Athens Ivy Suites — Hotel in Athens

Fairly disappointing stay in room 201.

First, the elderly man manning the reception was cordial, but eccentric. He brought us up into our room to do the check-in instead of doing it at the reception. We felt uncomfortable that he stepped into our room with his shoes on, and without asking for our permission to come in. He then specifically made a big deal to us not to touch the aircon remote apart from pressing up and down to control the temperature as adjusting other settings would affect other rooms. Bearing that in mind, we were careful not to mess with the air con control although we felt the room was stuffy, and the air con was weak. We stayed one night in this condition and feedbacked to him the next day that the air con was stuffy. He took a look at it when we left the room. It turns out that the air con was not even turned on in the first place!!! Because of his lecture to us not to mess with the air con control, we were afraid to touch other settings and ended up sleeping without aircon for the first night!! To be fair, he apologized to us and said he was too occupied when we checked in but did not offer any form of service recovery. We were glad not to see him again after 2-3 days as the other ladies who manned the reception afterwards were much friendlier and welcoming than the grumpy old man.

Next, the shower handle was broken!!! We discovered this only around 10pm on the first night. We went down to tell him immediately but as it was late and he was leaving for the day, he said there was nothing he could do now and asked us to wait until tomorrow morning when he will get it fixed. We were understanding of this situation and put up with the broken shower handle for one night. It was fixed the next day but it still left us with a very bad taste in the mouth! This should have been spotted by the housekeeping! It appeared to us that the housekeeping did not do a very thorough job cleaning the room if such a big broken item was unnoticed. The room also did not feel particularly clean. Again, there was no form of service recovery offered.

The rest of the stay passed by uneventfully but the two incidents which happened on the first night really turned us off. Unfortunately we had booked 5 nights here…

We read overwhelmingly positive reviews of this place but our experience left much to be desired. It’s really a very average 3 star apart-hotel with no frills. The location is great but honestly there are many other hotels in the same area which look more comfortable and inviting (with nice, bigger lobby etc) and at similar price point. Athens Ivy Suites feels like a serviced apartment stay, not for somebody who wants the hotel experience.

We will also caution that the room is not entirely soundproof. When we slept the first night without air con, we could hear music from the streets. From the second night onwards, it was “quiet” but we realised that is only because the noise from the air con drowned out the music. Also, the shower is open concept (no door) which not everybody will be comfortable with.

The only thing we enjoyed about this place was the free breakfast at the Italian restaurant downstairs which...

We stayed in a standard room on the fourth floor and booked through booking.com, paying roughly £100 per night.|Negatives first…|Unless you are watching tv or listening to music, you’ll notice (hear) any activity near your room. The entrance to your room backs onto a tight stairwell, where you can either access the stairs or a funky mirrored lift. I regularly heard cleaners and on a couple of occasions could hear a guest in another room having a shower.|Unless you like sleeping with lots of light, I had to position a chair in front of the mini bar that faces the bed, so as to block out the fridge light. There’s also a light on the telephone which I covered with a tourist map. The remaining two lights are a by the door (clean room/do not disturb switches) and an emergency exit sign - these lights are less bright and didn’t disturb my sleep.|The sink tap regularly had air trapped in it; we were never without water but it would occasionally splutter, when clearing an air pocket. The shower button you press to divert the water from a hand held shower to the overhead one was a bit hit and miss - but with a bit of patience and persistence, we got it working.|The hotel has a restaurant you can access internally from the ground floor, but be aware it is a semi-enclosed structure that gets cold (we stayed during Feb) - this is mitigated by free standing heaters you can ask to be turned on and fleece blankets. A major downside i found was you are allowed to smoke anywhere in this area - not great when you’ve just showered and trying to enjoy your breakfast.|Now the positives…|All the staff (hotel and restaurant) were polite, helpful and friendly. The boutique style hotel is very cute and located in the heart of everything (we walked to all the sights in less than 25 minutes). The room is cleverly designed, maximising space; it has a cute little balcony for two people to use and a very comfortable bed. Included slippers, dressing gowns and nice toiletries. It wasn’t perfect but overall we really enjoyed our stay and thought we got good value. I would certainly recommend it.||Tip: At breakfast you get to select two drinks and one breakfast item - I’d recommend the fresh (real oranges) orange juice, double cappuccino and eggs Benedict - delicious!|If like us you arrive/depart using a taxi, be mindful that the hotel entrance is on what looks like a pedestrianised road (although I did see a taxi on it), so you may find it easier to be dropped off/picked up in front of the restaurant (which is definitely on a main road). Search up the restaurant address and when you arrive, just walk through it all the way to the back, where you can then access the hotel reception, and lift to...

The Athens Ivy Suites blew us away. From the first encounter, the staff were consistently accommodating and professional, yet friendly. Some examples: -Taking our suitcases up to our room after our arrival. -Bringing a welcome bottle of their house rose up to our room. -Arranging our pre-departure COVID tests to be taken in the comfort of our own room - at no extra charge. -Coming up to our room and giving us a refund when we were accidentally over charged for the COVID tests. -Since we checked out before the kitchen opened, they prepared breakfast boxes for us to take with us (wow!). They even arranged for a Mercedes taxi to be waiting for us on the morning of our departure.

The room (501) is very modern and comfortable, with every amenity we could ever need, and then some. It features an open floor plan where the bedroom is not separated from the bathroom/shower, and it works very well at making the room feel spacious and modern. There are plenty of light switches and lights to set the mood lighting just the way you want. The mini fridge even has a window for a door, and an interior light. Every room features a Marshall Amp Bluetooth speaker, so you can enjoy some tunes from your own playlist. The private balcony has a very nice view, featuring the Acropolis above, and Plaka below and to the sides. There are chairs and a table to share the view. The WiFi was stable, and more than acceptably quick. The bathroom amenities are nice, but I don't recommend using the razor for your head (if you're bald, like me) as it seems more aimed at legs. The Burrattino restaurant on the ground floor provides excellent breakfasts (included in the price of the room), with perfectly poached eggs in the eggs benedict. The ingredients are fresh, and high quality. Literally, anything we needed, or had a question about, they were more than happy to assist us with. The husband and wife team that own/operate the hotel are wonderful people that are definitely in the right business. We will be staying at the Athens Ivy Suites the next time we visit Athens for sure. It's that good. Thank you for adding an immensely positive end to our...