MarBella, Mar-Bella Collection — Hotel in Municipality of Southern Corfu

I booked this hotel earlier in 2025 for a one week stay in August 2025 having stayed previously in another property owned and run by the Mar Balla group.||||The initial communication with the hotel was fine and welcoming in terms of room questions and restaurant bookings.||||Back in June 2025 I heard from people staying at another hotel nearby that Avali doesn't look anywhere near ready. I highlighted these concerns both to the hotel and the travel provider, for the sole reason that at this point there was still availability at an alternative hotel group that I use regularly. The hotel advised that they had every confidence that they would be open and welcoming guests by my check in date, the travel provider reiterated the property's confidence.||||As predicted, in early July I was informed that they will NOT now be ready to open and they had moved my reservation to the larger property next door. (NOTE: this review is not regarding the sister property nor the service we received there). ||||Fast forward to the days prior to our scheduled arrival. I received a celebratory marketing email announcing the Grand opening of Avali taking place on August 9th (My arrival date was August 12th) which was slightly insulting. I forwarded this to the hotel questioning whether, as a guest who has been moved, I should have received it. I did appreciate that it was from a marketing list, but surely the addresses of those inconvenienced guests could have been removed... the hotel and central reservations team agreed and apologised.||||In the days following I was offered the chance to move back to the property if I'd like to, either through the travel provider or directly and was assured that they were "fully operational" by the front office. I considered this but had questions over what fully operational looked like so sent over a list of questions, particularly over the F&B. After pushing for answers I learnt that there was a hugely reduced offering compared to what I had booked, but my concern AND the main reason to write this review is that, had I not asked the questions, I would have been misled into changing my booking back to a property that was't offering a "full operation" based on my purchase. ||||I tried to come to a compromise regarding evening meals as I discovered that there was only an A La carte option with a small (although lovely) menu available ay Avali with NO option of a children's menu for my son or any buffet options... I had hoped to retain my a la carte reservations at the next door hotel and the option to potentially use the buffet there, I thought that this was reasonable as my booking included 3 a la carte meals! I got no response on this sadly and the questions clearly became an inconvenience... I was hit with an ultimatum to arrange any move with my provider within a number of hours (who had no availability to do this and despite the original offer to handle this directly) if I wanted to, with a closing persuasive statement to stay at the sister hotel and they would arrange for us to relax and use the new facilities at Avali. ||||We arrived at the sister hotel, this was lovely and as I said, this isn't a review of our experience there. I left it 2 days to hear about visiting Avali as I had had NO RESPONSE in the 3 days that passed, even to acknowledge that we were retaining the booking at the sister hotel. I reached out to see how we go about visiting Avali and was met with an apology for the "delayed response" and a mention that they were prioritising their "staying guests" enquiries and I should "feel free" to speak with reception regarding a visit! I was saddened to remind them that we were supposed to be one of those "staying guests", and that they had previously offered to arrange this.||||To add... I went to speak with the front desk and they said they'd look into whether I would be "allowed" to visit and to wait until the following afternoon when they will be able to tell me which date and time Avali will allow me to visit...||||Then... I received a call and message from the front desk team the following morning saying that Avali had called, chasing me and asking where I was as they were waiting for me!!! Unbelievable!||||Safe to say... we didn't visit!||||In every communication I was sympathetic to the challenges of opening a new property and appreciative of the challenges and their impact, continually wishing them well with the opening week... but the poor communication and understanding towards us, the guest, over this period isn't acceptable.||||This is my first and...

I have just come back from an 8 night stay at the avali Marbella collection hotel and had the best time! |The staff are super friendly and attentive, and truly care for all guests staying at the hotel. ||Rooms: |The staff kindly upgraded our room on the third night to a sea view room (once they had availability) which was really lovely! The toiletries in the rooms smell lovely and are great quality so don’t worry if you have forgotten to bring these with you. |The decor is beautiful in the rooms, everything is modern and clean, the housekeeping team was great! ||Pool/Beach: |The pool is beautiful with plenty of sunbeds, and one section even has built-in jacuzzi style seating (though the water is the same temperature throughout). Staff regularly take orders straight from your sunbed, and between 11–12am they come round with the “smoothie of the day.”|The hotel doesn’t own the beach, so there are no sunbeds, but there are nice walking paths and guests get 30 minutes of free pedlo or paddleboard hire each day. The man who runs this is absolutely lovely. There’s also both an indoor and outdoor gym available for guests.||Food/Beverage: |- Breakfast: The buffet breakfast had a great selection of English breakfast items, pancake station, fruit/cold meats and an omelet station where they make fresh omelettes for you. |- Lunch: You can choose to eat at the buffet main restaurant or order from the all day pool bar menu. The buffet serves a pasta station where they cook fresh pasta for you, they was gyros one day, pizza and a range of other food on offer. I have to say this wasn’t your typical buffet food, everything was extremely good quality and was cooked fresh! There was also a selection of desserts available. The pool bar menu had sandwiches, burgers, pizza, burritos etc. you can eat this at your sunbed or around the pool bar, this food was also delicious! (This menu was available between 10am - 6pm) |- Dinner: was served at the Zardini main restaurant. This is an a large carte menu, we dined here 4 times during our stay and always had a great meal. I think if you dined here every night the food could get repertitive as it’s not a huge menu however the a la carte grill restaurant will be opening in 2026 so this wouldn’t be an issue. |- Beverages: you can get drinks from the pool and lobby bar throughout the day and evening. Drinks from the pool bar are served in white plastic shaped cups and glasses from the lobby bar. ||Other Dining options:|We dined at the Marbella taverna one night which was included with our stay. The staff was so lovely! I’m sure the waiters name was George and his kindly gave us a lift back to the hotel is his car. 10/10 service with great food. |We used our €20 per person allowance to dine at the Kum Kuat restaurant at the Marbella hotel. The food was nice however be prepared to pay at least €20 per course. |We additionally dined at the nido buffet and a la carte (appagio). If you have the chance to dine here, please do as the food is incredible.||Other services: |We paid extra to go on the Marbella catamaran experience, I would definitely recommend this even tho it’s a bit of the pricey side (around €170 per person). The team was great and we visited paxos and antipaxos. ||Things to note: |- The hotel is operating at half capacity for 2025. |- The other a la carte (which is opening in 2026) has been built and seems like it’s ready to go so there was no building works happening during my stay. |- The pool bar serves all drinks from white plastic glasses, I assume for health and safety reasons. I understand this to be the case during the day however I would definitely recommend the hotel to consider having glass wear during the evening. The evening entertainment is placed near the pool bar however I personally would not want to drink out of a plastic glass during an evening. |- The hotel has no facilities for children at all, it’s a quiet, relaxing and small resort. The hotel advertises children above the age of 6 can stay however I think they should make resort adults or at least ages 13+. I would definitely not recommend bringing small children here. ||Overall we had a great week, and I would definitely recommend staying at this hotel is you would like a relaxing week away, with great food and drink! |I have attached some photos...

The views are beautiful but it is not a 5 star quality hotel.

I travelled alone with my 16 month child and stayed for a week.

Pros: The sea view room with private balcony is large, with your own sun loungers and sunshine all day. The pool is great for children as it is shallow at both ends. A free boat trip per stay. Known brands of spirits are included in all inclusive. A free buggy to take you around the hotel on request. The app is great to see what’s on for the day and to book activities. You can request any baby items you need for the room, such as bouncer, cot, steriliser, changing mat.

Cons: Sometimes the staff are smiling and helpful, other times they look stressed, ignore you and you have to chase them for things. Sometimes asking several times for a drink until it finally arrives. One staff member was crying during their shift. Overhead shower and air con in the room did not work. Reported to reception twice yet not fixed. An awful noise throughout the night sounding like chairs being dragged around. This woke my baby on several occasions and the reception staff said it was from the bars doing cleaning at night. The noise vibrates through the building. Also a strange vibrating noise constantly being heard throughout the day and night. Several children developed coughs, I assume this was due to stale air in the rooms as without the air con working there was no air circulation. The water park is freezing cold and up a really really steep hill - not suitable for buggies. The buffet is small and serves almost the same food every day. The dishes rarely have labels to tell you what it is. Not good when you have allergies. You get 4 a la carte meals included for a 7 night stay. They allocate the restaurants, dates and times of bookings before you arrive. Ours was far too late for a child to eat, we managed to rearrange 3 of them as the restaurants were ‘fully booked’ so could not book in the fourth. The restaurants were half full and they class that as ‘fully booked’. There is another a la carte restaurant outside the resort which we were not told about. Other guests informed us of it and we had to request it ourselves in order to have our fourth included a la carte meal. Some days we were queuing for 30 mins to get a table for breakfast or lunch. They keep one side of the restaurant closed with lots more tables. Seems silly when they are clearly needed and already set up with cutlery etc. The wooden walkway on the beach gave my child lots of splinters in her feet! The charge for a late checkout is 100 euros for an extra 4hours. I booked this so my child could have her afternoon nap before our night flight. During this time, the air con coincidently started to work! It came on full blast which woke her up. I turned it off but 20 minutes later it came on again at full speed. Finally I settle her again and reception call the room asking me to take my key to reception so they could recode it to make it work until 3pm. (I had already done this early in the morning at their request). Again, this woke my baby up and she did not get back to sleep. The extra 100 euros spent to ensure she had a nap was a complete waste of time and money! I treated myself to a hair cut. It was done on dirty, dry hair. Not what I expected. On two days we could not get a lounger around the pool as they had all been taken. No child park or play area available other than a tiny play house on the beach right by a main road.

In summary, it was quite a stressful holiday, having to constantly chase staff for drinks and anything you need. The app is great but their answer to most questions is for you to look on the app. Not the relaxing holiday I was hoping for!

Highlight of the holiday: a waiter called Fation was incredible! Excellent service, friendly with my child, recommended which meals to eat from the a la carte menu and was always smiling. He is a credit to the hotel and an example of how all the staff should be treating...