PORTARA SEASIDE LUXURY STUDIOS — Hotel in Municipality of Naxos and the Lesser Cyclades

Hello,

I am going to share here my experience in portara suites after a 3 nights stay in August at the seafront deluxe apartment, ie the most expensive room they have (supposedly the best one)

First of all the area of the hotel is an under construction area with a lot of construction material all around (see photos). On the photos taken by the hotel, you can imagine yourself in a isolated place with privacy and intimacy but there is none of this. During our stay, people parked their car 1 meter from our bathtub While we were in it. Also, the bathtub is right on the public areas so it means that people come by when you are in your bathtub... (see pictures in this post) On top, the room is literrally stuck to another room, sharing the same terrace. When we were both on the terrace, we thought we were sharing the same room. There is absolutely no separation between both rooms. Also, if we are both in the bathtub, we are facing each other. The Situation was really weird... (again see photos in this post)

This is not over, we had some room problems during our stay, such as Light not functioning, or the balcony door not closing anymore (i am not even talking about locking, the door stays literally open since the mechanism was blocked, which is dangerous since the room is directly on a public area). We told the staff but it was not fixed during our stay of 3 nights.

What is more, there is this old Lady from the UK managing the appartments. All she was able to do is say "i am sorry" each time we wanted something to be fixed and not doing anything at all... (example the door not closing :) ) Also we asked her on what to do on the island, she didn't have a clue...a part of course 1 restaurant in the city... which belongs to the same company managing the hotel :)

This side of the island is extremely windy, meaning you can't enjoy the terrace not the bathtub as the wind hits you so hard !

Also, there is no option to keep your luggage there after the check out. Again this old Lady will come to make sure you leave the apartment and tell you to leave your luggage in store in the port against 15 euros.

Last but not least, they absolutely don't care about the environnent : the bathtub is ON 24/24, either you use it or not. This is absolutely insane.

There is no reception in this place, absolutely no humanity or conviviality. It is an old building with some apartments renovated and the rest is under a bad shape...

Please don't waste your money with this non greek hedge fund and rather go to local greek hotels owned by local people who are so friendly and...

Portara Seaside Luxury Suites in Naxos:||The view from this room was breathtaking. Our little porch was just a few steps from the waves and to look over to our left and see Apollo’s Gate was spectacular. It was like we were in our own little piece of heaven. The room is just a few minutes walk from a long line of restaurants and shops that stretch along the curve of the port. The room is clean, the bed comfortable and everything decorated very beautifully. The bathtub that stretches long the entire length of the one bathroom wall is large enough to hold a party! We loved the thick towels that were provided, although it would have been nice to have a hook or two in the bathroom to hang things up as we had to drape the used towels over the chairs or leave them bunched up on the bathroom counter. Janine the host, responded promptly to emails, and was very helpful. She met us at the port when our ferry docked and walked us to the room, maybe a 3 or 4 minute walk from the port. She appeared to be in a bit of a rush the night we arrived but did show us the map of the island, made a suggestion for where to drive the next day and mentioned some rental car companies for us to contact for our rental car the next day. (We did not think of renting a car before we arrived, but due to rain and wind when we arrived, it became a necessity). It must be mentioned here that we had just come from the Platia in Santorini where Christina, the owner/host went so far above and beyond to make our stay a memorable one, that anything else pales in comparison. Janine did have more time to spend with us upon check out so we got to know her a little bit then and found her to be very friendly.||||The only reason I’ve not awarded the top points in the ‘comfort’ area for this accommodation has to do with the bathroom. I realize that many people are quite comfortable with little, or even no privacy in the bathroom, but alas I am not one of them. I prefer privacy. The door to this bathroom leaves a significant opening all the way around which precludes any privacy. Thank goodness that at least there was a window shade one could pull down which blocked at least the main window between the bedroom and the bathroom, but there remained a large opening around the door. I was very upset and very uncomfortable my entire stay due to this lack of...

Sadly, the photos advertising the exterior of this property and the hot tubs specifically, are not at all accurate, and that had a hugely detrimental effect on our stay. The property has rooms facing two sides, which are advertised as a "sea view" and "city view". All the photos on the listing are from the "sea view". The "city view" is not an accurate description of what you're sat looking out at all on the other side. It is an "dirty alley view", at best. Being on the ground floor, the (very small) hot tub area is overlooked by everyone who walks past on the back street alleyway, and by the people walking up to neighbouring apartments. It literally felt like having a bath in the middle of a pretty dirty street, with a lot of people awkwardly trying not to look in as they passed by. Additionally, the adoining suite's hot tub was a couple of metres away, and so we, and the poor couple there, tried to avoid being the in the awkward situation of sitting in a hot tub two metres from someone else, at street level, sitting watching each other. I would strongly recommend avoiding this "city view" and would also suggest the owners change the name of the listing from "city" to "street-level view", as it's entirely misleading otherwise. We knew, and were subsequently messaged to be told by the property, that we did not select a sea view after booking - but the listing gives no indication of what this "city view" entails, and I've never been in a hotel that had such an odd and...