Olivia Blue Sea Hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Rhodes

We have just returned from a week at the new Blue Seas Olivia. It is a nice, aesthetically pleasing, peaceful hotel. Perfect for couples on a romantic break. It is remote but there is a bus stop out on the main road or we would recommend hiring a car. It’s about a 15 minute walk to a pebble beach, but nothing really there but that may be because it is only early season. ||The staff spoke very good English and were very nice; especially Elli behind the bar of an evening. She was so lovely; she works extremely hard on her own so there was occasionally queues. However, the pool bar was also open of an evening. Elli made the best cocktails though (unlike the photo of the curdled Pina Colada served at the pool bar!). There was entertainment twice during our week. ||For us though the cleanliness and poor food quality majorly let this hotel down.||We hadn’t received clean towels by day 4 so spoke to reception. A coffee cup was left unwashed and the glasses we used for the water weren’t washed up once. The next ‘clean’ (day 5) we had towels put on an unmade bed and the bathroom bin emptied, left in the middle of the bathroom with no new bag in it. No clean. Twice I brought it to receptions attention before it was rectified that night. The bathrooms are very small, but functional (if you don’t mind flooding it when you shower) but not cleaned; the sink wasn’t so much as a wiped around during our stay, but thankfully we don’t exactly make a mess. The maid did however like to leave our balcony door open; not that she cleaned out there! We noticed the bed didn’t have a mattress protector on it (because we were left a sheet to make the bed up!). This wasn’t so bad as we were pretty much the first guests but as time goes on…||The stairwell wasn’t swept so on day 5, whilst speaking to reception about the ‘cleaning’ of our room, I said about the tumble weed of fluff, hair, dead flies and other bits that had been there since check in, were building up. I was told they didn’t have a communal cleaner. After saying to them it wasn’t a good impression they did actually have it swept. However, not once was our room mopped; nor were other floors as you could see spillages down the corridor and in the restaurant getting more and more prominent the dirtier they got from being walked over. Round the pool wasn’t good either from drinks being spilt etc and heard someone saying about it being all sticky round the pool. ||The food was disappointing to say the least. So many guests were saying the same: far more complaining about it than weren’t, which leads me to think the reviews about amazing food are predominantly not left by genuine guests! Breakfast and lunch seemed to be ok with a good selection for breakfast and omelettes cooked to order. The snack bar was also good. However, dinner time was pretty dire most nights. The buffet area is small and they just couldn’t seem to replenish some dishes fast enough to meet demand. Often what was there was unrecognisable or cold…or not cooked properly, which happened to us on a couple of occasions and we were just thankful we didn’t get upset stomachs like some did. We eat most things and didn't expect 5* gourmet food, but we did expect a much better standard than this for a 4: we have had far better in 3 hotels. If you like spag bol and chips you are on to a winner though as you can have that for lunch and dinner: this shocked me as I would expect that from a hotel full of kids but not at an adult only. ||We could overlook the fact some areas are still work in progress given how nice most areas are and even though the rooms are not finished to a high standard, the decor is pleasing. Or the fact there is no spa etc as advertised, that the ladies toilet doors don’t have functioning locks (or that you unfortunately see straight in to the men’s urinals whilst coming down the overly steep ramp!), but not the basics of poor cleaning and food standards. I’m sure if the hotel improved these things then it would be much better, but based on our experience we wouldn’t return nor recommend it. We had a nice, well deserved break and used the hotel as a base to see beautiful Rhodes. Just don’t come with high expectations or I think you could be left feeling somewhat...

Booked a Swim Up Room, was given a Double Room With Sharing Pool instead for 2 nights of our 10 day trip. After complaining to the hotel manager, they gave us our Swim Up Room as originally booked. She didn't ask for any proof, photographs or booking information from me that leads me to believe the hotel themselves have let customers over book the limited 18 Swim Up Rooms and left dozens in the lurch. We spoke to multiple others throughout our stay that had the exact same experience. Some not even getting their Swim Up Room in the end!

If you come to this hotel, stand your ground and make sure you get what you pay for - or get compensation!

More on the rooms, there was endless powercuts/no water in our rooms that prevented my partner and I going out to Rhodes Town that day. And halted our plans many other days after that, it was infuriating.

Their cleaners aren't specifically cleaners, more so tidiers - to a very limited degree. They don't give you new toilet roll, they don't change your bedsheets, and take your towels and don't replace them. I had to ask multiple times for a whole set of towels because they took them. They never replaced our coffee mugs in our room - just tried and failed to wipe my partner's lipstick off the mug instead! The list goes on there!

They just made up the bed, mopped the floor quickly and emptied 1 bin most of the time.

The above is all really not too bad at all compared to 1 massive issue - the food. It's really bad. My partner and I love a lot of food, from all cultures around the world and we're really not fussy! We also know buffet food is never going to be 5 star. But this really struggles to be even 1 star. It's cold, poorly cooked, beige, poorly labelled in a way if it were chicken in a creamy/veg-like sauce the label would just be "chicken". Far too ambiguous for those with allergy/nutritional needs. As far as selection goes, it's pretty limited and there's no themed nights with most food being the exact same small obscure collection of food each night. Also the cutlery and glasses are always stained/not fully clean.

The drinks from Ellie (main bar) are pretty fine, definitely the best in the whole resort but the local alcohol is pretty grim. It definitely isn't watered down, as I've watched them open fresh bottles in front of me - but they're weak and it's a bit disappointing.

The pool bar is the grimmest though, and the queue is a bit tedious too.

Now the spa was incredible, I was so glad it was open as my partner and I got a couples massage together and the price and the service was so damn worth it! Not to mention affordable!!

The gym is lackluster but let's be real, unless you're training for something or some eejit influencer - it's not a big deal and looks good albeit small!

The linear pools are so aesthetic and lovely, and not freezing at all. Big plus.

The rooms look the part, beds are fine, as are the pillows. But the storage for 2 in 1 room is so limited. We don't have a lot of clothes and still ran out of storage. Although there was lots of ants in our rooms. The design of the shower rooms are poorly done, the water floods the room quickly, so make sure to sacrifice a towel or two on the floor for your own safety! The grouting and sealant has been very hastily done leaving it going mouldy at points already!!

The WiFi is temperamental and slow too.

The location was absolutely brilliant, it's quiet here and that is perfect. It's equal distance from Rhodes Town and Lindos, slap bang in the middle. Perfect to come back to after the busy bustle of each of the towns. Afandou also has lovely restaurants there, and bars. Make sure to visit Sergio's up there - his family owned restaurant was amazing! 5 star there.

I the end, this hotel is still establishing themselves and trying hard to iron out their issues by listening to feedback, but the list is long. I can see this place being an influencer's paradise in 2 years time. But in the meantime, it's a lovely albeit problematic, quaint and...

We stayed at Olivia Blue Sea for a week in August. We decided to take the gamble with this being a new hotel for the 2025 season. We did have an issue upon arrival which was there had been an overbooking on their system, so we had to stay in a garden room the first night and then move to our swim up room the following afternoon. Because of this, we did get a late check out complimentary and luckily managed to keep our room. Late check out is available until 7pm and would've been €70 full price, so be prepared if you need a late check out to pay more than usual. Other than this issue the first night, we had no other problems.

On the outside the hotel looks beautiful. Love how it has been designed. There are 4-5 different pools around the main area to choose from. The hotel reception is very large in space. The reception staff were very polite and great at sorting out any request. There is a nice seating area outside of reception which is a nice area in the sunset to relax, but you will get bitten here by mosquitos so you need to bug spray. Then there is the restaurant. This is a large area with indoor and outdoor seating. Nicolaus who must be the restaurant manager is such a nice friendly man. He remembered us by name and was always saying hello. We ate inside majority of the time due to preventing mosquito bites in the evening, and because there is a lot of cats. We have no problems with cats, but the one night we ate outside the cats jumped on our table. Plus the Aircon is on inside. The outside seating area is also the main pool area and the pool bar where the bar snacks are served in the day, and also where the evening entertainment is.

There was 3 nights of entertainment during our week stay which were on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. There is not entertainment every night. These were a greek themed night, dancers, and singers.

There are lots of sun loungers around the hotel, but from 10:30am the area is pretty full. People do reserve a lounger with their towel. The rooms are in the main area of the hotel, then 4 blocks around the pools which the ground floor may be classed as swim up rooms, but I am not sure.

We booked the swim up rooms which are a separate building behind the gym. The rooms are very nice, and would definitely recommend booking a swim up room if you can afford it. We had our own shades pool and enough loungers for everyone in our block, so you did not have to worry about not having a lounger.

There are a variety of free sport options, an outside gym, a mini shop and a spa. The spa is next to the shop and the treatments are discounted for resort members. We used the spa and had a massage and the staff were all very friendly. You can pay cash or card so you do not need to worry about bringing specific cash. We had a relaxing massage and deep tissue. It was a male masseuse we both had and he was very polite. We also used the gym which has a bench press, squat rack, dumb bells, bike, treadmill and cross trainer. It can be quite warm being an outdoor gym.

We did receive a complimentary bottle of wine and fruit plate when in our swim up room, which I am not sure if they do this for everyone, but this was a very kind gesture.

Overall this hotel is very pretty. The staff are really polite and friendly and great at sorting any issues. The hotel exterior does look good and the food and drinks available are very good for an all inclusive hotel. I would recommend this hotel to people and would recommend paying more for a swim up...