Saint John Hotel Villas & Spa — Hotel in Municipality of Mykonos

I'm writing this review to express my personal satisfaction and to highlight the excellence of this hotel, so that anyone interested in further details can get a concrete idea. I've traveled extensively throughout my life, and I've been fortunate enough to stay in countless 5-star luxury hotels. I'm well acquainted with this segment and the expectations associated with this category. This hotel boasts numerous points of excellence in terms of "exclusive outdoor areas and services." I'm referring to the large infinity pool, the private beach club with crystal-clear water, the Symposium restaurant with breathtaking sunsets, the spacious breakfast room, and the bathrooms, all equipped with top-notch amenities. But I'll focus on another aspect, the one most difficult to replicate for these high-end, superior-category hotels: "human resources." I'll use a few qualifying adjectives to personally thank some of the hotel staff members who worked hard to make our vacation truly special. 1. Welcome and welcome: a detailed explanation of the facility and so much kindness and thoughtfulness. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a young woman named Aegle, who with great passion and professionalism showed us all the hotel's outdoor spaces and amenities, even escorting us to our room, making us feel truly pampered. 2.The housekeeping staff: extremely efficient, kind, and attentive to guests! We were in a strategic location, close to the entrance the pool area, "room 5125." The two housekeeping staff were truly a MUST, something exceptional. Imagine how dirty a small child can get during the day, and at the same time, imagine that when we returned from the pool a few hours later (3-4 hours), our room was already sparkling clean, both the floors and the rest of the room (usually, we're already happy when the sheets are changed, let alone the rest). Imagine walking in and smelling the clean scent, finding a perfectly made bed, the bathroom sanitized, and everything else. To give you a complete idea, every time we returned to our room during the day, we felt as if we had just arrived, just like the first time. 3. Kalimera Breakfast Area: Attention to detail, kindness, and excellent food. During breakfast, the two kitchen staff were always impeccable, always ready to immediately refill plates and water/orange juice when they were running low, always ensuring hot food and dishes for all guests. So, truly, everyone could try everything, without being penalized for arriving later than the other guests already in their rooms. The same goes for the waiters in the dining room and for the coffee, cappuccino, and hot drinks: always punctual, kind, and ready to accommodate our requests. All under the watchful eye of a female manager who, in addition to coordinating the work of her staff, was also on the front lines, tirelessly ready to satisfy the most diverse needs of our guests. Not to mention the work invisible to many: the housekeeping staff, who meticulously cleaned the common areas and elevator of that building after breakfast. Manager Maria: High professionalism, dedication to their work, and authenticity. Breeze Pool Bar Area: helpfulness, kindness, and the ability to put guests at ease. Good food, excellent prices, and very friendly and professional wait staff. I can't mention them all, or I've certainly forgotten some while writing their names in my travel journal, but thanks to Vasilea, Fania, Stayros, Maria, Vanessa, and Manager Maria. Dining here was truly a pleasure; we tried several dishes, all delicious and appetizing! Thanks to the professionalism of the waiters, who explained the dishes we had ordered and were satisfied with the service. 5. Symposium Restaurant Area "Bartender and Accounting and Cashier Manager": high professionalism, quality cocktails, high culture, and a zest for life. I highly recommend you try the bartender's tasty, quality cocktails and enjoy the beauty of the Symposium. In conclusion, please know that there's always room for improvement,and I believe perfection...

We just spent one week in the St John’s hotel and Spa hotel with a 20 month old baby. Contrary to their website, this hotel is absolutely not family or baby friendly.

As seen in my photo, the private (sand) beach is tiny and pretty much a line of sun beds with waves crashing into them and all the other sun beds are above a wooden deck on the rocks that drops directly into the sea.

The children’s pool is circular and has an initial step about 15cm deep followed by an immediate drop to about 1m20, which does not allow most toddlers to stand.

We were put in a room with 7 separate sets of stairs ranging between 5 and 10 steps each with no possibility of accessing either the pool, any restaurants, reception and beach - without lugging the stroller and baby up and down steps constantly. Towards the end of our stay we worked out we could use the delivery entrance which reduced the steps to two sets of 5 stairs. Needless to say, we didn’t need a gym, just getting food was a workout in itself.

Almost all the railings of the hotel, restaurants, etc consisted of a small 10cm white edge, followed by a 80cm gap and a top bar (photo). This would probably be ok for kids over three that are able to sit without moving, follow instructions and anticipate danger, but for toddlers it was a complete death trap. We could not put our daughter down on the ground for one second without her heading for a precipice.

The staff members in the restaurants were friendly and did everything they could to help us in what was a truly stressful experience - they did have high chairs. The breakfast was really good- and the breakfast staff wonderfully kind, however all the bar, pool and room service food was pretty bland, sometimes even awful and terribly over priced. The cocktails however were ok.

The management, conciergerie and reception was a complete and utter joke… on arrival at the hotel with a hungry, tired baby, we were given an alcoholic drink each, nothing for the toddler (and obviously she didn’t appreciate that she had to watch us with a brightly coloured drink in hand) - after requesting something for her, it took a while before the she (meltdown in progress) had something to quench her thirst (albeit in a fragile glass). A young lady then proceeded to give a 10 minute speech about all the hotels facilities ( baby meltdown in progress) until my husband asked if we could please just go to the room. The lady then just abandoned us in the middle of the reception and went to another couple… eventually another person from the reception nothing our pleading looks and came to take us to our room.

I visited the conciergerie 3 times during the trip and each time was greeted by disdainful staff that clearly anticipated that we were not going to book expensive sundowner cruises and VIP tours and so therefore sent us to the reception. I went with the baby and asked for information about Delos and they proposed a private tour in a sail boat around the island - when I said we were interested in actually visiting the site, she said that was not possible (too much wind for the boat) looked at me as if I was from another planet - which I found odd since the cruise around Delos was possible- she then printed a page with the adresses of three random agencies in Chora with phone numbers.

The room itself was nice, clean and well serviced but I would hope this is the near minimum to expect for a 5 star hotel.

Because of the unsuitability of the beach, pool, and the mediocre quality of the food, we ended up having to go to a private beach which added about 300€ per day to our trip plus around 80€ per day in Ubers. Needless to say it ended up costing us more...

• Edited to knock down to 1 star * The management was in touch after my honest review to offer a small amount of compensation for our extremely negative (more negative by the day) experience, but would not provide unless I agreed to delete this review and agree to not post any other reviews in the future. I feel that this is the way that suboptimal hotels and experiences continue to artificially appear to be great on websites that people trust to give honest reviews, by paying off all the people with negative experiences, so this review stands!

We have just left the Saint John Hotel after our much awaited day pass visit from our cruise at a cost of 380Euros for 2 adults and 2 children.

The good:

Beautiful property, lovely pool, very warm welcome and tour when we arrived one of the best breakfast buffets I have aver had at a hotel! Great quality and selection.

The bad:

pickup from the old port was 35 min late. For a 5 hour visit, this does impact enjoyment. We were also late getting taken back to the port, and that was only expedited because of our complaints. most significantly, the reason we booked this rather pricey day pass was to avoid the chaos and party atmosphere of the public beaches and have a fun and relaxing time with our 8 and 11 year old children. However, there was a LARGE (30-40 people) group of very loud and obnoxious Americans by the pool, who were clearly overnight guests at the hotel (I heard them talking), and basically overran the place. They had a speaker and were playing loud music, screaming, swearing, and took over ALL the pool loungers….it was extremely unpleasant. I actually wasn’t that fussed when we were leaving, as still trying to appreciate the good, but wanted to pass along to the manager in a very polite and respectful way some of our viewed shortcomings. At this point I got the most angry, as by two separate staff (a reception staff and then deputy manager) we were completely dismissed and talked down to. We were told that “yes, hotel is at 95% capacity so sorry you couldn’t get a lounger”…well don’t sell day passes then if you don’t have capacity! And then by the manager, repeatedly told that “yes the cruise ship guests can be very disruptive, when we try and share our beautiful hotel with “them”….as if a lower class of society…uh, no, WE were the cruise ship guests trying to enjoy our very expensive day in a quiet and respectful way, and it was the regular hotel guests that were completely out of control with no attempt to regulate or even apologize.

I was shocked that we were offered literally not a cent of compensation after our complaints and in my opinion very valid concerns about our day. We just came from a 5 star hotel in Rome, which was such a completely different experience…any small unhappiness was immediately rectified and made right.

Our experience today was NOT that of a 5 star hotel, and I am extremely...