Mitsis Norida — Hotel in Municipality of Kos

just got back from a week at this hotel. whilst there is a few nice points, like the staff who are really trying their hardest and genuinely lovely, the experience wasn't the best and we are extremely disappointed at spending so much money on a 5* hotel which is more like a 2, 3 at best. When we arrived we were given the wrong room, it was also miles away from the main eating and pool areas, not great when you have mobility problems and booked a room closer to the main areas as you struggle to walk. we had to wait 2 days and we're kindly upgraded to a maisonette, which was great, however 2 days living out of the suitcase and having to repack everything before the holiday could start. once in, we found the beds on the ground floor were like sleeping on a rock, no bounce or softness, but there's no Aircon upstairs so you will be freezing downstairs and boiling upstairs. the hand rail was frankly dangerous and wobbly, mould in all the bathrooms with hardly any light, dark, dingy and smelly. the shower head was coming out of the wall, the tiles were proud of where it was fit meaning the shower head never stays in and as such, pulled itself away from the wall. stains all over the floors and back of the toilets, and dead bugs splattered on the walls not been cleaned. the "double bed" upstairs was 2 singles, which every day worked their way apart from each other... one would imagine having a simple clip on each end would prevent things from coming apart and things falling in-between, especially in a 5* hotel? after 3 days, we heard the next door guest coughing and vomiting all night, and the 4th day and beyond, new arrivals on the other side kept us awake literally all night, instead of lifting chairs, dragging it across the floor, banging, crashing and unpacking until 6am. I was absolutely furious at this point especially because none of us had slept. Absolutely no sound insulation, you can hear everything!! so we had very little sleep for the last 3 days. My husband then became sick and had to spend the last 3 days in bed and I had to take the children out on my own. Family holiday ruined. the day before we left, I then ended up sick with one of the worst headaches I've ever had in my life, stomach ache, and couldn't lift my head. I felt better yesterday, our last day and we spent it on the beach. Unfortunately, we got onto the plane and my little boy projectile vomited on the plane and clearly he's picked something up from this hotel too. he's very sick to the point I'm now taking him to accident and emergency, and hasn't stopped being sick all today. I've never been so glad to be home. we spent so much money on this holiday which will probably be last one with our eldest teenager and this has left a bitter taste, quite literally. On the food, we literally survived on crêpe and pizza the whole week because the buffet food was awful. it was more like a works canteen, or cattle market, with everyone queueing for ages to get round, and we noticed that the German families always had priority tables and better service, always pushing in the queue and reserved sunbeds and never went back...nobody said anything. Breakfast was horrific, I have mobility problems and struggle to stand, god help you if you just want a bowl of cereal, there's literally never any bowls!! had to wait at least 20 minutes every day for a bowl and when they did arrive they were filthy or kids were fondling them spreading more germs about. You can't even get yourself a coffee or tea, you have to wait for someone to come to your table, so it's anyone's guess how long you will be waiting for someone to come, but again, this isn't the staff fault, they were genuinely lovely and really trying their best in awful circumstances. I know I wouldn't be happy working there and they must be very tired and overworked, however there's a couple of ladies in the main restaurant who made a huge difference to us because they were beyond kind, both dark hair in a ponytail and work towards the back part of the restaurant, absolutely lovely girls who should be paid handsomely. as is the girl at the pool bar who I felt very sorry for watching how overworked she was and how demanding and rude people were to her, but she was still so kind. I hope the staff are getting enough breaks. |One of the most crucial complaints I have, which is important to me, especially in a 5* hotel... they don't even use FRESH MILK!! they only have UHT. As a milk and tea drinker all my life, you instantly know the difference because UHT is actually disgusting. I've never known a hotel that's supposed to be the best in it's class only use UHT milk. it was so bad we had to go to kardamena and buy some REAL milk and I ended up having to take it with me to the restaurant just so I could have a normal cup of tea that didn't taste like preservatives and UHT is actually very very bad for your health. This might not matter to everyone, but to me this was a big no no and not one area actually had fresh milk... not even for the cereal? it also tastes disgusting. Definitely not a 5. The chair covers outside are also filthy and if you're lucky to find one that isn't covered in bird poop , you will have to accept some kind of food smears instead. |there's no fly catchers about either so you will have a few guests landing on your food. The sunbeds on the beach are the same, get lots of towels because those things are harbouring god knows what, they are filthy, covered in stains and bird excrement. onto excrement, there's a very strong sewage smell all around the hotel to the point it's unbearable. they ask you not to flush anything down the toilet, so if you use the toilet, then you are expected to dispose of the paper in the bin until the cleaners come.... that's third world country not a 5 hotel. I also noticed plenty of pipework leading into the ocean... are mitsis hotel pumping this sewage from their guests into the sea and that's why people are coming home very sick or is it from the hygiene standards? there's no antibacterial gel to be even seen and honestly I wouldn't come back here if...

Over promised and under delivered.

What you see on the website isn’t quite what you get. There are parts of the hotel that are close to 5 star, overall, it is not.

We arrived late in the evening to be provided with a room that had a substantial leak in to the room we were going to put our children to sleep in, so much so that one of the two twin beds was wet through and more water continuing to drip from the ceiling on to the side table and bed.

It took almost 2 hours for the staff to listen to what we first reported, that this was not resolvable in the evening and that we simply needed to be moved. With a 4 year old and 18 month old, it was 1am by the time we were eventually moved, this wasn’t the start we were looking for. The staff at reception during this saga could not have been less helpful, in fact the main member of staff who actually sympathised with the situation, was the kind gentleman who moved our bags.

The second room we had been placed in was a maisonette room, open plan and with large stairs unsuitable for an infant, so, this again had to be changed, all in all, we’d spent the first 18 hours of our stay unable to unpack and start to relax.

Despite me already providing the feedback that I had not paid a lot of money for a room with a view of an array of air conditioning units, we found ourselves again with a view looking from our balcony directly on to a flat roof and the aforementioned air conditioning units which as expected had a delightful low hum as they were in constant use. Yes, over the top of these units we could see the sea, so technically a sea view, not quite what the website advertised however.

The reception staff over the course of this issue had not passed on to one another, I had to repeat the explanation time and time again, and when they had a chance to make it right by at least giving us a room with an uninterrupted sea view, they failed. Despite what seems to me as a clear and obvious fault, not once did we receive a courtesy call or message, inexcusably poor customer service.

Whilst we’re on the subject of our room, it was only cleaned twice during our stay, why? Because we had an infant sleeping in the room and it was not possible to have this done at an alternate time on that day. Five star hotel right? On the days our room was cleaned it was lovely and fresh.

The main dining hall is simply a canteen, it’s busy, loud, and honestly, not that enjoyable an experience dining in there. We pre informed of a dietary requirement, despite this, there are no warnings in the main canteen and the kitchen staff were not able to answer questions on something as simple as “does this have milk in it?”. I will however say the staff in there are all wonderful, helpful, attentive and friendly, full credit to them!

If you’re staying at this hotel and you’re reading this, take advantage of each booking opportunity for the themed restaurants, this is really where the hotel actually feels 5 star, it’s finished well, the food is good and it has a wonderful setting overlooking the sea, honestly the best part of the hotel. You can book once per week at each of the three themed restaurants, and once for breakfast, it was a pleasant surprise for us that you can have lunch there which for us was a much nicer overall experience.

The pools are lovely, it’s difficult to get a bed, but this is nothing new from anywhere you may go, typically by 0730/45 the beds are all taken although the beach tends to have plenty of space. The only gripe with the pool is that for some reason they have a really sharp gripping surface, I cut myself 3 times on this, my daughter once and I saw children being patched up for some form of cut every day.

The entertainment team are amazing, high energy and took the time to know our children and greeted them each time they saw them and made them feel like celebrities, thank you for this!

There’s more but I’m out of words, would I stay again. No.

Ps the nearby town of kardamaina is lovely, very small and worth a visit for dinner or at least a drink...

I would not recommend this hotel. I spent a week at the hotel in late June/early July 2025.

Pros: the room was always clean and the housekeeping was perfect this hotel also offers a saltwater pool the beach is really nice and close and they offer really great pizza, also the sea is really beautiful creperie, their pancakes are amazing and especially the staff Dimitra who was always very nice and friendly activities for children and water slides the minibar, which was really replenished every day Kardamena is close to this hotel and it costs only 2 euro per person to get there by bus, really nice small town for shopping

Cons: The wind really blows quite hard on Kos the food selection was quite limited and the same thing was always repeated (pork neck, fries, pasta), the lady at reception told me that every evening was themed but I never noticed anything like that (Asian evening, Greek evening etc) the room furnishings look quite old and we had a problem with ants in the room, also the electrical outlets are really poorly placed there is a very limited choice of drinks at the bars and also the app doesn't have the full menu (for example only the "soft drinks" item but no longer which drinks are underneath) the drinks and especially the water did not taste good at all (at the bars you got tap water which tasted really nasty) the service in the main restaurant was slow and always messed up. Several times I was not offered coffee in the morning even though the next tables did and I had to go to the waiters myself to ask for it. And it seemed like I was bothering them. One night it happened that a waitress walked past us about three times and never asked what we wanted to drink and we waited like that for several minutes before someone took over. Another night we ordered drinks and they ended up on another table. And on the last day at lunch we ordered sparkling water and Coke and when Marinela the waitress came to us after we had finished our food a few minutes later, she didn't know what we wanted and just brought still water for both of us. After pointing out that our order included a coke, she brought it after a few minutes. This happened when the restaurant opened (at 12:30), when the restaurant was still not that crowded. We were sitting outside during lunch one day and the tablecloth was flying quite a bit on our food due to the wind. I asked the server for a staple for the table to prevent this from happening, but she just said something in Greek to her colleague and no one addressed the problem, nor was there an apology that maybe they didn't have more staples for the table even though the table next to us did. on the beach one day there were two guys from Bravo dressed as nuns and bothering people on the sunbeds We booked a day in advance at the reception for late check out, which is for a fee until 15:00. On the day of departure, our cards were no longer working anyway at around 14:45, even though we had paid for our room up until 15:00. We also booked a suitcase drop off from our room at 14:50 the day before, but no one arrived even though it was supposed to be arranged. advertized table tennis is located outside which is really bad considering the windy weather on Kos The sunbeds by the pool are booked by guests from like 7am and there are quite a few for the whole hotel, so we never had a chance to get to the pools. The only place was at the Bravo pool but we were bothered by the loud music during aqua gym or aqua dance. In general, most of the staff looked to be bothered when you go to order a drink or ask them for something. I've never experienced such unfriendly staff in other 5* hotels. we also tried the ala carte restaurant Smokey Grill, but even there the food was rather average. I tried their beef burger, which was not at all juicy, it was more like a meatball and even the boneless chicken was not boneless after all

Overall I had better experience in different 5* hotels. This is more like 4*. For that price it's not...