Porto Bello Royal Hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Kos

We’re currently on our 8th day out of 11 at the Porto Bello Royal so writing a review while it’s all fresh!||First impressions: not an overly grand entrance but nice enough, the Royal’s true wow factor appearances wise is the view from the terrace by the main restaurant, where you overlook the lovely terracotta rooftops down to the beach and sea. The exteriors of the buildings are immaculate and the grounds are lovely and well kept. ||Room: we paid for a sea view room, and were put into room 504 which is the block beside the main reception building on the top of the hill. If I’m honest, we felt a bit cheated by a technicality on this room. As there is technically a sea view but it is on the horizon. We’re not terribly disgruntled about this as the location is very convenient for the main amenities of the hotel, but I think it would be helpful for the hotel to provide better information on their website (and TUI, who we booked through) regarding their website different types of sea view rooms, as we did expect we’d be a bit further down towards the sea. The room itself was nice enough, very spacious and a comfy bed but a bit tired and could do with an update. The lampshades have a couple of stains on them and the cupboard door where the mini fridge is hanging off its hinges. We’re not overly precious about these things but you do expect better from a 5 star resort. It would also be helpful to have some drawers in the room as well as the wardrobe for hanging clothes. The bedside table drawers are very small. The housekeeping was also disappointing, we had to go to reception to ask for more toilet roll as despite being here for 11 days we never had any dropped off from housekeeping, same with the big towels. We’ve left them in the bath to indicate we would like them changed, when we’ve returned in the afternoon they’ve still been there. Again, disappointing from a 5 star resort. On a positive note though, the mini bar was stocked without fail everyday with water and soft drinks.||Restaurants:|The main restaurant I think is lovely. Breakfast in particular is superb. There are a variety of hot ‘full English’ sortt of options as well as cereals, fruit and yoghurt, meats and cheeses, pastries, pancakes, sweets as well as a lovely boulangerie section in the corner full of fresh delicious bread loaves which you can cut yourself, and pre sliced bread as well. There’s really something for everyone! |I can’t comment on lunch at the main restaurant as we never went (more on lunch shortly).|Dinner again I thought was very good for an all inclusive, a nice variety of dishes and there are themed nights most days. I particularly liked the little salad bar where you can get miniature ready made salads. Ideal for trying new things and minimising waste! My only criticism would be the hot options tend to be the same sort of things but slightly varied e’g lamb stew one night and beef the next night. My partner wasn’t all that impressed as he’s quite a picky eater but he always found something he enjoyed. Mainly pizza and the fresh cooked meat on the grill. |The desserts were superb, a lovely variety and different options every night. I particularly loved that traditional Greek desserts were always on offer. Absolutely delicious!|I also saw a few comments saying drinks service was slow, not the case for us. We always had a drink brought to us almost immediately. ||The gelateria/snack bar provides burgers, chips and chicken nuggets which again were fine, ice cream very nice. ||The Greek and Mediterranean restaurants on the beach are interconnected and serviced by the same kitchen. Picky eaters will have a hard time here I’m afraid. The Greek restaurant we found better as there were more meat options, whereas the Mediterranean restaurant only served fish for their protein options. I’m not very brave when it comes to fish but I have to say the cuttlefish and octopus dishes in the Mediterranean restaurant were absolutely delicious. The buffet in both restaurants is small so don’t expect a big variety like the main restaurant. One minor annoyance I had as well was a certain member of staff whose name I didn’t catch, only asked my partner what he would like to drink and just ‘assumed’ I wanted the same and didn’t ask me or even acknowledge me. Not the sort of behaviour I’d expect in Greece. This happened on the two occasions we went to the Mediterranean restaurant. ||Pools:|If you can’t find a pool to suit you here you’re impossible to please! There are so many to choose from and range from a little more lively to very quiet and private. We mainly went to the pool by the gelateria which was lovely. One thing of note, the pools are all salt water so for those with sensitive skin, make sure you rinse in the showers after a swim or you may find you have sore skin after a few days.||Entertainment:|Not much to comment on this as we tend to just have a drink and chat or play games to entertain ourselves. However the Il Divo tribute were brilliant! The entertainment staff are lovely, Leah in particular is a sweetheart and always makes time to come and chat to guests between activities. Achim (I hope I spelled that right) is an absolute machine, he will certainly put you through your paces in aqua gym! :)||Beach: |Simply beautiful, plenty of sun loungers even later in the morning. This also goes for the pools by the way. We have never had an issue getting a sun lounger. Beware the sea is quite rocky here though so bring swimming shoes! Also bring a snorkel because there are tons of fish, really lovely to snorkel around here. We even saw an octopus curled up in some rocks.||Staff:|The staff are mainly pleasant but you can’t help but tell they’re worked bloody hard. We often saw the same staff serving us breakfast and still there for dinner service. They were pleasant enough but just seemed quite tired (time of the season maybe as it’s September). I always like to chat to the staff and most say that a lot of the guests can be quite unpleasant so they were glad of a friendly smile from me. I find this quite sad but having worked in 5 star resorts in the past I know how demanding some guests can be. I think perhaps they just need more staff including in housekeeping, it’s a huge resort and just having a few extra bodies might make the difference to truly deliver that 5 star service.||Overall, we’ve definitely enjoyed our stay here. It’s been a lovely break. I don’t think it’s quite at 5 star standard or worth the £1800+ each we paid for the holiday. But with a few tweaks it could definitely go from a ‘good’ to an ‘excellent’ hotel. Would we stay here again? For the right price, yes. ||Tips:|Book the Zeus Superior Cruises boat trip for a day out, amazing! And they will collect you from the marina on the beach and take you to the main boat via speedboat. ||Do not book this hotel if you have mobility issues. It is on an incline down to the pools and beaches with a fair amount of steps and slopes.||Rinse off after swimming in the saltwater pools if you have sensitive skin, or you may get sore after a few days.||Taxis can be booked at reception and cost around €10 to get into Kardamena. We managed to get one within 5 minutes. ||Tuck into the desserts,...

Just returning from a two week stay at the Porto Bello Royal (PBR). We travelled as a couple with a four year old, and another couple with a five year old.

Transfer from the airport was very straightforward, and only takes 15 minutes or so, which is great with young children. Check-in at the hotel was quick, with only a small number of guests arriving simultaneously. This is quite a large complex, hence your bags, and in our case ourselves also, were taken to the rooms by buggy (nice!).

We had a standard room (550), and had asked for this to be higher up in the complex away from the pools. The reason for this was to avoid the risk of our young boy finding his way to a pool whilst we were still asleep in the morning (fairly unlikely to be fair!). This did mean that we had a few minutes walk to reach the main areas of the hotel. Since the hotel complex runs down a hillside, there can be several flights of steps to negotiate, but there are always other routes that can be taken involving ramps only. The sea view from these rooms was stunning, and more than made up for the short walk. On reflection a room closer to the main complex would be better as it was a bit far to 'nip' back to room, especially in the heat of day!

As others have noted, some of the rooms at the PBR have been refreshed. Ours was one of the older type. We were perfectly happy, since for us, the room is only for sleeping in; we came to be outside in the sun. We had a large double bed, and a single bed (no sofa beds), which were extremely comfortable. There was a flat screen TV (never used), a refrigerator stocked with water and cans of drinks (free), chairs and stools, and ample wardrobe space. The safe was free. The bathroom was adequate, the only obvious criticism being the shower over the bath, which needed to be updated for a 5 star hotel. The air-conditioning was fine.

Outside, we had a good sized balcony, with space for a table and chairs, and, of course, a great view. One thing that could be provided would be an outside drying rack, since the hotel do ask that clothes etc are not left hanging over the balcony. In summary, our room was fine, yes the shower could be better, and the furniture newer, but we slept well, and had no problems with ants or noise etc.

On the subject of noise, the hotel is under the airport flightpath, which means you will hear the aircraft coming in! There is no denying it, but each one can only be heard for 20 seconds or so; it really doesnt amount to much. If this is likely to ruin your holiday, look elsewhere.

Our friends did move rooms after a week, to one of the refreshed, modernised rooms. This was similar to ours, with of course, newer furniture and flooring, and wall-mounted TV. The biggest improvement was undoubtedly the replacement of the bath with a modern shower cubicle. I think it would be fair to say that these rooms are more reflective of a 5-Star hotel, so if your room is vital to your holiday, you might like to request one of these.

We only ate in the buffet, and therefore cannot comment on the other restaurants available. In our opinion, the quality of the food in the buffet was exceptional whatever the meal. There was always plenty of choice, and the quality was very high. There did seem to be some queuing for tables at certain times, but this could be avoided by eating early or later. There were themed nights regularly (Asian, Greek, Seafood etc), and the menu varied accordingly. Drinks were brought to your table, which sometimes meant a short wait. They might have put in place a self-service drinks station, but doubtless some reviewers would complain they had to fetch for themselves and have to queue!

The real selling point for this hotel has to be the sheer number of pools! These cascade down the complex, offering varying depths, jacuzzi pools and waterfalls. With so much choice, these were never crowded. Cleanliness was good, and sunbeds usually available, if obtained early. The pool bar was great for drinks, snacks, and, of course, ice cream and...

DO NOT GO HERE !!!!!!

We got married at this hotel 3 years ago and returned for anniversary with our family member and her fiancé as they wanted to also get married here. We got back yesterday and what a disgrace the place has turned into it.

Where to start - we paid for a private pool room and the sink was full of ants every morning hundreds of them and during the day a bit less but still there, cracked tiles all over the hotel, rubbish in toilets 🚽 on floor, food was not great at all from when we got married here the standard has completely gone down hill

The biggest problem was the management - stelios and Faye are nothing but bullies in this hotel they go around bullying guests we was in our room getting ready to go out for dinner and stelios came and let himself into my room while we was in the pool and was abrupt and rude about music being played I told him the guests that arrived next to us was in fact the ones playing the music he said no and I’m not being nice to you guys.

So he left we got out the pool and started getting dressed to go out for dinner when our door started banging again I opened it and was confronted by stelios and his wingman driver both shouting in my face that we was being disrespectful and they was calling the police about the apparent music !!! and was extremely scary for a woman to be faced with this by two men. I got my phone from my pocket to ring my family just as my husband had got out the shower as he heard the noise the two men assumed I was recording them and both came up to my face to grab my phone screaming at me this was terrifying my husband stood in front and said get away from her right now.

I tried assuring them I wasn’t recording but they said they had called the police and we needed to go to reception right now.

Our family arrived to see what had happened they also got screamed at and we all went to reception to find out the police had not been called it was a scare tactic and in fact what they don’t was got the manager Faye who started the conversation with shouting do not insult my intelligence well the lady does have any to insult !!!! She began shouting at the top of her voice in reception at us that we had recorded them I tried assuring them we had not but she said proceeded to look in our phones which is a violation of our privacy. Stelios is rude and a bully ecspecially to women we got told it’s against the law to film in Greece which is a lie we also got told you can’t play music in Greece at any level between 2 and 5 which is also a lie and we got told police had been called again another lie.

We then proceeded with our day the next morning went to speak with the tui rep as this whole experience left me shocked and upset being bullied and intimidated by staff member in an apparent 5 star hotel.

After speaking with the tui rep she advised us that she was in shock and was going to speak with them and advised me to make an official complaint when home I was scared the thought of her speaking with them as didn’t know what they would do next.

It was our last day we had paid for late checkout we stayed out the hotel for list of the day to avoid the staff when we arrived back at 4pm to check out for 6pm we was confronted with our door key not working we went to reception and yet again was faced with Stelios, Faye and two other workers Faye began shouting her same line do not insult her apparent intelligence and that we had a breakfast in bed to pay for which was meant to be paid at 6pm n checkout this was 4pm and she informed us she had locked our room until we paid it I said fine we can pay it not we just got told we had to pay on checkout but whatever it’s fine as the whole thing was embarrassing and intimidating herself and stelios began shouting why don’t you film us and why don’t you go running to the tui rep as that’s your contact

I have never been so intimidated and scared in my life on holiday to say the least it’s a complete disgrace and they should not be allowed to get away with this behaviour this is not a 5 star it’s now more...