Grecotel La Riviera at Riviera Olympia & Aqua Park — Hotel in Municipality of Andravida and Kyllini

I am writing this review following a 9-night stay that cost almost EUR 6,000 for a family room (2 adults + 3 kids under 11 years old). ||Without exaggeration, our stay was marked by daily complains concerning the bare minimum expectations from a summer 5* resort of this price point, located in a non-fancy area of Greece. I am also writing this as a person who has stayed in various summer / beach 5* resorts both in Greece and abroad starting more than 20 years ago, and this stay will be memorable for all the wrong reasons.||Let me also mention that we stayed at the adjacent Grecotel Oasis hotel (4-stars) 2 years ago and because we were disappointed by the quality and price / value we decided to upgrade to the La Riviera 5* this year (for approximately 50% higher cost per night) hoping we would get significantly better quality (which we obviously did not).||Below I am breaking down all our observations / negative experiences:||1) Reservation / price||At the time we booked the room we got the impression we were getting a double room (i.e. connecting rooms) for the elevated price we paid. However it proved to be a family room, which was a copy-paste of the one we had stayed at the adjacent 4* Oasis (for two thirds of the La Riviera price). Literally they were the same rooms! Clearly this was a misunderstanding by us and we should not have booked it. When we found out (a day or two before our arrival) we spoke with the hotel, asking for a different room, but the answer was negative (if we did not pay even more to upgrade).||For the reservation, we talked directly with the Grecotel reservations department months before our stay, as repeat customers we got a 10% discount and as we fully prepaid our stay we supposedly got the best rate available. ||Nevertheless, on the day of our arrival at the hotel, we checked the price of the same room for the same dates, last-minute, at Booking.com and they were at least 10% cheaper for our entire stay!||On the spot, I reached out to the group’s and the hotel’s reservations department and despite multiple email and oral exchanges, they refused to provide a final written answer and they refused, orally, to at least meet the Booking.com price, effectively telling us in our face we were fools to book in advance (“since you agreed to pay that price back then, you should effectively live with it”), and of course proving that there is no real benefit of being a repeat customer or booking directly with them. We are also quite certain that the vast majority of other guests paid a much lower price than our “prepaid” one.||So that was our reservation / price experience. ||Now that Grecotel did nothing to satisfy our partial reimbursement request, let me advance to describe why we got horrible value for money and we were irritated daily by small items that are unthinkable at other competing hotels of the same nominal category. ||2) State of the hotel / materials / equipment||- Room/bathroom: the materials used and the state of the wardrobes, drawers, doors corresponds to a 1990s 4* hotel. It is a shame to sell to customers such a room in 2025 pretending it is a 5* hotel. Moreover, the bathroom, that is supposed to serve its 5 guests, had cheap materials, one single washbasin, and an impractical bathtub (and no shower). The water pressure and temperature was inconsistent and insufficient. In addition there is no modern electrical equipment. All in all it is in urgent need of refurbishment.||- Pool/beach: The sunbeds across all areas (excluding the main pool) correspond to the ones found in remote Greek beach bars in the late ‘90s / early ‘00s. Nowadays even 3* hotels in low-key islands offer wooden sunbeds with comfortable cushions, but Grecotel chooses to offer its premium-paying customers the cheapest and oldest sunbed option possible. In addition, there are no litter boxes at each sunbed and some of the spots were barely usable as were constantly muddy/flooded. ||- Towels: both in the rooms, but also in the beach / pool areas, low quality towels are being offered to customers. The ones in the room are thin, not soft and are overused, while the ones for the beach are…white, full of marks (yellow from sunscreen etc.), and quite….rare (see below section).||- Public spaces: generally the gardens and public spaces are well maintained and beautiful. Nevertheless, in less visible areas such as the corridors leading to our room, there was rubbish and the flower beds were unattended. Moreover there were torn couches (close to the elevator leading to the main restaurant) and old chairs / sunbeds in the room terraces. ||3) Services||- Pool / beach area: At each 5* beach resort customers either get beach towels directly in their room or can collect them from the place where they will swim i.e. beach, pool etc. In the case of La Riviera someone obviously thought that it is a great opportunity for customer exercise as they place towels in one single location between the beach and the lower pools, obliging customers to go back and forth to collect towels. It suffices to have a look at the hotel map to understand that this is meant to serve the hotel, not the customers. ||Even better so, for at least 5 days of our stay, there were no towels available for intervals of 30’ or more, obliging customers to wait under the sun without any staff being able to offer them a timeline or suggesting to deliver the towels to their sunbeds! I personally stayed there wating for 20’-30’ on two consecutive occasions, and saw numerous other customers (some old) waiting as well under temperatures of 30-35C (instead of enjoying their time). Same applies to the aqua park. ||- Room: Our reservation was for 5, and despite my calls / exchanges with the hotel the day before our arrival, our room was made up for 4, and had to ask them on the spot to add the 5th bed. There were also only 2 glasses / coffee cups (for 5 people). After we complained, we got plenty of new glasses, which were obviously unwashed and taken out of their boxes as they still had the stickers at their bottom! Moreover, daily the maids were leaving one single one-litre bottle of water (for 5 people) and were not replacing any used coffee capsules. They also left any used cups / cutlery unwashed / not replaced. Only after our complaints did they start replacing them satisfactorily, and then when we did not remind them, they went back to their old practice. In other words, every other day we had to complain to get water and capsules.||General services: To supplement our negative experience, one day the phone in the room did not work and we called the reception in the morning, asking them to fix it. When we returned from the pool around 7pm, the phone was still not fixed and we received a knock on our door from a technician to fix it while 5 people had to shower / prepare for dinner. We asked them to intervene another time and the phone was fixed only the next day. We also faced a flooding incident whereby our terrace flooded with water coming from the room above. We called the reception 3 times, and it took them more than one hour to send someone.||- Restaurant: the main restaurant staff is clearly untrained, unorganized and generally unqualified. To give a few examples: two servers might be cleaning the same table when customers are calling for them in the same time, and they choose to both continue cleaning than serve the customers. During 7 of the 9 breakfasts we had, there were servers looking for the tables to serve the coffees / drinks they were carrying, asking customers if they had ordered them; needless to say, we were asked multiple times (for orders belonging to others) and in 2-3 days we received twice the coffee we had ordered. Almost daily we had to go look for extra knives and forks as we were waiting for too long for waiters to bring them. The same applies to our used plates that were not cleared timely (and usually after multiple requests by us).||- Bar: Here it is difficult to find words to describe the lack of preparation / training of the serving staff. Even though there are several servers to serve the 20-odd tables, the service is extremely slow and the staff is not knowledgeable of the drinks on the menu. To give an example, it took literally more than 15’ to get an answer to 2 simple questions: how many white wines by the glass are available and what are their grapes (cepages). On 2-3 different nights it also took ages to serve a couple of mocktails and 1-2 cocktails.||There is no criticism to the staff per se, as they had the right attitude, but to a trained eye in the hotel industry, this clearly indicates lack of training and coordination. The same does not apply to the pool bar / restaurant where the service level was much better.||I want to note that all the staff, across all departments, were friendly and cordial and did what they could to assist. However, it is obvious that there is insufficient management, training and willingness to invest (by its owners) and it is more than evident that the ownership is simply “milking the cow” i.e. us/its customers.||Seeing the overall average rating of the hotel it probably shows that we were the wrong clients for such an establishment. Unfortunately writing all the above does not leave any energy to write about the positive things we noted during our stay.|||P.S. We would like to thank the responsible for Public Relations who tried to put a face to the impersonal Management, by communicating directly with us (also via Whatsapp) and trying to offer solutions to the smaller issues we faced during our stay. But considering the level of complains and the negative experience, this would have taken more than a free lunch voucher, a voucher at the bar (to choose between 4 cocktails only in a menu of 10+ pages) or a fruit plate in the room (part of which was left rotting after 24hrs and we had to leave it outside the door room as the cleaning stuff did not collect...

It is a complex of four Grecotel hotels on a large area. We stayed at Grecotel La Riviera & Aqua Park, in a room with sea view. Due to poor organization it was impossible to park temporarily at the portico and unload the bags, so we had to carry them from quite a distance after parking far from the hotel entrance. Check-in is at 15:00 and not at 14:00, as usual. And yet, there was a delay of over three quarters of an hour to give us a room and to find a free buggy to take us to the room. In general, the buggies were very busy and took a long time to pick you up and transport you. The reception area needs renovation, not only because of its age, but also because of the unsightly furniture and decorations there, such as a stuffed ram and a stuffed deer. Also, all these antique imitations and Ludovician furniture are kitsch. We could not even understand the reason for the existence of the almost life-sized porcelain leopards that are also present in the other hotels there. The gardens and outdoor areas are very beautiful, although labyrinthine. Our hotel's central rectangular infinity edge swimming pool has very few umbrellas and it is difficult to find a place to sit. The rest of the pools in front of the rooms are nice but nothing special. The beach is wide and long and the sea is shallow, but we had the misfortune that the sand was like mud, which was unpleasant and unsightly. We asked many employees, but no one could tell us why, only that this happened this year and not in previous years. We suspect that it is due to the hotel, as in front of the other hotels in the complex this does not happen. The room is spacious but in need of maintenance, as are all interiors, as there are obvious signs of wear and tear everywhere. The spa pool was not working. Nevertheless, the spa area is nice and the pool area impressive. The massage was quite good. In general, the hotel is ideal for families. In addition to the Aqua Park, there are still many activities for children, such as archery, paintball, roller skating, etc. Some are free. The Looping Rocket in the Aqua Park was out of order. Also, the Aqua Tower and Spray Action are in immediate need of maintenance, as many water jets, etc. were malfunctioning. The Aqua Park is too small for the crowd of people who use it, resulting in queues and waiting to do some of the slides. And to think that we visited the hotel at the beginning of September when tourism has decreased. In paintball one of the guns they gave us didn't work at all, which we realized at the end of the game. I'll admit the food was pretty good, but I was troubled by the porcelain figurines of black men holding trays in the dining area from which you were served. Something like this would be found in a colonized country of the last century. Finally, we asked for late check-out but we were told that they would have many arrivals and we could not stay longer in the room. It should be noted that the check-out must be done by 11:00 and not by 12:00, as usual. They offered to give us a room as a shower for half an hour, which we found to be a great way to avoid the unpleasantness of being denied a late check-out, as we weren't going to accept such a thing. I'm sure the hotel will comment in typical fashion that they are very sorry and will take our review into...

Come expecting a 3 star and you’ll be satisfied. The rooms and pools are very dated and coming apart at the seams. The layout is great and it was likely nice 10 years ago. The front desk staff are truly clueless. The WhatsApp concierge is hapless and can’t solve anything so I really wouldn’t bother. ||We were delayed by a day but had communicated this with the hotel. We were assured this was no problem and our room was waiting for us…except it wasn’t. Having paid for the room starting on the Saturday we arrived on Sunday to no room. They then tried to put us in a regular room when we’d paid for a family bungalow. It took 4 hours to straighten out. The family bungalow had a nice view but is desperate for an update. The faded curtains were literally half hanging off the track when we walked in. The bath tub drain was jammed and unusable. The beds are old and hard with various dips in the mattress. They don’t give you anything like enough water in the mini fridge. It’s absolutely nothing like 5 star. It’s a 3 star at best. ||The most disappointing part were the sun loungers. We were told the hotel wasn’t remotely full and yet it was impossible to get a sun lounger unless you claimed one first thing in the morning. People left towels all day and nothing is done to manage them at all. Our kids aren’t tiny but if they were it would have been a nightmare. Two days we couldn’t even get a single sun lounger by the beach or the pool for hours. The music by the oasis pool is awful and too loud. They didn’t pay for the music so it’s all very odd very bad covers of English songs played throughout the hotel. They’d be better off with no music. ||The kids loved the pool. I’d have loved it if it was a lot cleaner. The drain by the bottom of the steps was always blocked and growing mould and algae in it. There’s no way around it so you get to slosh through that on the way to the pool. ||Drinks by the pool weren’t worth ordering and they didn’t bother even stirring them most of the time.||The kids club was pointless and the worst we’ve encountered. Our 8 year old went to the ‘pool party’ which turned out to be plonking them in the baby splash pool while the staff stared at them and chatted to each other. We rescued her after watching for 15 minutes. ||The water park is great but again really dated and had lots of paint chips floating in the water and mothers pulling said paint chips out of the mouths of babies.||The food in the main buffet was good and varied. The Asian restaurant is dire and the Beef Mendake is worse than a reheated pot noodle. Hot Stone was the star and I’d definitely book that one soon as you can on the app. Cap Voyage is not remotely worth the money. It was a very average meal with the same shambolic service for £350. ||This hotel has great bones but it’s been left to rot and the service is comedy bad. If you come expecting 3 star with a Benidorm vibe you won’t be...