Grecotel LUXME Dama Dama — Hotel in Municipality of Rhodes

This place is an absolute joke and borderline scam. Please, I beg you, if you are coming to Ρόδος for anything but a trash experience, then avoid the Grecotel. My family and I originally booked rooms at a hotel nearby, however it was under construction and they were forced to move us to a different hotel during our stay on the island, this hotel was none other than the Grecotel Dama Dama. We arrive at the hotel to awaiting staff ready to take our luggage and help us with our rooms, unfortunately, this was the best part of the experience.

Once we arrive at our rooms, we are welcomed by a blast of heat that had us wondering if had accidentally booked a pizza ovens and not a hotel rooms. Now, to be fair, the electronics, including the AC, only work while your hotel key is placed in the key insert within the room; so we brush it off and continue on, praying our rooms will cool down to a temperature where we aren’t sweating, but it never happened. Over the course of our 5 day stay, not a single one of our rooms had working ac(we had 4 rooms btw, so this isn’t bad luck or anything). We understandably take our complaints to the staff of the hotel: as we are waiting at reception, there are a couple groups of other all complaining about the state of there rooms, many of the complaints being about AC. Once we are finally attended to be the managers, they assured us they’d fix it, they didn’t, so we came back the next day and asked if we could switch rooms, they refused and said they’d fix it, and repeat this for 3 more days.

Onto my next topic, still related to the rooms, the room quality at this hotel would have you wondering if it were built and decorated by a rag-tag group of grade schoolers. I’m not super luxurious in my tastes, but this place claims to be a “5-star full-service hotel,” so my expectations are at least at something of Marriott level quality; apparently I was expecting too much. If you have ever been to the U.S., or live there, this place is comparable to a motel 6 at best - it has a bit more physical floor space, but other than that, there is nothing else to be left from the equality. There are paint chips on the walls and roof, the bathroom looks like a kitchen counter barfed on the walls and floor, the shower causes a flood due to its open construction, the beds are made of brick and bone, and the balcony looks like the porch of a jailhouse. These physical features are coupled with the fact that the room itself lacks basic modern amenities: terrible wifi(low bandwidth, and high latency), a tiny tablet-tv that has limited broadcasting option, and a snack bar that offers you a couple water and a single flat Fanta. Overall, these rooms are delivery 2-star quality for 5-star claims and 4-star prices.

Lastly for the experience of the amenities outside of the rooms. There are a number of relatively decent restaurants to choose for dinner, however, they often have to be reserved pretty well in advance to actually get a table, so don’t plan on eating in the hotel on a whim. And outside of these, there is a buffet and beach/pool restaurant, these are the places you will have to eat at the most, as the other restaurants are closed for the majority of the day and aren’t available given you didn’t get a reservation. Regarding the buffet and beach restaurant, they are terrible, they have poor-quality food that is even worse if you have food allergies and dietary restrictions, I was personally forced to refrain from most of the food because I have celiac(gluten allergy), but from what my companions say, you’d be better off eating from a local gyro-stand than gambling your stomach on the in-house options.

The hotel also has a beautiful view of the ocean(assuming you get one of the 10% of rooms that face the water rather than a parking lot), but that’s about all the positive.

After these terrible experiences and complaints to the managers, we were left empty handed regarding the hotel experience.

No matter how desperate, don’t ruin your beautiful vacation in Ρόδος by staying at...

DO NOT BOOK THIS RESORT

Food/drinks: choices are very random and very limited, exactly the same every day. No English breakfast only frank sausages and uncooked/hot beans/bacon. No hash browns.

Lunch and dinner is literally the exact same and doesn’t change we were here for 10 days and really struggled with the food as the quality was extremely poor too. Even the spaghetti bolognaise was like a child had cooked it in too much water - every day. Plain white rice which was uncooked majority of the time too. Chicken nuggets and pizza was about the only hot and properly cooked thing they had.

Drinks awful, watery, barely any cocktails/mocktails or juices, beer extremely gassy too?

Fruit is very limited like once it’s gone it’s gone… which we think most people opted for because the actual food was so bad.

Sun loungers/pool/beach/service:

I’ve never been to a resort with such freezing cold pools… barely anyone was in them and everyone had the same reaction so the beach was crammed every day (though it is a decent beach with a beach bar/restaurant, shower, ramps, no disabled toilets anywhere near the beach though. I am a wheelchair user but a very independent one so this didn’t bother me but it would be a pain for anyone needing to use the loo often for whatever reason. They also say they are disabled/wheelchair friendly but there were no pool hoists, they just seemed to cheap out on absolutely everything. The umbrella situation has obviously been an issue for a while, a man got slammed by an umbrella and pushchairs/people’s personal items were flying everywhere.

We had a manager come to speak to us when we moved our beds (less than a foot from where it was) telling us to put them back, when we said it was hardly fair or our fault they’re using cheap umbrellas and half concrete/air bases this was the first thing they’d bring up in their “meeting” yet I’ve seen many other reviews the same going back a year so they’re all talk and cheap out on everything they can. Sun loungers are very comfy but when it’s very windy you can’t have the umbrellas up for safety, which is fine but you then have to pay if you want to use one of the shaded day beds (though it states everything is included in the price) got moaned at when moving the sun loungers so our heads were at least in the shade under a tree, ensuring people and buggies and wheelchair users could still get past this was still a problem as we were told to “pay for shade” absolutely awful. Especially as it was very obvious I have medical issues and literally am/look like a cancer patient with my chemo hat on. To the staff who clearly aren’t aware chemo can put you into early menopause so heat can be a real struggle but doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to go away and enjoy myself as all I needed was some shade over my head.

Spa: They claim they have a spa but they do not, they have a very cold indoor pool that no one uses, a gym that’s only open from 10am-6pm and a sauna you have to pre-book to use and wheelchair users cannot fit in, no treatments.

It’s not worth the price one bit you’re better off staying somewhere else and doing half board as you’ll likely go out for food more often than not.

Rooms:

We requested (months in advance) a wheelchair/disabled accessible room/shower, we got a standard room with a normal shower. We didn’t bother fighting it because we arrived late and were so tired we went straight to bed and then it was too late the next day to request any room changes unless there was a fault… which there literally was (unless we paid extra).

Extremely unhelpful lot of staff and only a few that seemed to go above and beyond but they seemed to be worried about being caught and very hesitant. Tv doesn’t work or play anything English or even screen mirror, the beds were comfy enough and sea view rooms did have a great view with comfy seating on the balcony, it all just felt way too overpriced and extremely over exaggerated and prices for what it was worth. There are much better hotels around I just wish we’d done...

We arrived at 2am and the staff offered a snack and drinks despite everybody being in bed. They collected our bags and couldnt do enough for us. Security at the hotel aswell. We had a mooch around at 2am whilst it was quiet and was blown away even went on the beach watching the waves as it was at the bottom of the hotel!! Stunning place.The hotel and grounds are beautifull and clean. The main pool is stunning. Staff are friendly nothing is to much trouble, always eager to please. The manager was always walking around tweeking things and was happy to chat. The rooms (we stayed in 831) overlooking the 2nd pool with slides and a stunning sea view. The room was clean spacious and suited our needs perfectly We had 1 teenager & 2 adults in our room. Other rooms we saw during our stay were the same. The food was nice with lots of choice. There are 3 resturants you can book. The staff do try their best to get you into one at least during your stay. We cancelled as we wanted to explore the island at night. The main resturant at night can get busy between 8-9pm with familys and small children. You can sit outside though if you prefer quiter meals or just go later at 9pm or at 6 when open (which we preferred) sitting outside was lovely under the stars.The dining area has small pond areas between the seats and its all lit up. During the day there are activities around the pool, yoga volleyball ect. They come to ask you to join but dont pressure you. We did yoga and pool things which was fun. Theres clubs for small children & teenagers(didnt use so cant comment) The kids club isnt to far away from the main hotel. You dont hear it at night so you can choose to be involved. They do bingo shows and beach partys On our last night they set of fireworks on the beach.Massage area & gym in gardens overlooking the beach. The pool area has music all day but not booming so its just right. A very relaxed vibe. From the main pool with beds down a tiny path to the beach bar and step onto the beach! The hotel has its own beach area with beds The staff and beach bar was our favourite place to be or eat. Lunch is served there aswell as the main resturant till around 2 (bit more relaxing and with the beach view)snacks like club sandwiches, burger or toasties with fries also from 3pm. Ice creams in the morning and throughtout the day and pancakes in the afternoon 😋. Staff and managers got up greek dancing one day clearly not planned and they just thought lets do this.!! So funny. ILLIOS was amazing to us, kind helpfull and just lovely!! WE LOVE YOU ILLIOS!! 🥰🥰🥰 It was a chilled happy vibe, they came with ice creams on the beach if you lay on the beds there. Discounted jetskis pedalos & other bits whilst staying here. Free towels at a hut near beach bar on the beach. Life gaurds at the pool and beach. Snooker & ping pong tables dotted around. Theres a lovely balcony area overlooking the main pool where we had a family cocktails & cards night watching the sun go down which was stunning and a nice night. Id have a mooch around when you get there as theres lots of bits dotted around. Toilets at the beach and main areas. The ones at the main door are lovely all of them are clean. The hotel has a shop at the entrance selling blow ups and sun creams ect. 200 yards away theres about 20 shops and places to drink for a quick mooch out. Falaraki is 3 stops away in a bus. Lindos and Rhodes centre (the castle, old town with the castle walls is a must at night! Little shops and stalls or places to eat) transfer only or a full guided trip can be booked with your rep. Our rep Larissa from TUI was fab!!. Bus stops are outside the hotel. Or you meet under the big green tree outside for trips . Hotel situated in a great place you can make your stay as busy or quiet as you like. You have options. We went kayaking! Thats another story!! 🤣🤣🤣 I cant fault this holiday hotel or staff. THANKYOU DAMMA DAMMA for your kindess and a fabulous stay where we made more lovely family memories😍🥰. Id stay again in a...