Within easy walking distance ( a few minutes) is the Avenue of Kings- a busy dual carriageway, lined with restaurants and pubs. We didn't try any of them but saw that they were well attended if you don't mind eating next to a busy road. Eating out in the local restaurants can be expensive. Wherever we ate, we paid between Euro 70-80 for two main courses, a bottle of wine and a bottle of water. Some of the restautrants served food which was ok, but not memorable. Often the fish is farmed or frozen. Our favourite was Hondros - the oldest traditional taverna in Paphos harbour. Great fresh calamari and bbq'd meat. As others have said, there is no beach to speak of, but a cove with a pier and ladders down into clear and clean water. We like it and sat by the cove most days. Venus beach with sand, safe swimming and loungers is 5 minutes walk up the coast. We went to the two archeological sites next to the hotel- well worth the visit! Would...