Knossos Beach Bungalows Suites Resort & Spa — Hotel in Municipality of Chersonissos

For the first time ever, we returned to the same hotel for a second stay|Review of Knossos Beach Bungalows Suites Resort & Spa|Reviewed today|For the first time ever, we returned to the same hotel for a second stay.|At first time we fell in love with the room, the food, the abundance and spacious layout of the beach loungers, and above all, the lovely atmosphere of the hotel—largely created by the staff. We still found the hotel very pleasant, but not quite at the five-star level. Below are a few reasons for this opinion.||Food / Yefsis|The food was excellent, but unfortunately the bread was not. Only pre-sliced supermarket-style bread was available. This was a downgrade compared to last year. The white and rosé wines were too warm. However, there was plenty of variety in the meals. The salads were truly delicious and the meats were well prepared. The service was excellent and friendly.||Room (Suite 151 with terrace):|The room was very clean and practical, with ample storage space. The air conditioning and ceiling fan worked well. The terrace was absolutely lovely and well-furnished. The beach was just a few meters away. There was plenty of space in the room and on the terrace to dry swimsuits and towels.|But…there was no “Do Not Disturb” sign to hang on the door, so housekeeping and minibar restocking staff would come in even if you wanted privacy or a siesta. Since the entrance is through the terrace, you can’t hear if someone is speaking outside. Housekeeping was daily and of a very high standard.||Swell Bar:|This is a beautiful bar with a good cocktail menu. Unfortunately, many well-known drinks were not made correctly. As a former trained bartender, I know what I’m talking about. The mojito was missing either sugar or mint, and the ice cubes were large chunks. The piña colada had no taste of coconut whatsoever.|It might be better to reduce the menu or create signature drinks that staff can consistently make well. Getting the classics wrong doesn’t match the standards of a five-star hotel. Last year, we had well-made cocktails here.||Beach:|When we arrived, all the loungers and cabanas were crammed into one small area of the beach. This was due to a dispute between the hotel and the local authorities, as the beach isn’t owned by the hotel. The situation was partly resolved after a couple of days, but the beach setup was not fully restored throughout our entire week. The loungers were now much closer together. The beach restaurant was not brought back either. Some guests used the cabanas without paying a cent for them the whole week—claiming no one ever asked them about it. Good for them, of course, but unfair to those who had paid for them as part of their booking.|We personally enjoyed beach life from our private terrace, which offered direct access to the stunning sea. As a result, we didn’t take advantage of the beachside drink service. This didn’t bother us—we just bought drinks for our minibar from the nearby store. Guests who did spend their days on the beach said service was slow and that the ice in their drinks was often already melted by the time they received them.||Reception and Guest Relations:|We were disappointed with the reception’s handling of the beach situation. When we arrived, paid, and mentioned we were returning guests, no one told us about the beach issue. Instead, we discovered the overcrowded loungers and cabanas squeezed into a corner of the beach ourselves a few hours later when we went down with our towels.||The guest relations manager—who is absolutely fantastic—arranged a better room for us with private sun loungers, and thanks to her, our overall feeling about the vacation improved. However, this room switch could have been avoided altogether if we had been informed right away. We would have immediately requested a room with a private terrace. After all, we had booked based on the photos still online.|Now that the beach no longer matches the promotional images, I personally wouldn’t book a room without a private terrace again.||All in all, we had a good holiday.|The best things were the peaceful atmosphere, the mood, the proximity to the sea, and the good food. I like this hotel more than many five-star hotels because of its warm and relaxed atmosphere. I wish the hotel all the best in the future and hope the beach facilities can be fully restored someday.||Make sure to keep the young woman at guest services—she’s amazing!|Special praise also goes to Maria, the server at Yefsis. She is absolutely lovely and efficient. Plus, she fed the sweet cat who spends time on the restaurant terrace every morning. And the dog at reception is also adorable in all its...

We stayed here at the beginning of the season and paid €320/night for an all inclusive stay in their best room (with a private pool and poolside beds). The room was amazing and exactly as depicted in the hotel photos: clean, comfortable, had all the amenities one would expect (although TV reception was terrible), with great views overlooking the beach and other islands on the horizon. Booking was straightforward and communication with the hotel prior to our stay was excellent.

Upon arrival, however, we found that the service was not as good as we had expected. We were made to wait 2 hours for our room without explanation as to why (considering that they had asked in advance when we would be arriving we expected things to be ready). We were finally taken to our room by someone who spoke very little English and did not show us any of the room or give us a tour of the expansive hotel grounds or let us know what activities were available in the area.

Breakfast was served in the main restaurant where the quality overall was poor and the service was very slow. The main absurdity is that a 2 slice toaster was expected to cater for up to 100 people at a time.

Our room included lunch and dinner in the Swell restaurant which was generally excellent. However, it is worth noting that although we stayed at a fairly quiet time, there was one night where the restaurant was full and it became clear that they were understaffed; service wait times trebled and the food quality declined noticeably.

Additionally, the drinks served to all inclusive guests consist of rough local spirits (non-branded) and powdered juice. If you want branded alcohol/cocktails you are expected to pay 80% of their normal price. Not all of the bars cater to all inclusive guests which seems to have been done strategically; for example, the beach bar is the most frequented bar in the resort however it will not serve anything but local greek spirits (no regular non-branded spirits like vodka) to all inclusive guests and expects instead that you use the main bar in the hotel lobby (a 50 meter walk up 30 steps from the beach) to get the only thing we were able to drink the entire time: a vodka lemonade.

The gym is also terrible. I would have expected more than just a few dumbells and 4 old and heavily rusted machines (because the gym opens out directly onto the beach) which included one very tired treadmill.

On our third day we wanted to do a Pilates class we had read about in advance. We were told that this took place on Thursday evening at 5pm, but on arrival in the gym, we found nobody there. We asked at reception who only then called the lady running the class and we were told that the woman's car had broken down, but later their story changed, and in actual fact the class had been held at 12pm the day before. A crazy miscommunication and clearly an outright lie originally.

On a different day, we inquired about leaving the resort to go to the nearby ruins and were told that a taxi there would cost €30 for what Google told us is a 20 minute journey. Declining this, when we asked about things to do within walking distance, we were handed a map of Crete and told "you can keep that" before the woman at reception went back to whatever she was doing on the computer. Very unhelpful!

On a similar note, and to finish it all off, the 8 minute cab ride to the airport cost us €25! The driver refused to show us the meter, and insisted that it was a fixed fee to the airport agreed in advance with the hotel, even though we had not been consulted about this. It is clear that the hotel is colluding with certain cab drivers to try and squeeze every penny they possibly can from you.

If you are restless like us, and want to do more than just sit by a pool all week, I would suggest hiring a car.

In conclusion, I believe that "profit" has been put above the "quality service" on the hotel's priority list, which obviously needs to be the case but to cut corners so dramatically on the basics, to me is...

We just came back from this beautiful resort celebrating our honeymoon. Hotel: cozy and quaint hotel with so many stunning photo spots .. beach views and sunsets were magnificent and especially liked all the restaurants having beautiful beach views. Feels like a retreat and you don’t want to leave the hotel Room: Our suite was lovely and spacious with a nice size tub overlooking bougainvillea Greek flowers .. absolutely stunning. Separate toilet, spa shower with amazing soaps and even an outside separate shower on the private terrace. Food: Silia was excellent and Swell as well and the buffet had variety daily. Deserts delicious.. fresh fruits and always something new to try. There were a couple issues that stood out however, one being the water issue. Only one is given in the daily restock fridge in your room. You have to buy additional bottles. Even with all inclusive. With it being so hot one bottle was not enough for two people to share for the day .. you have to get water at the bar in plastic cups throughout the day or at the end to bring to your room for the evening of you’ve used your bottle. Also, the all inclusive is not all inclusive in that you get a menu and some things with a dot are included but the ones with prices you must pay separately. The drinks are ok nothing special. Spa: beautiful spa with private indoor pool you can book. So relaxing for spa massages and facials. Relaxation lounge that tea is offered in. Friendly staff. Location: a bus ride which the stop is by the hotel to Herklion town center. Easy to get to.. lots of greek shops. Restaurants with views. Customer service: the restaurant staff and manager were friendly and nothing was too much. Very attentive. However front desk at checkout was awful.. was a shame to end like this…. with magnolis making it out to be as if we were liars not waiting for our bus transfer when we were. They never came or they came too early when we weren’t there…we were there at our designated time..He arranged a taxi for us but was adamant that it’s the customers responsibility to be on time .. we clearly stated so many times how we were absolutely there on time and they must have come early. He did not want to hear it and had to have the last word. Was so upsetting .. however Anthi from guest services was absolutely amazing in that she felt bad for what she overheard or had seen us upset and didn’t want us to leave being upset.. she gave us water and tried to help with the transfer again and also a nice bottle of honey from the hotel to remember the sweet things about the hotel. Was a lovely experience after that 20 minute front desk issue not to mention the issue of arranging the transfer with the other front desk receptionist inputting the wrong number several times to call and stating that we had the wrong number or the number was wrong when in fact we found out that the number on the transfer email was correct .. he had been including a couple digits that he didn’t need to in the beginning of the number. Checkout was a mission definitely not smooth and then leaving was an issue. Luckily Anthi was so kind and made the end so much better. Customer service was on point:) highly appreciated. **Another small note was that prior to arriving I had emailed the resort informing them we were staying for our honeymoon. Absolutely nothing was done for recognition. Maybe this specific hotel just doesn’t celebrate occasions. Would have been so simple to make a heart towel on the bed and include a small little Greek trinket and card to thank guests for staying at their resort to celebrate something special. The added touches go a long way.. luckily Anthi made our trip at the end special. Was a lovely...