Sandy Villas Resort — Hotel in Municipality of Southern Corfu

There is no way that this is a 5* hotel. At best it's a 3* plus.

The good the bad and the ugly.

To start, this is not a 5* resort, at best the basic Kairaba is a 3* plus resort with no facilities other than a buffet and lobby bar. The facilities it advertises are actually located at the next door sister hotel the Labranda, a hotel that the manager was very clear to point out was a different hotel.

THE GOOD: The adults only Kairaba is clean, fairly pretty, yet very basic for a 5 star (as said this isn't a 5, more a top end 3).

It has attentive staff and a fair buffet restaurant (that is a bit repatative with a lot of pasta, pork and stewed meat served during every mealtime). There is also a bar within the reception hub of the hotel that has some entertainment put on during the evening (be warned, since Covid anything other than local beer, local wine or local spirits will now cost you extra).

When you make it to the beach, some 15 minutes walk away, you will find amongst the bedlam of the sister hotel a adults only sectioned off area of the beach, and the adults only infinity pool and bar. This is probably the best feature and the Kairaba where you will have unspoiled sea views and brilliant bar service from Spiros. You do however get the feeling that this pool is a complete hindrance to the Kairaba management as any morning rain and it'll be closed for the rest of the day.

THE BAD: If you are staying at the exclusive Kairaba part of the resort you will find yourself some distance from the beach and other hotel amenities such as fine dining and spa (literally everything is located in the neighbouring sister hotel, the run-down Labranda).

The pools and associated bars all close at 5 on the dot, no last minute rays to be had here, with evening all-inclusive ending at 11pm.

There is a golf-buggy service that will drive you to/from the Kairaba and Labranda/beach but getting back from the beach end is impossible. The call buttons don't work, and if you are lucky enough to flag a buggy down, they won't take you back up the unkempt service road to reception as from "sister hotel".

The path route is quite frankly shocking. If you choose to walk it's a trek down a concrete service road, across the front of a large bin store area, over the poorly maintained main car park then through the sister hotel (see ugly). Not a problem walking, but you have to dodge service vans and golf-buggies who share the space.

THE UGLY: Put simply, the sister hotel. Here you clearly drop down a few star ratings quality wise (and clientele, think Solana Benidorm), where you will experience large concrete hotel blocks (that have taken their styling from Prisoner Cell Block H), screening kids, jam packed pools, long queues at bars (with bar staff complaining about the staff to manager ratio rather than actually serving), loud music, dodgy hot dog snack bars, arcade halls, a few shops, along with the spa and the few speciality restaurants that are shared between the Kairaba and Labranda hotels. Given the appearance and clientele these are best to avoid. Everything in the Labranda looks and feels run-down and grubby.

A warning is that everywhere you go you are surrounded by hundreds of wasps.

The final straw for me was having to kick the barman out of my room whilst I was standing in my underwear when he decided to ignore the do not disturb sign and deadlocked door in order to fill the mini bar.

Given you book five star, to have the majority of the facilities in much lower quality sister hotel is quite frankly unacceptable.

Top advice for those thinking of booking the Kairaba Sandy Villas: Lower your expectations to that of a 3* and take a fly swat.

Would I return? Not even if you paid me.

I have given this a 3* based on the fact that this is clearly a 3* hotel masquerading as a 5*, then deducted points for issues...

Good holiday but this should not be a 5* hotel based on our experience

Positives: It’s a relatively new hotel and the design makes it feel like you’re in a small hotel rather than part of a larger complex. The rooms were comfortable and clean and have everything you’d need. The bedsheets did have some holes which was odd for a hotel of this calibre but it didn’t matter too much. The beach bar and main pool were great and there were always sun-loungers available and it was so peaceful and quiet and really made for a relaxing break. The beach is fabulous and we spent most of our time there. The waiters by the beach were very attentive and there are lots of water sport activities close by. Some further distance between the adults only section and the LaBRanda section would have been better. The night entertainment by the pool bar were excellent and we enjoyed the music and dancing. That said, there wasn’t music every night as had been advertised. The staff were, for the most part a friendly bunch, particularly the golf cart drivers and the bar staff.

The not-so-good: Despite the claim, I do not believe this is a 5* star hotel as some basic standards have not been met -notably cleanliness of the pool. The main issue was the state of the swim-up pool which has green algae on the pool walls, bottom and steps when we arrived. There was a guy cleaning it and we complained to him several times but the pool did not get any cleaner and we were often ignored. The pool guy (a large chap) spent most of his time hiding in the bushes smoking and arguing with other staff - unacceptable. Other guests also complained about the pool and the conduct of the pool guy. We complained to reception on check-out (provided photos) and my parents were staying an extra day - it was still not clean the following day. We did not end up using the swim-up pool much due to it being unsanitary. Beyond the grime, there are broken and uneven tiles by the pool. Unacceptable and there was a weak apology from Reception when we complained. Mgmt obviously do not do a daily walk-around inspection. The A La Carte restaurants are best avoided. The food is not of good quality and is below the standard in the main restaurant. All these restaurants are in the LaBranda sister hotel meaning that guests are subjected to the loud and frankly awful noise from the night entertainment which made it rather unpleasant dining there. Very limited snacks by the pool bars. The only option being a soggy ham and cheese wrap or some fruit. Is this really 5* all-inclusive? Even the sister hotel has cooked snacks and a bigger selection. Drinks were below standard for a 5* hotel and most of the cocktails incur an additional charge and are still basic and some ingredients missing. The mini-bar contains 90% soft drinks and only 2x tins of beer - not what I have experienced in other 5* all inclusive.

Overall, we had a good holiday and came home relaxed and rested but would be unlikely to chose this hotel again based on our experience on this occasion. Advice to management is to consider the feedback and improve even some of these basic...

We had a lovely long weekend stay here for our Anniversary.

We arrived early mid day and upon arrival we were upgraded to a swim up pool room which was a lovely surprise and absolutely added to our stay. We were also sent a bottle of wine to our room to celebrate our anniversary which was further lovely touch!

The hotel is everything you want it to be from an adult only all inclusive place- lovely and peaceful and the staff were wonderful as well! The pools (the main pool and our swim up pool) were a lovely temperature to combat the hot hot start of summer. The main pool was never overwhelming busy, we were always able to find sun loungers even if we went to the main pool in the afternoon.

The beach with the cordoned off section specifically for our hotel was a very lovely touch however feel like more obvious signs and better policing of the area to show it is only for our hotel could be needed - many people trying their luck and it was not until 1pm when hotel staff came round to check wrist bands of the people in the area and safe to say more than half of the beds occupied were told to move to the correct areas.

The food- this could be a point of improvement. Whilst all food was okay we did find the themed evenings a bit suspect, they never seemed to actually follow the theme and often just repeated dishes from previous evenings with ever so slight changes. “International Night” was just pork, chicken and then the same type of potatoes as the previous evenings. When I think of international I think of sushi, curries, etc. Then “BBQ night” was basically the same with some ribs on the special board. “Greek Night” - probably the better of the nights we had with some very nice lamb but the side dishes were exactly the same and found it odd that the live cooking station was doing pasta instead of perhaps Gyros??

As the hotel is so small I feel like they would be much better off having a set menu for dinner, with one themed set dishes and then one “normal” dish for people to chose from in order to get better out of the food and space.

The all inclusive drinks could do with some slight improvement, we did find the full all inclusive cocktails a bit of an odd choice in comparison to some of the cocktails you had to pay for. Would have excepted to at least see a mojito on the all inclusive considering the bare minimal ingredients but a top tip could be to order the non-alcoholic version mojito which is included on the all inclusive and then a local rum shot which again is included on the all inclusive and mix it yourself.

The bed had a very hard Mattress and very hard pillows, these could definitely be improved but the rest of the room was lovely and the mini bar was stocked up every day (we were once woken up by the mini bar guy coming quite early to fill up the bar which we found a bit odd but was only a one off).

Overall we had a lovely stay and will most likely return...