Marirena Hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Malevizi

Firstly, don't go "all inclusive" at the Marirena, particularly if you are bringing children... but otherwise, it was fine.||I'd like to say that the staff were nearly all great, lovely people, very helpful and nice. Particularly Rena, Soula, Nikos and all the young staff working the bar. We really liked the staff!||BUT the rules and the old guy owner here make it very difficult to fully enjoy. Others comment on this, too.||The "all inclusive" is a bit of a joke:|- Breakfast is 8-9 only, I beleive and it's "continental" with breads, condiments, package croissants (not fresh), sometimes pastries, orange slices/water melon, a cheese, some processed meats, beans and scrambled eggs. There's a coffee machine and a "juice" and water dispenser. The apple juice was fine but the orange tasted like cordial.|- The "all inclusive program" starts at 11 whereby a medium-sized fridge in a cupboard has some madiera and cholocate cake, little ham sandwiches, sometimes some nice little waps were in there, crisps and either an apple or cheese pastry.|- There were no yoghurts or fruit or ANYTHING healthy for the children otherwise. We had to complain and - again the staff themselves were nice about this - were granted fruit and yoghurts when we wanted them (I didn't see other families being told about this and we felt quite guilty about it but needs must). Anything off menu comes at a cost.|- Long gap between 9 to 11am |- The "all inclusive" "bar" opens at 11am and closes at 10pm but has a strict menu (see pic). There's NO flat drinks or fruit juices for children. The beer was fine, a refreshing 4% "Cretan Beer" which I didn't mind. The wine is from a dispenser - it's listed as "house wine" or "in a glass, but you gotta pour it yourself. The cocktails are just a minimum amount of the spirit listed + mixer and about 2 cubes of ice - no offence to the guys serving, this is clearly what they're only "allowed" to serve. Some vodka, rum and raki options (but I dunno who's taking that). |- There are other spirits on the shelf in the "bar" but of course, they're off-menu and come at a cost.|- Regretfully, guest's tables around the hotel were rarely cleared (more on this below).|- Dinner is 7-8pm only and food does run out without replenishment in some of the nicer things. The food was fine, though. Lots of delicious salads (same every day) and some nice options, some not so nice, 5 hot options I believe. Had a nice moussaka, once. There is ONLY water or coffee available in the dining room at this time. There is ONE person who MIGHT offer to get you a drink from the bar. Again, no healthy options for children other than water||On arrival, when you come into the hotel, there is a bar, but that's not the all inclusive bar. It's the first bar you get to though and when you ask for a beer you're asked to pay. The staff are nice about it but you still have to pay at that bar. ||Essentially.. if you're "all inclusive"... you're hearded away like sheep to your own crappy little bar/restaurant drooling at the food and drinks that their more valued customers pay for.||The pool area is nice (sun in the morning and shaded in the evening), but don't be fooled by the nextdoor connected pool area. This is apparently a "different" hotel/company/or something... but it's clearly run by the same people. To use it you need to BUY drinks. The food served to people in there looks delicious by comparison to the all-inclusive offering. It comes from the hotel's connected restaurant. It's a nicer pool area but those are the rules.||Now... the grumpy old guy... I know it's not OK to call him this, but that's what he is. He appears to be the owner. he prowls around and basically bosses the staff AND the guests about. Others complain about this also... EG. Where can you have drinks, where can you sit. There are cordoned off areas and he will basically heard people around as if they are sheep etc etc etc. When checking in/out they have no luggage store but allow you to store your luggage in the reception. But if he sees you doing anything with your luggage in the reception he'll chase you out of there. ||Honestly, it felt like a boarding school sometimes.||Again... staff: lovely. Rules and owner: not so much.||I think we'd have been happy here if we were younger, had no kids, and went with B&B option only. So I'd actually recommend this place on that basis if you think the price is right.||Location-wise, it's quite good! There are plenty of touristy shops down the street with a grocery store only 2 mins away and regular buses into Heraklion centre (be sure to buy your tickets at a shop rather than on a bus! it's half the price!). It's right by the beach and a couple of nice beach bars like 'Havana', 'Franks', and the snazzy insta-bar Kooba'...

I arrive with my wife at about 9 AM, were told we have to wait for about 2h or more for room to be ready. Not a big deal. Left to eat and got back. ||||Upon entering the room, we noticed it had a funny smell. The century old looking AC also was not working and was not fixed even after we complained about it. When turning on the light to the bathroom, the fan started to make a loud noise. That fan hasn’t been changed in many, many years. The noise was so bad, we had to turn off the light when entering the bathroom, especially at night when you’re tired and don’t want to hear noise. ||||Speaking of noise, every single day, there was music from a hotel nearby up until 12 AM. From that same hotel, during daytime, you could hear continuous, non-stop LOUD music. The music was the worse, filthy mainstream music you can imagine. It’s like they purposefully gathered the worst radio “hits” from present day and several years ago and played them to drive people crazy.||||Now, breakfast starts at 8 AM and ends at 9 AM. But when you’re forced to go to sleep at 12 AM because of the bad and continuous music being played every day, it’s safe to say you can’t wake up at 8 AM. However, we did wake up at 8 AM a few times, to see what the included breakfast is all about. The breakfast is poor, but passable. It’s important to mention that if you don’t arrive on time for breakfast, an old guy, which I assume is the owner, will tell you off. Yes, that’s right. He won’t let you go have breakfast if you’re late. ||||One situation that shocked me was the following: Wife went for breakfast at about 8:30, I went there at 8:52. I wanted to go inside to my wife, but the old man would not let me. He said I can wait for her on the other side. I was shocked. How can an old man tell me where and if I am allowed to check on my wife? This is crazy. Later I found out that many people were actually complaining about the old guy and how early the breakfast starts and how soon it ends.||||Let me tell you more about the room: It looks like crap. Tiles on the floor are old, look ugly, and all in all make you feel dirty. The room looks and feels dirty. The furniture is also very old and again, looks dirty. Our sheets have also never been changed, but on the last day. Only the sheet that we cover ourselves with was changed, like a few times. But not the sheets on which we slept on or the pillow covers. So we slept for a week on dirty sheets and pillows. ||||Outside, at ground level, the green bushes/vegetation was sprinkled on with some kind of chemical that smelled bad. This means that you could not open your window for fresh air, because the smell of this chemical would get all inside the room. Also, at ground floor, where we stayed at, there was a whiff that would come from somewhere, and that whiff smelled like bad cheese. I was like wtf is this. Also, colonies of ants can be found on the property and next to our door. The pool they have is dirty, found a lot of hair in it which got in my mouth as well. ||||Honestly, this is the worst vacation we’ve had. Prices in the area are high, food quality is questionable, depending on where you eat and to be honest, I can’t understand why the food is a lot more expensive than where I live, Romania. We used to spend at least 60 EUR a day (sometimes even 100 EUR) for food. That’s a lot. And please don’t tell me we eat a lot or whatever else.. I work out regularly and am very careful on what and how much I eat. Same goes for my wife. ||||Summing it up, we won’t go back to Crete and especially not at this location. Also, DO NOT go on any of the advertised day visits to whatever places they may be advertising (Knossos, etc). It’s boring, tiresome, and not worth it, in my opinion. Also, Wi-Fi in this location, in our room, was crap. Consistently lost connection and we both have new iPhones. Hoping I didn’t forget to add anything here, do not come to this hotel. It’s...

We stayed in this terrible hotel between 14-24 July 2015 (rooms 402 and 422) First, they put us to a double room, even though we booked a family room, on the zero floor. The view from the room is roots of trees, garbage and cigarette butts with no sun at all. On the balcony we had papers and cigarettes thrown from higher floors, and burned a hole in my t-shirt. After 3 days of arguments with the owner he moved us to the same type of room only on the higher floor. The owner of the hotel is an impudent old man, who ignores clients' complains. The rest of the personnel is the same. Actually, because the owner tries to save on everything, there is not much personnel in hotel, and you'll wait long time at the reception or at the bar. At night there is no personnel at all, even at the reception. During our stay, they cut off electricity 4 times at night for about 2-6 hours. Of course, you'll not have air conditioner and can't even go to the toilet. When they cut off power for the first time I tried to go to the reception to inform someone. In was dark in corridor and the elevator was not working. I fell down from the stairs and cut my right hand and pulled my left hand and because of this was not able to swim in the sea for 3 days. Anyway my attempt was useless because there was not a single employee in the whole hotel. Next morning I found the owner, told him about the night issues and asked him to call my insurance company to get first air with my hands. He ignored me for 30 minutes and after this told me that he would not pay for this phone call and told me to use the phone in my room. The phone in the room was not working. When they switch off power second time, I was lucky to find old man in the reception. I told him about the issue and he ignored me, pretending to do some paper work. I told him again with a louder voice. He approached me with a screw driver in his hand, grabbed my arm and pushed me outside. He told me "If you don't like the hotel - pack your luggage and go away!" in rude way using bad Greek words like malakiya and some other. Even when everything was ok with the electricity, the air conditioner was not working properly and you'll live in the hot and humid room. The bathroom and shower are terrible, you'll have water on the floor always. Breakfast, if one can call it so, is disgusting. Soy ham, cheep cheese and old cucumbers. They don't give hot food not even eggs. Coffee is not possible to drink, it's made from salted water and cheep instant Nescafe-like powder. Every day it is the same. We had to wait 10-15 minutes to get free plates, cups or forks. After 3 visits to the breakfast, we gave up and started to go to nearby taverna. Dinner is server in the hotel restaurant with a limited number of tables. My family had to wait up to 30 minutes to get a free table. Again the owner and the waiters will ignore your complains. There are no drinks at all for dinner, I think even if'd have all-inclusive. The waiter will put small amount of food to your plate. The selection of dishes is very small. Main course is cooked from frozen foods. Don't expect to get a taste of Greek natural food there. So, if you want to spend your money for nothing and waste your vacation - go to this hotel. I don't know how they managed to...