ALBATROSS — Hotel in Municipality of Serifos

Stay away from this hotel if you don’t want to ruin your vacation before they even start. The people managing it probably don’t know the words hospitality, professionalism and respect. Their hotel ad said there is free wifi and when we asked the hotel person that helped us with the reservation confirmed the same. When we arrived, and after having paid a deposit, we were told that the wifi is only available at “common spaces” which was a single couch near the reception (and not at the rooms). As if this wasn’t enough, we were given rooms that haven’t been cleaned for days!!!! Obviously we told them we would leave and would try to find another hotel although that was going to be really hard given the hour on a weekend but the only thing we asked was to get our deposit back. After waiting for a bit, a lady (the owner’s wife) came downstairs to supposedly help us but that’s nowhere near what she did. She was impolite even before we present our case, and when we did say what happened, she responded “OK, I dont care, you can leave”. We then told her about our wish to get the deposit back, she refused in the most unprofessional way ever, yelling that there is a policy. There is NO formal policy written anywhere. There was a FALSE REPRESENTATION on the part of the hotel so they had to reimburse us for this but like I said, no professionalism at all. We did not book through booking and we hadn’t even received a receipt for what we paid. Long story short, the lady who was also pregnant and even tried to make us feel bad for having to talk to her gave in in the end and agreed to deposit our money back to our account. Which NEVER HAPPENED. We tried calling her and her husband a few times. Her husband was even worse, he alleged that we didn’t tell anyone we are leaving which is ANOTHER LIE and with no reasonable explanation he said he’s just not returning anything and he is not afraid of anyone. I m writing all this not because we care about the money we lost but because we really shouldn’t let the future of the tourism of this country in the hands of such incompetent and uneducated people. Whoever wants to call his business a hotel, first needs to teach himself...

I came to Serifos for a week with family. I am a senior citizen with a leg injury ,so I requested a room with no stairs to climb. I was given a clean simple room right on the first floor (the ground floor). My front window had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean, just yards away and my back window looked out onto the rear patio that was overbrimming with flowers,fig trees and jasmine. The room was bare bones,clean and simple and very Greek island ,blue and white. When I mean bare bones,I mean no screens on the windows,no TV, no AC, no extras. But this is what I am happy with as long as the internet is working. If you need absolute quiet,then request a back room. Sometimes the noise from the street can be bothersome or some nights people were outside on the patio and talking. If this bothers you do not take a front room.||The staff was friendly and helpful. Thank you Haido and Sabrina!! I asked to use the laundry room to wash out some clothing and I was even offered a chance to put my clothes in their hotel laundry machines! Michalis even made me a cup of great coffee in his fancy Italian coffee maker.|| I thought the hotel was scrupulously clean. I saw no evidence of bugs or any dirt. the only criticism I have is minor. - the bathroom was claustrophic,too small to be comfortable for me,and there were no hooks for hanging up towels,clothes.It could use a shelf or two to put a few necessary items, like a toothbrush and toothpaste,a cosmetic bag,medicines,etc. Who wants to keep schlepping that stuff into the bathroom everytime you go in?|| I thought the value for the Albatross...

Room no 5, according to the owner's description was "a bit small but with a view to the sea, flatscreen TV and air conditioning". He mentioned small twice but I guess he forgot to mention with so short a bed that a person over 1,80m height would not fit, with dirty and dusty walls, an awful smell in the so-called "bathroom" i.e. a narrow, corridor-like room with a long tube attached to the faucet so as to pretend to have a shower(!) and - last but not least - with my very own big black cockroach alive and running right next to the bed as I was tired to death and trying to convince myself that it would be ok to sleep there just for 2 nights as there was nothing else available to prolong a bit my stay in beautiful Serifos... I thought I could always take a shower in one of the rooms my friends had rented in other, decent facilities but little did I know...||The cockroach was the last drop in the bucket... I left the room immediately and woke up friends in the middle of the night asking for a place to sleep. When I went back the next morning to collect my things, the owner said he was sorry for my inconvenience but did not refuse to take 50(!!) euros for this sorry excuse of a room, where I didn't even sleep.||I hope that some competent authority in Greece will see to it that "businesses" like Albatross are not allowed to disgrace our beautiful...