Royal Olympic Hotel — Hotel in Athens

Great Location | Affordable | Good breakfast (coffee an endangered species) | Good view from rooftop bar but completely overpriced | Not a 5 star | Zero customer service | Unsafe for guests | Criminals operating freely in unmonitored lobby||||TL:RL:||- BEWARE | Criminals operating in lobby posing as guests ||- No doorman monitoring flow of people in or out of hotel||- No CCTV||- No basic security procedures in place||- No keycard required to access lift, floors, breakfast room||- No customer service||- No attention to guests - no greeting or even acknowledgment||- Not a 5 star hotel||||Before we even arrived we already had a bad experience with the staff at this hotel.||Prior to arrival we emailed reception to book a taxi transfer (as per their website) from the airport to the hotel, and to confirm that we had twin bedrooms as per our original booking and not double. No response. ||||Once we arrived they had not prepared twin rooms - but double rooms. No big deal, we sat in the lobby bar and waited an hour or so for the rooms to be ready.||||Once we got in the rooms, it was very clear that this certainly was not a 5-star hotel. ||Although clean and well-sized, it was quite dated, had no coffee making facilities, no iron, no functioning hair dryer (just a 30-year old, damaged hose version drilled into the bathroom wall), zero information in the form of a hotel compendium or guides/maps of the locale.||||The bathroom was also adequate but no bath mat was provided, but the next day after the housekeeping there was one placed inside.||||House keeping was completely haphazard, sometimes we got the correct amount of towels, some days we didn't, sometimes we were provided clean bathroom glasses, the next none.||||There is basically zero security in this hotel. There is no active monitoring by reception or the presence of a doorman at night. ||||Any random person can enter the hotel and sit in the lobby and in the dubious "library area" which is equipped with multiple couches and very, very low lighting out of the view of the reception.||||Anyone off the street can access the various floors as your key card is not required to access the lift or any other space other than your room.||||We entered two nights after midnight and the reception person didn't even look at us. ||||There is no doorman on duty.||||The staff had at best apathy for the guests, and at worst, sheer distain.||||Breakfast is also adequate with a full buffet.||||Again - staff are present for unknown reasons as they perform zero purpose. They do not greet you, check your room number - simply no interaction with you. Your mere presence is an irritation and inconvenience to them.||||There is no self-service coffee at the buffet breakfast, you must rely on the ever-changing mood of the wait staff. For some reason - coffee is the holy grail and must be preserved at all costs. You dare not ask for another pot. ||||One waiter physically blocked me from helping myself to a random pot of coffee I found on a window sill. ||||Another seemingly precious commodity is the Champagne Glass.||||When we asked the bar man for 2 champagne glasses - we got an abrupt "No", and two orange juice glasses were produced.||||We were instructed to dial room service to get them. When we dutifully followed the instructions of the Champagne Glass Overlord, we were delivered wine glasses.||||The piece de resistance to our stay was in the last moments when we were departing and waiting for our taxi.||||Two very suspicious men carrying shopping bags, and holding maps posing as hotel guests entered the "library area" we were waiting for our taxi to bring us to the airport. ||||This area is out of view from reception and very dimly lit but visible from the street, they were clearly observing us to rob us. One of these criminals was "reading" a map upside down whilst scoping out our belongings.||||When our taxi arrived we got up to leave and they followed, as if they were also getting a taxi.||||The taxi man loaded our luggage into the boot of the car. Shortly after we started out for the airport, the cab driver pulled over to shut the boot properly. Then I started to receive notifications of my bank card being used.||||The thieves had popped the boot and stole my luggage from the boot of the car in the 3 second window it took the taxi man to close the boot until he got in the driver seat.||||My passport, wallet and various electronics were stolen.||||We called the hotel to notify them and asked them to review CCTV, they claimed they have no CCTV in the lobby or outside the hotel and that the theft was not their responsibility. ||||Zero help, zero empathy. Simply horrible.||||So ensued my own personal hell of cancelling cards, ringing banks and embassies arranging documents to enable me to fly home. ||||It is hard to believe that the staff are unaware of the criminal operation that is happening on their watch and right under their noses. Or else they simply do not care. ||||On reflection these men had been present the night before sitting in the "library" area. ||||Do not stay here - you are a sitting duck.||||Do...

I must start by saying that this is not as they state, a five star hotel. If you’re someone that regularly stays in five star hotels or has experienced what five star service is, you’ll feel this disparity immediately. The lobby & reception area are really beautiful. The restaurant where we had breakfast on the top floor was stunning with amazing views. But unfortunately this is where the good stuff ends.

The triple room we stayed in left much to be desired. It was small & very outdated. The chair was damaged and stained and there was a large stain on the bed covers when we arrived. The bathroom was also very old and outdated. The hairdryer attached to the wall must have been decades old because I’ve never seen one like it. It looked like a wall mounted hand hoover and was very inefficient when used.

One of the biggest issues we found, was that we had little or no means to control the temperature in our room. There is no AC system installed anywhere. There’s a fan system whereby one can either open or close a vent. I must strongly state that this does little or nothing. We found out the entire hotel is centrally temperature controlled. For a five star hotel I expect to be able to at least control the temperature in my room. It was so hot inside the room, we all found it difficult to sleep. (This was in January... I shudder to think what it’s like in summer!) This to me was completely unacceptable.

There were numerous other little things that just added to our frustration and disappointment such as 1. no tea or coffee making facilities in the room and not even drinking water provided (even a standard three star hotel would provide this as a basic facility) 2. The window in the single bed sleeping area was sealed and covered with wooden panels so it was like sleeping in a prison cell. Moreover it meant the window couldn’t be opened if one felt too warm 3. Tv channels very limited and picture very grainy

Speaking to many other hotel guests who stayed for a medical conference like us, they felt exactly the same way and highlighted the same things. We immediately brought only the major issues to the attention of the reception staff. They were very dismissive and completely unhelpful. They kept explaining how the heating/cooling system worked and weren’t very good at listening to us. We asked politely to speak to the manager. Astoundingly, no manager was on duty in the evening and we were informed there wouldn’t be one till 10am the following morning. Again, completely unacceptable for a five star hotel. They wouldn’t let us change rooms and offered little or nothing to help improve our stay.

The following day, we saw the girl at reception pointing at us and whispering to her colleagues and the manager as though to single us out. We were made to feel like we were difficult customers when in actual fact what we expected was very basic. We didn’t even bother bringing up the fact that five star hotels aren’t about the basics but about the special touches such as turndown service, bathrobe and slippers being provided in the rooms and stellar service from staff who go the extra mile. There was just no point. Finally there was absolutely no follow up from the manager or their team whatsoever. Nobody made contact with us despite knowing concerns have been raised.

I would never stay here again and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. This hotel is competing with other five star hotels in the city such as the Hilton and in all honesty they aren’t even near the five star league. This is at best, a...

We had no issues with accommodations for our first 3 weeks of travel in Turkey and Greece, until we got to the “5 Star?” Royal Olympic Hotel in Athens. I’ve detailed our issues below:

SAFETY ELEVATOR: Four people leave the elevator, my wife steps in as the doors close very quickly crushing her. The doors don't reverse direction like safe elevators do; so she is thrust back against me, and then me back against the people who have just left. They break our fall. The elevator doors close and it goes to another floor. We used the stairs for the rest of our visit.

BATHROOM SHOWER has a slippery concave bottom. Soap will cause you to slip and there's nothing to grab onto to prevent a fall.

MAINTENANCE CALLS I showed the maintenance guy that I had the THERMOSTAT set at 15 degrees (Celsius) but the room seemed hotter. He told me "you want 20, set 10" (I suspect that most guests don't get this “inside information” and thus the hotel saves on energy costs).

Our swing-out WINDOW wouldn't close. The maintenance guy pulled the handle up and to the right to get the left side to close. He said "there, good now." I motioned, but he wouldn't look at the right side where the mechanism was bent - leaving a gap to let in hot air, traffic noise and the occasional mosquito.

LOGISTICS: CHECK-IN room allotment is rigid and not adaptive (quote: “no rooms are ready until all rooms are ready!”). At 3PM the queue (mostly bus tour and convention guests) lined up down the length of the main corridor. This queue dissipated to just a trickle by 4PM.

BREAKFAST Was not all that "included"; they charge for anything other than regular coffee. Same hot meal items every morning for the 4 days we were there. No salt or pepper to be seen anywhere.

ROOM AMENITIES No complimentary water. No coffee maker. No clock. No "About Our Hotel" booklet. No face cloths. No notepaper or pen Provided bath products were watery. The double ply toilet paper wasn’t embossed stamped, so the two sheets separated when coming off the roll. The paper was so smooth, it was like trying to use gift wrapping paper. No laundry service (the only place to drip dry our sink-washed clothing was directly above the toilet). Only two electrical plugs in the entire suite (none in bathroom vanity area). Fridge was the cheap semiconductor type, performance was even more hampered by them putting it in a poorly-vented cabinet. To get our drinks cold enough required a 3 Euro room service charge each time we needed ice. Hair dryer was wall-mounted in the toilet area. The air hose would stretch to the vanity area mirror, but only enough to dry one side of your head. Electrical control panels were mounted low on the side of each nightstand. After a few days, I developed the "crouch" with a flashlight to read and activate the buttons. The two bed pillows were flat, solved by housekeeping bringing two more so we could stack them.

FALSE ADVERTISING Our “Panorama” room had 90% of the view blocked by over-grown plants on the sizable planter box outside our window and by trees growing from below.

BAD JUDGEMENT A radical political group from a neighboring country that wants to attack Greece and take over their government was allowed to have a convention at the hotel. We experienced very heated arguments in the lobby.

POSITIVES: good central location, towels were great, and shower ran...