Kivotos Mykonos — Hotel in Municipality of Mykonos

The saddest hotel in the world and a place to be avoided at all cost Where to start. Our expectations were much higher then the end product. I will divide the review to several parts. Pre tour: I booked it through booking engine but sent an email to reception regarding airport transportation. Nobody replied. We booked the most expensive room Noah villa and too late I read the reviews. Hotel website description vs reality is a stark difference. Hotel: Hotel areas are very nice. Outdoor pool is beautiful with views over Ornos bay and the location is excellent and you have hotel beach and public  Ornos beach withing 8 mins walking distance. Hotel beach is a small patch of land where one can wade into water and swim. Many people complain about this " beach" but reality is that very few places in Mykonos have an access to sea like this one. Usually you have to use public beach. So this is small extra regardless of the fact that it is not real beach. Public Ornos beach is 8mins walk and you can rent sunbed over there. Accomodation: Huge disappointment. Simply huge. We booked Noah villa, room 240. Do not book this room unles they demolish this building and build a new one. Honestly the potential is there and if this villa was renovated it would be wonderful. But it is not. Villa has three floors connected by elevator. Ground floor features sauna, shower, living room, toilet, outdoor pool and terrace. Terrace is great, shady. Pool is old, we had a piece of bread floating in the pool and it took 2 days for maintenance to come and fetch it. Inside shower splashes straight inside and once you start showering everything is flooded. You have to improvise. Toilet was leaking and we did not use it at all. The elevator is funny and nice touch but terribly old and it resembles 40 years old elevator in some god forsaken east european country. You can see wires, every floor has diiferent doors etc....kind of mismatch engineering but regardless of this appearance the lift was functional. From ground floor you can go straight to the beach or pool. As everybody uses the same path to the beach, this path has turn unfortunately directly opposite the shower on the ground floor so anyone walking will see you naked. First floor has a bedroom, toilet, whirlpool and small balcony. Balcony railings are rusty and have not been taken for for ages. Whirlpool does not work at all and is disconnected from water supply. Second floor is meant to be large living room but we put kids inside as we could not use another room which is part of the villa..I do not know the reason. However this second bedroom does not have window and is totally dark plus it is connected with other three floors and you have to use the room key all the time, plus guest sunbeds are a meter from the room so you do not have any privacy. We complained first two days, everybody ignored everything. The staff is trained in not listening. They do not care at all. Same as my email before arrival which went unanswered. The hotel is the same. No response. As it is holidays we had a lot of fun anyways and we always enjoy holidays. However I do not recommend this hotel to anyone. All other rooms are probably nicer and in typical white-blue greek style. All except the coveted villa with such a splendid description on hotel website. It is a lie. Staff: This is the saddest hotel in the world. Imagine a hotel where nobody smiles. Nobody. Staff at pool do not care about the guests, they never ask if you need anything and if you ask them, you see you are bothering. Yes, they take the order and bring it, again without smile. Just put it down and leave. Nobody knew our names. We travel a lot and in much larger 5* luxury hotel the staff remember clients names even the room they are staying in. This is I think because of lack of training, bad management and overall attitude " you will come anyway because we are Mykonos".  The manager asked us upon departure whether we liked the stay. We told her the same things written above and below....

I found Kivotos Mykonos when looking for the perfect location to propose to my now Fiancée. |This luxury hotel is the most aesthetically beautiful hotel with the most incredible views over Ornos bay. |The mix of modern and ancient art creates a sophisticated, luxurious atmosphere that is carried throughout perfectly.||Although Kivotos has 50 rooms, you almost feel as if you’re in your own exclusive private villa, everything is so cleverly and incredibly designed - I really cannot express just how amazing this site really is.|The main pool area has a swim up bar, and views over Ornos bay where yachts are plenty. |The reception area is perfect, with an additional hideaway with absolutely stunning views that we used when waiting for taxis. ||We were upgraded to a suite with a private pool after booking a deluxe suite with sea view, this was just the most amazing surprise. The room was the perfect size to feel grand yet intimate and to have the private pool with the views meant we could just relax and enjoy a dip together. The room service team were amazing, they were very on-hand all day quietly going about their business. We would often pop in and out of the room at all times and whenever we came back the room was made up and spotless. They were all so friendly and would always greet you with a smile.||Dining at this hotel is impeccable. |I cannot put into words how unbelievable it really was. |Please see my reviews for both the Namah restaurant and the Nero Nero private dining separately as there is too much to write about both.|I booked the Nero Nero private dining on the first night for my proposal dinner and the Fotoula and the team made this the most perfect moment I could ever ask for. |More on this in a moment though. |Chris Pedes is the head chef here and an artist when it comes to culinary. We have never tasted flavours like this ever. This also goes for the Namah restaurant, the most incredible food and views over Ornos bay. Eating here is an experience from start to finish.||There is a gym and wellness spa on-site that we didn’t find time to use but will definitely be back for as well as a chapel and the option for a wedding that we are very highly considering.||Now, where Kivotos really excels is the incredible, incredible staff on hand to assist you at all times, whether you’re up for an early morning or coming in from a night in old town, they were always here to assist with a smile on their face, greeted us by name and nothing was ever too much trouble.|I had been emailing Fotoula back and forth ahead of our arrival to arrange the proposal and everything was perfect on arrival, they arranged the candles on the pier, drinks on arrival of to our room as well as a fruit platter, they joined in on some theatrics beforehand to help me keep the ring box out of sight for my partner so she didn’t know the proposal was coming, we were treated like royalty for the entirety of our stay and we never wanted to leave.||We have been luckily enough to travel the world to some of the most incredible places and we have never, ever been somewhere that has treated us the way we were here. I feel that if the price was 5 times more than it was I’d have felt like we hadn’t paid enough.||I cannot thank everyone here enough for making this trip unforgettable and perfect. |We will be back for definite - it cannot come soon enough!||If you’re thinking of visiting Kivotos, Santorini we visited the restaurant here back in 2021 together on our first holiday as our first holiday dinner date and I can assure you it is just as exceptional and the sunset here is to die for!||Thank you to every single member of the Kivotos team for everything you have done for us form one very happy newly...

Location. Absolutely fantastic. 5 star. Facilities. Brilliant. The private beach was amazing and the pool and bar great. As h as in, I can’t say enough about the private beach, wonderful. Price. It’s expensive. I suppose you expect that so it’s not a massive negative but be prepared, it’s VERY expensive. The staff. Super friendly, 10/10 The food. 5/10. Okay but not fantastic. Atmosphere. Super. Lots of nice guests, nice vibe.

So all that really deserves a 4/5 star review.

That’s where the praises end. When you go to a luxury hotel like this there are certain things you’d expect. The main thing I’m looking for is great service and this was sadly lacking.

We have also booked Calilo in Ios. The difference was night and day and half the price. Their welcoming procedure has been fantastic. Lots of communication, emails with information, questions about what we want, you could see they’ve put effort into it. Kivotos? We got an invoice by email. If you’re going to charge these prices, put the effort in!

We arranged a hugely expensive transfer with Kivotos. I think it worked out at about €8 a minute. The plane was late but even so it still took 20 minutes to find the guy. He wasn’t waiting at departures with a sign so we had to call the hotel who called him to call us. A bit of a farce.

On arrival at around 8pm we waited in the foyer for 25 minutes before being taken to our room. No kidding. The receptionist said there were no other staff and we had to wait. Not exactly the luxury treatment you’d expect paying €1700 a night.

We were also told that the next day they would arrange welcome drinks and a tour. No one got in touch. I didn’t chase it but it would have been nice to have someone contact us.

They suggested we go to dinner at their restaurant. So we wandered down and sat at a table. We got a menu straight away. 30 minutes later someone came to take our order. When I say came over, I went to the bar to ask for someone to come. Again, for these kinds of prices you don’t expect to have to find people to serve you. They didn’t even bring drinks! The food came. Another 20 minutes later. With the drinks we’d asked for earlier. The price was insane and the food was pretty poor. They’re trying to prepare Michelin starred food but somewhat failed. However again, I don’t care about the money or necessarily the food. It’s the service. As an aside it wasn’t busy, there were three tables taken.

At breakfast we waited 10 minutes to be served then had to remind them about the coffee and breads. When the breads did some they hadn’t brought the butter so again I had to flag someone down to get some.

The rooms are pretty tired too. Cracks, holes, tiles moving. The glass table by the pool in the room had a big crack in it. A little bit of maintenance would help.

There were a number of other examples but you get the idea. It’s all about the little details. If you want to charge Four Seasons or Maldives prices you really need to make sure people feel looked after and don’t get frustrated because your organisation is lacking.

The weird thing is, it wasn’t a constant, it was really variable. One day it’s fine the next day it’s a mess.

The staff again were amazing. Really lovely so I can’t fault them at all.

If you do come here, lower your expectations. Don’t expect true luxury. Don’t expect the price you pay to reflect how you’ll be treated.

But the location and facilities are fantastic. For some maybe they don’t mind about the little details but for me, that’s exactly what...