Mitsis Summer Palace — Hotel in Municipality of Kos

Sadly, I cannot recommend Mitsis Summer Palace Hotel. We just stayed here for an entire week, and feel that we can give a brutally honest opinion on most aspects of the hotel. I will mention the good as well as the bad.

THE ROOMS

The room we were designated upon arrival (twin sea view) was the worst possible room they could have given anyone. It is located directly beneath the restaurant, which is open 24 hours a day. The constant sound of people walking, moving chairs, tacky music, etc., made it impossible to relax. We were unable to sleep for even one hour for the entirety of our first night. Machine noises were heard throughout the night. There was also an exit door right next to our room that was made a thundering crashing sound every time the wind draft from the hallway pulled it closed every ten minutes. The room itself wasn't even nice, had terrible sound isolation, looked quite old, and wasn't very comfortable. It was full of spiders and mosquitoes, and we even saw several cockroaches in the hallway. The sinks were all clogged, and they would fill up with water after a few seconds of running it. Absolutely unacceptable for a so called 5 star hotel.

We tried voicing our complaints on the following morning, but were told at least 5 times to come back later because the reservation manager wasn't on site. Once we finally managed to get a hold of her around 3pm, the only solution they offered was moving us to a similar room in a different part of the hotel or pay 380 EUR (!!!!) for a better room (superior sea view) for the remainder of our stay, which we ended up doing. We wish we would have booked this room from the beginning because it is actually quite nice, but we believe that the other rooms should live up to the standards that go along with their price tag, and they should be comfortable, funcional and easy to sleep in NO MATTER THE PRICE. That is just the bare minimum. They didn't even attempt to compensate us for the horrible first night, and having to pay almost 400€ more just to be able to relax and rest just added insult to injury. I firmly believe that they shouldn't be allowed to put any guests in our first room.

THE FOOD

The buffets are okay, but average at best. The nicest things are certain ingredients like vegetables and fruit, since they are considerably better than in colder European countries. However, most days the buffet offered basic variations of the same rotation of ingredients.

As for the brunch and dinner restaurants that require a reservation in advance, we were honestly quite disappointed by them, everything was super basic and low effort.

THE STAFF/SERVICE

Everyone in the staff is extremely friendly and warm, but they will take AGES to perform the most basic of tasks like checking in, processing a payment, etc.

THE GUESTS

Some guests don't seem to believe in queueing, or in the proper usage of masks during a pandemic. We had a drunk guest knock loudly on our door at 2 in the morning for whatever reason, people listening to loud music on their phones or on Bluetooth speakers on relaxation areas (like the nests), people leaving their trash behind, people going to get some food half naked without bothering to dry up after going for a swim and getting in your personal space... I could go on.

CONCLUSION

The hotel definitely has some things going for it. If you're going with friends and want to party all the time and don't mind crowds and mediocre food, you might like it quite a lot.

If you're more like us and value being in a peaceful, relaxing environment where all the guests are respectful and considerate with each other, you might want to look somewhere else, because this ain't it.

We are particularly disappointed by how much money we had to spend just to sleep in a comfortable room, by how the hotel did nothing to try to compensate our terrible experience the first night in some way, and we feel like some of the advertising on the website is deceiving at best. This is not a 5 star hotel, nor a 5 star experience. I'm sad to say I cannot recommend Mitsis Summer...

Our stay at Mitsis summer palace was extremely conflicting.

Our first impressions were disappointing as the photos online are misleading making you think the whole hotel has been renovated. The reception and Buffet restaurant are still part of the old hotel format so this was a bit of a shock when walking into reception to check in as it’s extremely dated, photos attached below.

The buffet restaurant is an absolute disaster, this is NOT a 5* buffet restaurant, I wouldn’t even say it classes as 3.. the selection is extremely poor, I’ve seen some 2 buffet options with more selection than this, the food was very low quality and even breakfast was a disappointment. The salad and fruit bar on our first day was absolutely swamped with flies which instantly put us off eating absolutely anything from there. When we pointed this out to a staff member on the door she walked over and waited for us to leave before walking back over to the door again as if she didn’t care. This is something that could easily be rectified or at least tried to be by using lids or covers over the food rather than leaving everything open in fridges. A tea towel over bread isn’t exactly an adequate solution to this. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Luckily I planned in advance and booked some a la cartes before going. We ended up complaining to reception on our second visit to the buffet because the food was absolutely inedible.

We were booked into a la carte restaurants for the remainder of our holiday, but the issue was this was being offered to every guest who didn’t like the buffet (which from talking to families and guests was practically everyone) so the restaurants were overbooked every night meaning service was slow and staff were spread thin. Some nights we spent 3 hours in an a la carte restaurant meaning we missed the evening entertainment (although most nights this wasn’t the best)

Some staff in the hotel are absolutely first class, (Billy, Natasha, Anna & Arthur are absolutely first class are are the glue to the whole bar and food service) we could tell they were spread so thin with low numbers of staff serving during peak season. They did the best they could with what they had at their disposal but unfortunately that was very limited due to recruitment issues.

The rooms can’t be faulted (if you’re in the renovated section of the hotel) we had a minor issue where our bedding wasn’t being changed after about 4 days of being in the hotel and when we spoke to reception about this it was sorted with an hour.

We couldn’t use any of the infinity pools at all the whole week we were there as people were sat out on sunbeds as early as 6.30am on some days. The rules were not enforced by anyone so this was abused which made it impossible for anyone to get a sunbed at a half decent time of day.

The 24 hour all inclusive premium stated on the hotels website is extremely misleading as the bars close at 2am, the only food available after a la cartes close is leftovers in the buffet. There are no premium alcohol options and on some days the bar down the den actually closes early, whether this is due to staffing problems or staff just simply wanted to get a head start and leave earlier we weren’t sure but we were refused cocktails after 1am at some points. The only drinks you can have after 2am is a beer pump and a couple of bottles of wine in the buffet, which we thought was extremely misleading.

We spoke to other families and guests within our stay and they all felt the exact same as we did so that put our minds at ease that we weren’t going insane. If your like us reading the reviews and wondering if it’s worth taking the risk and booking here, please give it 4 years until they’ve fully renovated the hotel in it’s entirety, it’s just not worth spending out on in its current state.

My partner contracted food poisoning on the penultimate day of our holiday and has travelled home and has to seek medical assistant from out of hours,...

Me & my fiancée stayed here for a 30th Birthday celebration. ||On arrival at reception we had to a pay over €100 tax for the week so be prepared for that, the reception area & bar is very dated we asked about the buses which take you into kos town or kardamena and the response we got was well you’ve missed the kos town bus already. Just found them rude and abrupt which unfortunately became common place with the other staff we encountered at the hotel. Everything is very spaced out & there is a lot of stairs so be aware. ||Our room was amazing really modern, comfy double bed, stocked fridge, we had a sea view it was breath taking views from the balcony. we also had a wet room & bath, big smart TV not many channels available but we used YouTube mostly, we also had a JBL speaker too.||Room was cleaned everyday & towels are changed daily if required.||The pools were really nice infinity pools which overlooked the beach the sunbeds were the best I’ve experienced all completely cushioned. Also we didn’t have too much hassle getting sunbeds in the morning as staff keep an eye on reserved sunbeds so if they’ve been left unattended for 30mins or so the towels will be taken away after a pre warning note, other hotels should take note of this!.||The food and drinks options I have to say were disappointing had a few snack options during the day but it involved walking miles away down to the beach to get a gyros then climb hundreds of stairs afterwards same again with the pizza slices the were ok but not worth the hassle of walking there & back. ||The buffet I regret to say is probably the worst I’ve had in a 5star complex it’s absolutely soulless barely got a hello from staff everything seemed like a massive inconvenience when you asked for cutlery or drinks you might as well ask for 2 at a time as they won’t come back to your table if your drinks empty, staff just look like they wanted their shift to end or just wanted to be else where. The food hall was very spacious but very little to chose from unless you like cold meats & salads… very bland food we spoke to other guests in the hotel & they requested to be booked into the restaurants every night to avoid going to the buffet again.||The restaurants that you can only book once were better but again the service is shocking & hassle to get a drink, ||The Fresco bar breakfast was embarrassing waited nearly an hour for a single potato with grated cheese on top… ||Dusk was ok pad Thai & same sushi nothing to rave about. ||The self BBQ was a cool gimmick but the fact they do pair you up with random people opposite ruins it for me as you’re awkwardly waiting for the meat to cook, also make sure you order as much as you want because they don’t bring much meat out. ||The med is probably the best option for breakfast & dinner but wasn’t blown away by the food really. ||The drink options are basic & vary at different bars the cocktails we quite bland & not made with labelled spirits.||The service by the waiters & waitresses were appealing really not once did we get anyone approach us at the pool or bar areas to offer us a drink… None of the staff ever looked like they wanted anything to do… They made it appear like they were doing a person sentence. ||The gym & inside pool in reception was laughable the gym equipment looked like it was taken from a gym that had closed down & was put in the corner of the room, the indoor pool didn’t look appealing at all. ||The entertainment wasn’t great felt sorry for the ladies doing the ABBA tribute night you could clearly see the entertainment doesn’t have a budget from the hotel. ||Overall I’d say the rooms & pools/sunbeds were amazing, however what really let’s it down is nearly all of the staff we encountered were miserable & not interested in providing any service or hospitality, the buffet food & drinks available really need improvement just aren’t good enough for a...