Venus Beach Hotel — Hotel in Paphos Municipality

Arrived Aug 2022. First impressions at reception, good, friendly staff. We arrived later than expected (gone midnight) missing much of an "all inclusive" day. A cold plate salad was unexpected but welcome. We were shown to our room by a porter. The room itself was OK and clean, air con cooled just enough for comfort. The small fridge barely chilled anything that we put in it but only used to cool water. We noted no tea or coffee facilities which is a first for us, a kettle and tea bags or sachets of coffee is normal... this is rated 5 star? We later learned that the 'superior' rooms have a kettle provided. Not good enough, if you stay in 5 star, you expect 5 star facilities regardless of room type. Breakfast, lunch, dinner were self serve with mix of hot or cold options; breakfast was available with mix of bacon, eggs, beans, etc., also salad, fruit or cereals available and a cook preparing omelets and pancakes, so a good variety on offer at breakfast. Note, after 9am gets very busy. After breakfast, if there was any hope of securing a poolside sunlounger then we soon learned to forget that. Rows of unoccupied sunbeds reserved with towels meant no chance of getting one. The hotel could do more to control this. We've stayed in hotels where beds are strictly monitored and towels soon removed if not used. There was a sign up with restrictions for use of the pool, e.g. no large inflatables, no ball games, etc. All ignored and the pool attendant couldn't care less, again we've stayed in 5 star hotels where pool etiquette is applied. There is a pool bar with beer and soft drinks, slush, ice cream etc. This is when we soon realised that "all inclusive" at this hotel is NOT "all inclusive". All inclusive guests are treated 2nd rate, priority is with paying guests. I naively asked for soft slushes at the bar, not alcohol, but was told in an abrupt manner, "no!! slush not included for all inclusive!!", ouch, I felt I needed to apologise for having the audacity to assume a slush is "all inclusive". So Sprite was the order of the day. We didn't use the bar much after this. We opted to pay on the beach instead. Dinner.  Required attire for dinner is long trouser for Gents. We were told this at reception so had to buy longs on first day for my son. Everyone at dinner was in shorts! A waste of time and money.  You are shown to a table by a waiter and they take drink orders. We ordered 2 tonic waters only to be told all inclusive are only allowed drinks on draft and tonic was in a bottle, ridiculous! We challenged knowing well that mixers are included in all inclusive, the waiter had to check before confirming we could have tonic water. We hardly used the bars as wife doesn't drink yet challenged over a mixer and a slush and this was only day 2. Not a great start to 5 star experience. Dinner. Self serve with good choice but a lot meat based, we prefer fish. There is a good selection of salad. The food was OK. Staff were helpful and work long hours but were in no rush with drinks, we were too often left eating with no drinks. In short, we paid a lot of money for this hotel for self service, cheap soft drinks and cheap flat draught beer. If you pay for 5 star "all inclusive" you expect 5 star "all inclusive" service, we've stayed at other all inclusive hotels with food waiter service and full all inclusive with exception of some of the more expensive branded drinks. Room service. OK but could be better. A dirty plate had been left in the room when we'd arrived, so we placed it on the balcony table hoping the cleaner would move it, which they did, but they only moved it back into the room! Also chewing gum stuck to a balcony table with no attempt to remove it - never seen this at other 5 star hotels - who inspects these rooms? Beds were made and towels replaced daily which was good. This hotel is not 5 star. Maybe 3 is more realistic. We had a good holiday but this was largely due to going out more. Overall...

We stayed at this hotel for 10 days, and to be completely honest, it was an underwhelming experience. By day five, we looked into early flights home. Below is our honest feedback for future guests considering this hotel.

Room & maintenance issues: Our room had mold in the bathroom and a leaking ceiling due to roof tiles that were never replaced. The ceiling was visibly damaged and deteriorating. The sound insulation was very poor, we could hear everything from the hallway, the room next door (even lights being switched on and off), and footsteps or doors slamming upstairs. There was a gap under the room door that let in hallway light at night, which was disturbing when trying to sleep.

Staff & service: Reception was a bad experience. Suzy and Barbara were absolute standouts, they were friendly, helpful and clearly cared about their work. We’re genuinely thankful for the way they handled us and we could not thank them enough for making a big difference! Unfortunately, our interactions with Ella at the reception were the opposite. She came across as uninterested and confrontational. There was no warm welcome or check-in on how our stay was when we left, it left us feeling unwelcome.

All-Inclusive limitations: The all-inclusive offering was limited. The menu for both food and drinks lacked variety, and after 23:00 you have to pay, even if you’re on the all-inclusive plan. Food options were repetitive, even when they said they offer a different menu option every day. It was mostly the same vegetables and meat dishes every day. Lunch and dinner felt nearly identical. Dinner starts at 19:00, but by 21:00 the food (such as bread, meat and vegetables) was often dry, cold, and falling apart. The taste was inconsistent and sometimes unpleasant, with bitter spices covered up by unnecessary amounts of lime juice that was not supposed to be in the dish. On one occasion, we were even served undercooked chicken, it was still pink. (See pictures)

Facilities: Many advertised facilities were either closed or in very poor condition. The gym was being renovated, which was clearly overdue (ser pictures). The gaming and fitness rooms were just a few pieces of old furniture stacked in a room, not functional or inviting. When you insert a coin in the arcade machines, most of the time they didn’t even work. Pool hours were misleading; it closed an hour earlier than stated. At the pool bar, the older woman working often ignored guests. One server at the Olive Bar behaved strangely; visibly sweating, unwell in appearance, and concerning enough that multiple guests commented on it.

Hotel rules & experience: We understand the rule about not bringing outside food into the hotel. However, we were stopped and told to leave the premises just for walking in with a small bag to ask a question at the reception before heading off to the beach, not even to our room. This felt excessive and disrespectful. In the restaurant, staff would ask if we were done eating while we were still having dinner. It created a rushed and uncomfortable atmosphere.

Overall impression: The hotel is outdated and doesn’t live up to its advertised 5-star status. It needs major updates, better training for certain staff, and significant improvements in food quality and variety.

Sadly, everything else fell short, and we wouldn’t return or recommend it in its current state.

We’ve seen management replies to other reviews saying they would have appreciated it if guests had spoken up during their stay. But respectfully, it’s not the guest’s job to point out basic standards or teach staff how to run a hotel. When you book a holiday, you expect to relax, not to spend your time managing issues that should’ve been taken care of in the first place. Unfortunately, this stay felt more stressful...

This was a really good hotel it was clean tidy the room we was in 332 facing front with balcony was a great veiw of the pool and sea rooms were very clean mod the house keepers were fantastic they are very good at their jobs and very friendly the reception team were great you ask them to do something they will do it more less straight away if needed anything for room and out of room their is one member of staff tho she lies to you and not very friendly at all think her name was Maria ,Mia with glasses wasnt happy with her When going to the pool make sure you have your own towel not the room towels as the pool attendant will coller you tell you cant use it something to do with the chlorine and sun cream you can also go to the reception if didnt have own towel and ask for a pool towel but it is 10 euros each for one but they will send you over the road to get cash out of machine that charges around 4 euros the yellow and blue cash machines will always charge you their is a cash machine close to pit stop that charges just 2 euros so consider this when getting cash out the pool area is also a no bring your own food or drink area prices for drinks and bar snacks(crisps ) are cheap enough to use and you can served on at your sun lounger with no extra charge the pool area toilets and changing rooms are very clean and good vibe not loud music either so relaxing recommend or if you want ti go to the beach consider getting down their early doors as it gets full really quick also like to say the pool attendant (Joe) i give him 5 star for the work he does for the hotel as well as been a friendly person to speak with and can have a laugh with to the rest of staff by the pool are to If you want a spot of lunch and you only have breakfast included wouldn't recommend to hotel lunch buffet as its 25 euros pp per day nothing much in lidl no sandwiches just really pastery food i suggest going over the road to such a nice welcoming English cafe called dts or walking 30 mins up road or getting bus from lidl bus stop 2euros to the bus station less then 5 mins journey and going to place called tea for 2 cafe where they do all sorts and cheap friendly 2 these were the cheapest places to have a light lunch or mcdonolds but we didnt want that every day Going out places for a night out You can get on the bus to coral bay outside on main road if the hotel bus stop it takes you 15 mins to arrive they have a variety of pubs resturants takeaways entertainment but found if was only small place Best places we found to visit

Pit stop great staff great entertainment specially steve welsh (weds) but book your seating as it does get busy its 30 min walk or again 5 min bus journey

Paphos harbour 45 min walk or bus 5 mins from the bus station

Lovely place all kinds of food drink music if you want sea food go to oceans basket and eat from the top balcony but again book it in if you want best seats cheap nothing over priced

Muse restaurant/and bar it's in old town Great veiws of paphos and nice food again nothing over priced either but its all up hill getting to it so if not a walker you can bus it 618 from pahos bus station

We dodnt recommend flinstones bar or flares pricey and over rated

Places to visit in day and not to do Blue lagoon boat trip an and pickup from hotel with bbq and swim in the blue laggon fantastic trip well worth the price and wow

Dont do the submarine to see the turtles and ship wreak not worth the price

If you like walking walk along the sea front towards the harbour stunning and get to sit see the sunset such a lovely walk 🌇 😀

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