Bratsera Hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Hydra

While the physical space of the hotel is quite charming and very convenient to the port, my horrific experience overtakes all the positives. I hope someone from the hotel will contact me after reading this. When I checked in, I was immediately told that there is no one at the hotel attending the front desk from 12:00am to 8:00am. I had never heard of such a thing at a hotel and thought this was very strange as what would they do in case of an emergency with a guest, but I put that in the back of my mind. My original ferry that I was taking the next day, which was to leave at 10:00am, was cancelled due to mechanical failure. The only other ferry I could take in order to get to Athens to make a bus was to leave at 7:00am. That meant getting up well before 6:00am to make the ferry in time. It was dark outside before 6:00am and pretty dark in the lobby, so imagine my ABSOLUTE FRIGHT when I was NOT ABLE to get out of the front doors as they were padlocked from the outside and inside!!!!! I could NOT get out. Because it was so dark, I couldnt see if there was any kind of way to get out. I spent at least 25 minutes running around the lobby and falling down many times because there were uneven steps.. a person could have killed themselves!!! There aren't even words to describe how scared and I was and how dangerous this all was, but I had to get out. After 25 minutes, I finally found a door that was was locked from the inside, but not the outside and I was able to get out. My heart was pounding a thousand times a second as I had to sprint to the ferry in the dark with my luggage on those cobblestone streets to make the ferry in time. I made it by 5 minutes!! For the life of me, I cannot understand how a hotel can operate this way. If there was a way to get out of the hotel before staff would get there, it was IMPERATIVE for staff to share how a guest would leave the hotel if they had to leave early. Stay here at your own peril! I hope someone from the hotel will contact me to explain how something like this...

Trying not to compare this too much to the last place I stayed (on a different island) so I can review it on its own merits. If I’m being honest, four stars is probably a bit generous. ||The location was excellent as was the meal we had at the accompanying restaurant Saturday evening. The pool was clean (but like pretty much all pools in Europe) cold. Area around the pool was picturesque and a great place to unwind. ||The hotel itself is full of old world charm, well kept-up both structurally and with the groundskeeping. The room was clean (which is super important) as was the bathroom. Maid service was fine. ||A few points I should mention. ||There was a lack of any plugs to charge our phones, tablets, etc. ||The key is a skeleton key, so we always had to be together or leave the room unlocked when one of us was in it (or locked in with no way to get out).||The AC in the room worked but we didn’t leave it on when we weren’t there, which was most of the day. Electricity is super expensive in Europe and we wanted to be cognizant of this fact, not drive up their bill. Once we closed the shutters it cooled down a little quicker, but it never felt totally comfortable temperature-wise by the time we went to sleep (it did finally feel comfortable in the morning).||For us, the room was a bit of a hazard due to its two levels and lack of any safeguard around the steps (again, typical for Europe, our bad to book a two-level room). ||My major issue was the bathroom, which had one minor flaw (shower leaked, possibly toilet too) and one major flaw (toilet seat was too small for the toilet). Lots of good toiletries provided and again, clean. ||Night hotel staff wasn’t super friendly, actually patronized me when I asked a question shortly after checking in. ||Not sure how other comparable hotels stack up here on Hydra…. It’s good, just not great, even considering the many great...

I unfortunately just had a negative experience staying at the Bratsera this past week. It was my 3rd time staying there and when I contacted the hotel to request a room on one level due to an injured foot I was told that they only had rooms on 2 levels but they would contact me if one became available. They never did and upon arrival had a one level room for my travel companion but not for me. She booked her room months after I did.

Second, they are a worker working right outside of my door for 2 consecutive days and on the second day I found the floor outside of my room covered with water and found an open bag of garbage outside of my room. I informed the front desk and they got rid of it but no one apologized or offered my anything.

I tried to phone the front desk to let them know I was ready to check out but my phone did not work. It was dead.

Finally when it was time to check out I went to the front desk and asked for someone to help me carry my bag down the stairs of my 2 level room and was told there was no one available to help me at 9am on a Sunday before my upcoming boat departure.

I wrote to the management after my negative experience and was not given any sort of apology and was told the following in an email:

I should have managed my own booking to monitor if a one level room becoming available as I booked on a travel platform I should have understood that the worker was there during quiet hours and should not have been bothered by the garbage If I needed help with my bag it was my responsible to hire an outside porter service

I have been traveling in Greece for the past 40 years and am now working as a travel professional and find this unacceptable behavior from any hotel. Greece is a country that prides itself of good hospitality and the Bratsera has 4 stars and...