Libyan Mare — Hotel in Municipality of Kantanos-Selinon

If you want cleanliness and what you||booked in advance to be provided then||avoid staying here! If you are having||problems in receiving replies to emails||then please take that as a warning, cut||your losses and book somewhere else!||Our long awaited holiday started in 2019||when in the autumn we booked a week for||June 2020 for 2 of us and paid a deposit.||Due to covid we had to change our||holiday dates to September 2020 (hoping||the pandemic would be over by then). Of||course it wasn't so again we amended to||June 2021. In late spring 2021 travel was||still uncertain for the summer. We asked||the hotelier if it would be possible to||again defer our holiday to August 2022||and that we would now like to now bring 2||teenagers with us (my partners kids from a||previous marriage) and stay for 10 nights||instead of 7. After countless emails back||and forth with days/weeks of waiting for||replies inbetween we eventually||confirmed the Ariadne Suite. The reason||there were so many emails is that we were||asking about the room set ups with||regards to bathroom and beds. A simple||question for a hotel owner we would have||thought?!!! We would ask some questions||and never receive a reply or only receive||a reply to one of our questions. It was like||pulling teeth! Eventually we were able to||chose the Ariadne as it had 2 showers,||which was very important to us. It was also||split level which offered something in the||way of a little more privacy for me and my||partner, rather than being on 1 level. We||were also advised that the double bed in||the lounge could be split- this was a little||puzzling as the write up mentioned 'sofa||bed' but we had it in writing and were||happy that the boys wouldn't have to||share a bed! We were asked to pay||another deposit (we didn't think this||strange as we were now staying for longer||and increasing the size of our party to 4||persons). We sent the hotelier John the||additional deposit with a screen shot of||our confirmed flights for 2022 and all of||our names. We did ask, and never got a||reply, if the Erato suite would provide us||with 2 twin beds in 1 of the bedrooms. We||were more than happy to pay more for the||accommodation (to give us space and a||little more privacy) but didn't want to pay||more if 1 of the kids had to be||accommodated in the lounge. It would||defeat the object of paying for more communal space and it ending up as a||bedroom. Anyway fast forward now to||August 2021 when we received an email||asking where we were!!!!!????? We||immediately forwarded the confirmation||flight email which clearly showed the||reservation for 2022, not 2021, incidentally||2022 was also in the title of the email! We||were made to feel very guilty, like it was||our mistake. Regardless our booking was||reconfirmed for August 2022. We were now||even more a little apprehensive about our||reservation (due to the date mistake of||the hotelier and the amount of emails) so||we constantly kept in touch with John by||wishing him and his family a happy Christmas, happy easter, saying how||much we were looking forward to coming....etc. In July 2022, after another||'keeping in contact email' we received an||email from John saying that he has||'passed' our booking to end Sept/||October as he has limited availability in||August. WHAT?!?!?! This was just||unbelievable???? Again we forwarded||emails and confirmations and eventually||John agreed that he would cancel others||that booked to sort something for us.||Again we had to sit tight, be patient and||wait weeks for a full reply. I did of course send the odd email but to ask what was||happening but never received a||response. Eventually John sent us an||email saying he had cancelled 3 other||bookings and could accommodate us but||only for 7 nights, our last night would also||have to be in the Erato Suite. So here we||are, confirmed flights for 10 nights, car||hire booked for the entire holiday but only||7 nights accommodation, (inconveniently||changing rooms for the last night). We had||no choice but to accept and then find||accommodation for the last 3 nights of||our holiday. Again I asked John to confirm||that we had the 2 twin beds for the boys as now we just didn't trust him at all! We||received a reply, again eventually, saying||"all was ok'. Readers of this review may ask||why we didn't just find somewhere else to||stay in Paleochora, or elsewhere in||Greece for that matter. The reason is we||believed this was the best||accommodation in town. We had spent||weeks doing research - am an exe travel||agent and in the travel/customer service||industry for 30+ years. How wrong could||we be though! After countless days of||additional research we booked our last 3||nights near Chania at the Mossa Hotel (separate report on this - excellent hotel||by the way - spotlessly clean!) A week before our holiday we||sent another email asking what will||happen upon arrival with regards to keys||to the suite. No response. A couple of||days before we forwarded the same||email. Again no response. At Gatwick we||text the number on the website. No||response until we landed in Chania to a||text message saying the key was in the||door of the Antigone Suite. WHAT????? We||had booked the Ariadne!!!! The Antigone||was not split level and only had 1||bathroom. We arrived shortly after||midnight. As promised the key was in the door. To aid in our||dissatisfaction there was no twin beds or||twin sofa beds in the lounge. It was a||double sofa AND not even made up!||Bedding was no where in sight. We called||the number of John. His mother picked up.||She said that the mistake with the kids||beds was hers and that for this night only||the boys could sleep in a studio on the||lower level. We were told to look in the||dark reception (unmanned as all the||family were at a wedding in Chania) for a||key. We requested to speak with John the||following day at 9am. The following day we waited. At 0917hrs we got a text to say||John wasn't coming but his mother would||but at 1100hrs. After 11, the mother arrived.||Myself and partner are very reasonable||so greeted her politely, as she did us,||although my feelings inside were very||different! She started off explaining that||obviously a mistake was made and they||tried to sort for us (like we should be||grateful)! We simply asked her to put us in||the Ariadne as we had booked. She said it||was full but regardless asked to see the||email from John confirming the Ariadne,||which we eventually found and showed her. Upon reading she repeated again it||was full and dismissed the email. We||suggested that the boys stay in the studio||below (at least that would provide us with||the privacy, 2 bathrooms and twin beds)||but she said people were arriving that||same day, we could not have this. The||best she could do was to put an extra bed||in the Antigone or for us to look elsewhere||for accommodation!!!! As a last resort she||offered a scruffy studio that had all her||belongings in she was living in - we refused||last option and had no choice but to||accept an extra bed. We explained that||we did not want to waste our long awaited, shortened Paleochora holiday||looking for accommodation. We were||asked to wait an hour for it to be sorted.||Throughout the conversation she was||interrupting us everytime we spoke,||although we had allowed her to talk to us||without any interruption. We did try at first||to give our side of the story, to converse in||a civilised manner, but she just continued||to speak over us so thought it better to||listen, be patient and give our side when||she had finished. Not surprisingly when we||did get the chance to speak she cut in||everytime! I couldn't finish a sentence! We||had to ask her to pay us the same respect as we had paid her by listening and not||cutting in! She stuck her head in the air||and was looking around the room as not||paying attention at all! We were||absolutely flabbergasted at the service||and attitude that she had towards us. As a||paying customer on holiday that had||been extremely badly treated from almost||the start to be shouted at by the owner in||my experience is completely inexcusable!||After about 1.5 hrs we were asked to||inspect the room. The double sofa bed||had a sheet on top of the cushions (no||protector or anything underneath) the single bed was actually a cheap camp||bed with a sheet simply put on it (not||tucked in, no extra padding or protection||like camping! Not what I would expect||from the money we were paying. The||lounge and kitchen area was now||cramped with all the furniture here and||there to accommodate this set up. We||weren't happy at all, but what could we||do:-||CLEANLINESS/GENERAL 1/10...Upon||arrival the floor of the Antigone was filthy.||We mentioned this to John's mother who||said this was due to the door being left ajar for our arrival. We explained it wasn't||ajar, it was shut with the key in it. She said||that it was obvious that we didn't like her||hotel and perhaps we would be happier||elsewhere! We reiterated that we don't||want to waste our holiday, but the very||least we would like is a clean room. She||still disputed the dirty floor was caused by||dusty air and ran her finger over the metal||rail outside the room, which when she||inspected her finger after looked very||embarrassed it as clean as a whistle!||Shocker! The floor was cleaned again||when the extra bed was put in. However it still wasn't good and there was a lovely||sight of debris with hair and god knows||what in greeting us when we went in the||separate bedroom - yuck! Our welcome||bottle of wine was opened, the seal||broken!!!! We mentioned this but it wasn't||replaced. It disappeared the following||day. (and no we didn't drink it)! The||kitchen units are old and shabby. The||bathroom had a small corner shower. All||around the edges of the shower unit were||dirty with grime, the metal was rusty, so||much so a bolt broke off. There were huge||tubes sticking out of the wall in shower||and bedroom by about a foot in length (don't know what these were)! The air-||conditioning didn't work on our first night,||forced to sit on the balcony for the night.||We informed John's mother of this the||following day who at first thought we||didn't know how to switch it on, but when||she tried she also failed. There was only 1||remote for both A/C units so she said she||would find another (she did and it worked).||However during the night water was||pouring out of both units so we reported||this the following day and it was soon||fixed. To avoid the water ruining the sofa ||we pulled it away from the wall. The floor underneath was filthy with a broken piece||of glass present. It obviously had avoided||the re-clean?! Thank goodness we had the||lights on otherwise we could have trod on||this.||Positives- the pool and gardens are||lovely. The brickwork and look of the||outside of the property is very pretty.||PAYING THE BILL - John's mother (does||John even exist?) met us unexpectedly||upon our arrival back on our last night.||This was the night we had to go to the Erato Suite. She was wanting paying as||she was out of town again in Chania the||following day. We went to the reception||and she had figures noted down, from||John. NOT surprisingly only one of the||deposits we had paid was noted. The cost||per night was also €20 more than||originally informed. She accepted we had||paid another deposit (we had the bank||transfer notification) but argued again||with us that we had to pay the higher||nightly fee unless we could show her an||email from John confirming the lower||price? We were trying to find the email of||the price through the countless emails when she said she would meet us half way.||We still tried to find the email as we||definitely had it (upon writing this I've||found it-typical) but just couldn't find. We||reluctantly accepted the half way price||and then brought up how disappointed||and unacceptable our first night was with||the dirty floor and incorrect room, A/C not||working, sleeping on balcony, boys in a||completely separate room, hunting||around for keys in the reception at lam.||this didn't go down too well and again was||shouted at that she had had bad holiday||experiences and that we should just accept it like she did! She said that we||should have gone to the boys bedroom to||sleep... on what I asked, it only sleeps||2!?!?! Eventually she accepted we pay the||outstanding amount of €600 (€50 less).||How generous of her.||In all my years of travelling the world we||have never received such bad customer||service with no want to try and put it right.||Unless you may think that a necklace, as||way of an apology, is an acceptable||gesture of good will as this is what we||received! No gifts would make me feel||differently about this hotel or the owners. We have never received such bad service with no want by the owners to put it right. Unless you may think that a necklace, as||way of an apology, is an acceptable||gesture of good will as this is what we||received! No gifts would make me feel||differently about this hotel or the owners.||If they had apologise properly and in the||very least spoken politely and decently||compensated us then it would have||perhaps left a different impression about||them as hotel owners. However the||uncleanliness of the rooms would still||remain.||WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE! ||||PS- Erato suite - showers are still||disgusting. Kitchen is in a better state of||repair. Staying here for the night did allow||me one thing; to get my answer about the||beds! It is split level. There is a lounge,||kitchenette, shower and bedroom on||ground floor. Upstairs there is a bedroom||and glass shower unit. The beds in each||bedroom can be split. Shocking and||frustrating that the owner wasn't able...

We originally thought we'd booked one of the very luxurious multi-room apartments on the first floor, but an administrative mix-up meant it was already reserved. So we were offered a ground floor studio apartment on the ground floor - and we're very pleased we were. It was half the price of the original apartment but just as well presented and equipped. We didn't use the rudimentary cooking facilities so there was no problem in one-room living. The large room was immaculate, newly decorated and very clean with access to a private ground floor sitting area outside. Chris, the lady in charge at Libyan Mare (the owner's very glamorous mother!) gave us a brilliant welcome and was really helpful throughout. We had a problem with our hire car on the first day and she dealt with the hire company on the phone for us while the gardener kindly diagnosed the fault (a dud battery). ||The hotel has a superb pool which is maintained immaculately, and beautiful grounds. Each apartment also has a designated garden table and chairs under its own olive tree for sitting outside in the shade. ||The position was perfect for us. It's located just a few hundred metres outside the edge of Paleochora and has no other buildings around. In the car it's literally one minute back into town or about ten minutes on foot. ||If you're looking for a quiet but VERY civilised place to stay in this wonderfully unspoilt town, this could be the place for you. If you're feeling flush, book one of the superb upstair apartments with beautiful balconies overlooking the sea. And if you end up in one of the ground floor studios, you won't be doing too badly either.||We're going...

We had a lovely 10-day holiday at Libyan Mare. The hotel is a 10 - 15 minute walk from cafés, shops and Tavernas. The gardens and pool area at Libyan Mare are beautifully kept and are a god send when the winds of Paleochora make it impossible to be on the beach. At times, the winds also make use of the lovely balconies somewhat difficult because it becomes impossible to use the parasols and the sun is too hot to be without- just head down to the pool. Remember to use the "Please make-up my room" sign when you want the room cleaned. All bins are emptied daily, even if you forget the sign. The staff are very obliging and helpful, despite language barriers. They use their telephone to connect you with the manager's office. The A/C worked fine and the room temperature was very pleasant. In the larger suites, the bedroom is on the second floor and there is no on-suite bathroom.| I've read that Crete has invested heavily in improving its water supply. The Libyan Mare is on a hillside and at times the water pressure petered out. The shower in our suite was in need of some renovation. The kitchenette was quite sparsely equipped, so don't expect to be able to cook up a storm! |The beach can be easily accessed after a walk down the hotel driveway and across the road. The little rustic taverna at Limnaki Beach is a perfect spot for some tasty homemade burgers (meat patties) and fresh salads. Very...