Electra Palace Athens — Hotel in Athens

This wouldn't be a 1-star review if this hotel wasn’t proclaimed to be a 5-star hotel, which is laughable at best. UNBELIEVABLE this is classified as 5 stars. Booked this stay through the Aegean Tour group which provided a package of higher-end stays and excursions for our trip to Greece. If you’re also booking through Aegean and are expecting a 5-star trip based on American or other European standards, this is not the hotel for you. However, if quality service is not a must for you, and the price point of this hotel is not a barrier, this hotel will do fine as a place to simply leave your stuff while you explore Athens.

From the moment we stepped into our rooms we realized this was not 5-star quality accommodations. The rooms are average-in-comfort with no special quality to distinguish from a 2-star hotel room. The walls are paper-thin; you can hear normal-volume conversations in the rooms adjacent (made staying next to a family with small children super fun). On the bright side, the rooftop pool and rooftop bars host spectacular views of the Acropolis and farther-reaching ports/sea. The rooftop restaurant also had an awesome breakfast buffet with really great and friendly service. With that being said, the service in this hotel in every other capacity was BEYOND POOR and VERY FRUSTRATING.

There were multiple times throughout our stay with Electra Palace that we had questions/requests that were met with varying answers/varying levels of hospitality/attitudes from different staff members. No one at this hotel is on the same page with any policies or rules regarding ANYTHING. Probably 1/4th of the staff presented moderate-to-poor attitudes to any request, regardless of simplicity. Several situations lead to us confronting the fact we were constantly given multiple answers to simple questions. Let me preface with this: we’re not exceptionally high-maintenance travelers. But when you pay for 5-star service, A 5-star hotel should be going out of their way to avoid negative guest experiences and accommodate requests.

Examples: Asked the older bartender (Menelous) in the lobby for a cocktail using the top-shelf gold tequila, and his response was “no gold tequila, only white." Confused, we asked what he meant. "No gold for you. Too expensive.” As if he could look into our wallets and determine what is best for us… NO THANK YOU. So we said screw you dude, and got TWO cocktails with the gold tequila instead of one. In what universe is it the policy of a 5-STAR HOTEL to judge guests on their ability to pay for ANYTHING based on ANY INTERACTION. Please do not use the hotel bar for ANYTHING. Menelous was an absolute jerk across every order we placed. We were gifted a bottle of red wine in each room - brought it to the downstairs bar to have them open it, and while one bartender said we were allowed to stay and drink it in the lounge, Manelos came over and said it wasn't allowed. Then said actually it is allowed, but it's $5/person to stay and drink it. Literally every question we asked at this hotel was met with a multitude of varying and always-changing answers. This place really needs to get their staff on the same page about policies. Booked a beach excursion; was told we could check out towels from the hotel for the group. The morning of, a different reception staff tells us it's not allowed (noticing a trend?). Explained the inconvenience of relying on their word instead of going and buying our own towels the night before. Instead of providing 5-star service, they argue with us for 5 minutes about their policies, then finally cave and say okay but we can only give you 4 towels for 5 people. These towels are DIRT CHEAP. When we returned and let them know our disappointment with the staff interaction on our trip thus far, we were argued with YET AGAIN.

You will regret the price point of this hotel when you see the level of service provided. We will think twice before booking a pre-chosen package of...

A Disheartening Honeymoon Experience at Electra Palace Athens

I felt compelled to share my thoughts after just one night of our three-night stay at Electra Palace Athens, especially since this trip was meant to be a highlight of our honeymoon, following incredible stays in Santorini and Mykonos.

Upon checking in, we were greeted in a rush, with no information provided about the hotel amenities or even a mention of the spa.

When we declined assistance with our bags—being British and all—we encountered an impersonal approach. At our previous hotels, staff insisted on taking our luggage to our rooms, which is a standard expectation for a five-star establishment. Instead, we were simply pointed in the direction of our room, making it feel more like a budget hotel experience than the luxury we anticipated.

Entering our room, we found it disappointingly small, with a balcony barely big enough to stand on. The view we had hoped for was marred by scaffolding and noise from a nearby school. We believed we had booked a higher-floor room with better outdoor space, but it turned out I had mistakenly reserved this room, which was advertised as the third best in the hotel.

Adding to our dissatisfaction, we endured three hours of drilling and hammering for two consecutive days, and the hotel never informed us about any ongoing work. It would have been advisable to mention this to guests upon arrival, as it significantly impacted our stay.

While we were at the reception inquiring about an upgrade, another guest expressed their dissatisfaction with their room and was promptly offered another room to look at. We hoped for the same consideration, but unfortunately, the manager we spoke to was dismissive, failing to grasp our concerns and coming off as rude and arrogant. While he informed us that no better rooms were available, the lack of empathy left us feeling deflated.

The next day, the manager did contact us to discuss our issues and offered us a room with older decor and the same views, which we declined. They also offered us a free dinner at their restaurant, which we also turned down. Later that day, they unexpectedly offered us a room upgrade, which we accepted, despite being previously told by the rude front desk staff that no upgrades or other rooms were available.

Upon accepting the new room, they did take our luggage, but the manager, who had been friendly, suddenly brought up the review I had mistakenly left for a different hotel with a similar name, asking me to remove it, which I did. This felt a bit pushy, especially since we had only been upgraded on our last day of our stay, after spending two nights in a basic room that cost around £2000.

On our last day, while our previous five-star hotel arranged to take our baggage down for us, Electra Palace did not. In fact, the concierge just stood by and watched us carry our bags to the front door. As we were leaving, we overheard more guests complaining about their rooms.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend staying here. It’s certainly not as grand as the photos suggest. Even the presidential suite, which costs around £1800 per night, isn’t impressive; while it has a pool, you overlook other balconies, and we counted five that could look down on you.

The location is great—super central with most things within walking distance—but it's certainly overpriced. We encountered poor service, rude staff, and average food. The breakfast staff were particularly lacking, as we waited ages just to get a...

Beware of MASSIVE MASSIVE bed bugs! Booked this room for only a night with my boyfriend. First the room itself is extremely tiny and you can definitely find a better hotel for much cheaper.

My boyfriend woke up with 10 bites all over his body. We turned on the light and there were 5-10 bed bugs crawling on our bed, on the wooden bed-frame, and on the sheets. The sizes varied from small to big -- meaning that there was an infestation in the room.

After finding this out, we immediately threw all of our belongings outside the room and called the concierge immediately. They offered to "sanitize" all of our belongs and dry clean on high heat. We had a flight to catch in the morning and we stated that we needed everything back by 11AM to make our flight.

The concierge had the nerve to offer us a room NEXT to the room we stayed in with bed bugs on the 6th floor. We said no and we did not feel comfortable sleeping in this hotel. Being that it was 3AM, we had no where to sleep so the next thing they offered us was a 2nd floor room.

We had nothing, no wallets, no clothing (just our PJ's), no cell phones no shoes. They did not once offer us anything to eat nor did they did they accommodate us for anything while we waited patiently in our hotel room with nothing to eat, drink, wear or have any communication with our cell phones.

We did NOT end up getting our stuff back by 11AM but at 12:15pm. As we packed frantically for our belongings into the suitcase when we got our stuff back from the laundromat, we went back to the concierge. The manager did not even come out to see us and all we got was a "sorry for the inconvenience and we wont' charge your room". They did say specifically that the "SANITIZED OUR BELONGINGS INCLUDING THE SUITCASE"

Flash forward to us coming back home in NYC. We made our flight fortunately. We find a bed bug in our luggage and now we have to spend a LOT OF MONEY to sanitize our entire apartment. They did not sanitize are luggage as they said and they should have never told us that they did this. We could have taken proper pre-cautionary cleaning methods prior to entering our home.

The staff was extremely unprofessional and even had the nerve to tell me that they only saw 1-2 bugs in the room and its all taken care of. Please look at the photos and you...