Hotel Matina — Hotel in Municipality of Eastern Samos

I suppose I should stick to my mantra of never returning to a great holiday place for a second time. This is because a) the guests who helped make it great aren't there; b) there's very little chance of finding something different and c) the surprise and enchantment element has gone. It's the same with Samos. Last time we stayed at Kampos in a fantastic family run hotel. This time, we chose the other end of the island, Ireon and booked Hotel Matina through Thomsons. The hotel itself is clean, tidy and in an excellent situation never more than 5 minutes walk to the beach, tavernas or supermarkets. The rooms, mainly B&B are not very big and do not boast any 'extras' such as dining equipment, cooker etc. There is a fridge but if you have to make a sandwich or attempt to make a hot drink it is very difficult. We read about this in other reviews so took our travel kettle. Again, no cutlery like spoons etc or cups/mugs to drink from. This does notentice you to remain at the hotel during the day. Just as well because read on....||We also booked the hotel on the advertisement from the website about pool bar and snacks. This is totally incorrect. The pool bar was never staffed and when we sat at the bar waiting for service we were constantly ignored. In 2 weeks no-one opened the bar and the snack bar never operated. In fact when we attempted to drink our own drinks at the pool side, a notice board was hastily put up requesting us not to consume our own food and drink 'for taxation purposes'!!!!. Amazingly, in the second week when the Greek and German tourists arrived, this board was removed and they were allowed to eat and drink their own stuff. ||The breakfasts were appalling. In other B&B accommodation I have used there is usually a breakfast bar where you help yourself to juice, coffee, meats, cheeses, fruit etc. In this hotel, every morning we were handed a tray that had 1 small juice, 1 coffee or tea, 2 slices of bread, 2 packets of butter, 1 packet of jam. This was accompanied by Friday/Tuesday- boiled egg, Saturday/Wednesday- Cheese, Sunday/Thursday- Chocolate croissant, Monday - 2 slices of inedible pressed meat (Prem to us Brits!!!).||If you didn't want that selection on that day there was no replacement, so either you did without or went to a local cafe. ||The hotel has undergone recent building work in the construction of a 3 storey extension that has reduced sunlight into the grounds. The sun hits the pool and sunbed area about 1pm and is gone by 4.45pm. A whole morning without sunshine. As a result of the building work there are only 8 sunbeds. There are currently 7 rooms used (i.e. 14 guests). Maths tells the tale of availability of the sunbeds. With the extension this is going to facilitate an extra 10-15 rooms, a potential 30 more guests and there is no land left to place sunbeds. ||The staff (approx 7 people) spend a lot of time making themselves look busy but in fact have very little to do. In our 2 weeks there, on the first week there were 5 couples and on the second week 4 couples that increased to 7 couples towards the end of the 2nd week. We sat on our balcony many a time watching the manager and his staff/relations just sat about doing nothing while they could have been making money and creating a pleasant holiday atmosphere by getting off their impressive backsides and doing the job properly. If ever there is a Greek Fawlty...

We dont really have super high standerds for accommodation. As long as its clean, and we have a decent bed and pillows we are happy. And if we get the room we book for.

We booked hotel Matina through a dutch travel agency. It listed several room options. Because if my dissability we chose a twin room. So I have my own bed and my partner can not accidentaly hurt me in a small bed. (everywhere in the world a twin room means 2 beds. the definition of "twin").

When we arrived we get to a room with a small double bed. Like max 160cm wide. Maybe even smaller. We said "this is not what we booked". It was even on the confirmation the women from the hotel had. It clearly stated "twin room". But this was the only room available. She said a twin room does not mean 2 seperate beds. And that if we wanted a special room we should have emailed. Like with pool view etc etc. I said thats weird. Because on booking they also work with 2 room options. A twin room (seperate beds) and a double room (2 pers bed). She said it was not their fault and we should contact the tourist office if we were not happy and that they can put us in another hotel. (really dont know what kind of tourist office she meant).

It was so weird that they took no accountability. They made a mistake. They do not communicate well with the travel agencies they work with. If they dont want to specify rooms on those website, they should not do so. If I book a certain type of room, I expect to atleast get that room. To me its super weird to get a totally different room than the one you booked.

The solution was to get a extra childrens bed. So my partner of 80+ kilo's had to sleep on a horrible bed for 9 nights that was clearly meant for children not yet so heavy. The state it was in was just super bad. And the comfort of the small double bed was also pretty horrible. It was super hard, and the pain would wake me up 10 times a night. Most pillows were rockhard. It just all super old and needs to be replaced. Even the toilet seat was broken. Thats just not sanitary. Bacteria are going to get stuck there. Its gross.

When we checked out we were treated super unkind, because they knew we were not happy. The lady who talked to us the first day, saw us comming. Went back in, closed the door and walked away. It was all just super weird and not friendly at all. And not worth the extra money we paid to get a...

We booked Hotel Matina as part of a package deal and were quite happy with the choice.|A few points about the hotel to set your expectations right so you can enjoy your stay better:|- People are super friendly. If they offer help, their first intention is really to help not to sell anything.||- It's a tiny, family-run place which means you don't get 24/7 hospitality. The patron stays up late but after 10-11pm you need to look after yourself.|Also, rooms are not cleaned on Sundays.||- It's not a business hotel. Don't go there for work. No phones in the room and the WiFi signal is not strong enough to get you through Skype calls.||- It's not a culinary hot spot. The breakfast is merely a review of what Lidl has on offer. The family tries to make the best out of it but the town has much better alternatives at cheap prices. We skipped 6 of 7 breakfasts.||- A/C is extra at €5||If you are ok with this, you can have a wonderful time. Strolling through the streets of Ireon you will realize that the Matina is actually one of the very few places with a pool. It's not big but well maintained. There are a few sunbeds cricling it and you can get drinks at the pool bar. Just perfect to end a hot day at the beach.||Our room was very clean but didn't keep us inside for too long. The bed was 1.40m wide and not the softest. The TV was tiny (but you get a lot of channels due to the satellite system). The bathroom was quite small and the shower even smaller such that it was difficult not to flood the whole bathroom while showering. |The fridge had a neat size for a double room and the balcony is rather cute.|The windows did not let in too much noise, so we got a good rest. You can even fully darken the room with two wooden doors.||I guess the pool and the ambiance convinced me to give a 4th star for our relaxing stay at the...