Manili Boutique Suites & Villas, an SLH Hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Archane - Asterousia

Worst hotel experience ever. Misinformation, malfunctioning A/Cs, broken promises, untrustworthy manager. DO NOT BOOK THAT HOTEL!

We booked a villa for 6 nights for 6 people for 360€/night for August.

Villa was promoted as "sleeps 7" with 3 double rooms, but in reality "sleeps 5" as one bed was only 1.20m wide (!!) and the couch could not be used as bed. Also, one room was in the cellar with no day light and the A/C was in the mini gym next door.

Upon arrival, the A/Cs for two rooms did not work (fan only), impossible to sleep in hot August. The Manager promised to move us to another villa the following day if issues remained unsolved. She relocated 2 people to a separate studio for one night, however the A/C was constantly dripping there. She also provided a field bed since the couch could not be used, blocking the living room space.

On day 2, the A/C in the mini gym was repaired, the A/C in the master bedroom couldn't be repaired. However, the manager broke her promise by telling us the other villa was not available anymore. She moved 2 people to another executive suite for "as long as the issues with the A/C were not solved". As a test, 2 fans were provided to try to blow air from colder rooms to warmer bedrooms, killing any privacy as all the doors needed to remain open.

On day 3, employees entered the villa with one more field bed claiming "since our problems are solved all 6 have to move back to the villa and the executive suite has been rented out". However, sleeping in the master bedroom was still not possible, the fan couldn't blow cold air around the corner. Also, field beds are no replacement for a single bed promoted as double bed.

Two promises were broken! Upon our friendly, calm but clear pushback, manager stopped responding to our communication and escalated with Booking.com. After 1h of mediation, we were allowed to leave on day 4, the only compensation being the hotel paying 50% of the taxi fare to another hotel. That last night, the A/C in the living room stopped working and the A/C in room 3 started making loud cracking noises. The reception called us to confirm 9:30am for pickup time of the van which we agreed. Shortly before pickup time, we were informed that since we did not respond in a timely manner (??), the van was not available anymore, two taxis were ordered and the cost to our destination (Malia Beach, 45mins drive) was supposedly 180€. Needless to say the taxi drivers pressured us. We organised a separate pickup with the receiving hotel, a van who charged 90€. The manager had the insolence to request from us, through Booking.com, the refund of 50€ that they supposedly paid to the taxi drivers. Why would they need to do that, if our van saved them the 90€ they would have had to participate in?

We could not enjoy one single moment with the constant issues and two of us slept 3 nights in 3 different rooms. No financial concession from the hotel despite the misinformation on #beds, malfunctioning A/Cs and broken promises.

In response to our review, someone from the hotel claimed our review to be entirely false and misleading. Herewith a reflection from our side:

Yes, the amenities of the studios are brand new. But NO, the amenities of the villas - which we booked - were not brand new. Yes, the devices offered as of Day 2 were brand new fans, and these could be considered as cooling device. But NO they are not a replacement for A/Cs in summer, it's not what we paid for, and if 3 out of 4 ACs are not working properly, they are not "in perfect condition". Yes, the Manager was here for us during 2 days. But NO, she stopped communication when she broke her promise and rented out what the backup solution was. Yes, we asked for a doctor and the manager tried to arrange that. But NO, upon arrival, we were informed the doctor could not be there, but we could see him/her the next day.

Observation: The hotel got 16 reviews in in 5 years prior to our stay, but 19 5-star reviews in the 4 weeks following. We found out some were written by staff members, an...

We stayed in one of the junior suites for two nights. We were offered a complimentary drink in the bistro upon arrival as we came in before check in time - a nice touch! Our room was beautifully decorated, albeit a bit cramped in places (for example the bathroom door wouldn’t fit to open fully). Also pretty much the only window of our room (on the roof) was covered up so the room was quite dark, especially as we could not keep the curtains in front of our door open as it led straight to the street. There is also no sound proofing, so we could hear every little noise from the room next door. The rooms are decorated to look like they’re carved out of stone, but in actuality they are not. All in all the room is very cute and the bed very comfortable. Location is fantastic for a few quiet and quaint days in this historic village. Pool is pretty but small and the bistro does not (proactively at least) serve drinks there which we would have made use of if that were the case.

The biggest disappointment we have is around the breakfast. It seems the warm dishes are prepared before service starts at 8, and fresh replenishments are not made from what we could tell. So when you come to breakfast between 9-10, the bacon, eggs etc are dried up and stale - this happened both mornings. I would also expect fruits at breakfast, there were none served which is odd as the bistro offered us a nice selection of fruit with our drinks in the evening as a complimentary bar snack. There is a pile of unpeeled bananas, oranges and lemons in the breakfast room, but I wouldn’t expect to need to peel my own orange at a nice breakfast. When you pay around 200€ per night, you expect the level of care and quality to be there in the breakfast too, not just the facilities.

Overall we feel a level of detail is missing that we’d expect from a hotel of this price range - that’s why my rating is three stars as I don’t necessarily find it very good value for money. Would give 3,5 if Google...

Manili - embarrassingly bad

Here is a list of everything that went wrong during our stay. The hotel fraudulently stated on booking.com that our room was 34 sqm. It was in fact not more than 10. They fraudulently state on their website that the room has a working space. It does not. The whirlpool (in "Suite with whirlpool") clearly states "For private use only, not commercial use" and only worked on 1 day out of 4. There were 3 blackouts. They moved us to a second room when we complained that had such loud whirring it was like sleeping in a boiler room. They claimed to fix it (they did not - it woke us up at 3 am) and told us we were wrong. The safe did not work in the second room. The fraudulently stated "soundproof" rooms are not soundproofed in any way. You could hear the people in the next room as if they were sitting next to you.

This is all not to mention the shoddy workmanship: When you open the fridge, it falls out because the door is too heavy. Lights were loose and improperly installed so they shine on your face. There is very little storage space in any room. And the sofa was so poorly built that the pillows slide off immediately and you fall in the gap.

They ruined our honeymoon - we finally left because we could not sleep in the "boiler room" and were exhausted. We were not reimbursed.

They have a tendency in person and in these reviews to blame the guest: "you didn't tell us x or y". But we told them repeatedly what our problems were and their service is too poor to handle this. They said (and always write in response to bad reviews) "we tried our best to help" but their best is not good enough, and they don't realize that a 5-star hotel should not have ANY of these problems. We enjoyed our stay at our next hotels very much. Avoid Manili - they do a disservice to the wonderful city...