Finesse Suites — Hotel in Municipality of Thira

Had a nice stay in Oct and was lucky my experience in room 108 wasn’t as bad as some earlier reviews. I advise doing more research before booking as there are so many other options available. My stay in Oia came after a terrible cave suite experience in Fira so I was grateful.||There are 2 locations for VIP Suites on different cliff facing. Didn’t know till I arrived. This is the one with west sun / sunset. Other one has sunrise I believe. ||There are A LOT of steps. To be expected since you are living on cliffside and near the middle of the cliff. Need to be fit. ||Location wise, it’s near the castle and Amoudi Bay but Oia is small so everywhere is ok. ||Would have given higher rating if not for my find before we checked out. There was a red tick on the bed which we killed and left small blood stains were on the sheet. Lucky we didn’t see it earlier. Upon checking out, it was a different staff from earlier 2 days who didn’t seem to care how the stay was so we didn’t feedback on the tick nor powerpoint/ lights that were not working. ||Overall, I’m glad I got to experience a cave suite but I’ll stick to modern hotels in future. The dampness of caves and lack of sunlight makes it less sanitary. ||Pros:|- Catch subset in your balcony (private area). |- Porter helps with luggage both ways. Make sure you arrive & leave when the porter is working (service is not 24/7). I had a small bag and yet appreciated this. |- You get an Oia map (else the tourism office does not distribute, as they have a sign telling you to explore on your own). Not essential but it helps. |- Daily cleaning & change of towels (it’s damp in caves so you need this). ||Cons:|- You don’t know which suite you’ll get till you arrive. My suite had the smallest balcony for viewing sunset. |- You get the evening sun. No morning sun. |- No reception to get assistance. You are on your own. For help to book transport, go to check-in desk, which is the tourism office staff. |- No place to hang towels! Only 4 hangers given. A problem if you shower more than once a day. |- Double bed is really 2 single beds that they put a sheet over. |- Light outside the suite wasn’t working (and kitchen light & 1 powerpoint near the extra bed). |- Occasionally there is a foul sour smell. Don’t know what it is but airing the...

We booked with them for a day and the next day was with Residence Suites which unfortunately turned out to be under the same Hotel Group/Management. The only reason I say 'unfortunate' was their staff. Their front desk staff have no customer service manners, unfriendly, impolite, almost rude as if they were doing us a favour by giving rooms. Their 'bell boys'/luggage men were nice. Mind you, their hotel is very far from where you come to report. Also, we had a bad experience of port transfer. They didn't make it clear we would be charged and how much, and because we were in the last leg of our journey, our cash was calculated for only the next 2 days planned activities and meals. So, when we came to check in, and they slapped us with a port pick-up cost, it didn't sit well with us. Their email correspondence was timely and prompt though - but again, not polite! No issue with the room - clean, beautiful view, beautiful structure, if only they gave free coffee/tea and creamer sachets. Their bath and toilet was absolutely fab!! Bed extremely cosy with beautiful lamps and night lights. The floors were shiny clean. Room definitely was a value for money. If the Hotel Management wants to improve, then please train your customer-facing staff to be courteous and polite and not just be there to feed us with 'map' information. Also, they do not provide any free breakfasts nor has access to the pool unless you book with them a certain 'type of room'. And if you're travelling with family or elderly people, think twice or ask them to give you a room that won't be a long trek down a cliff. For us it was beautiful and even the trek (when everything gets dark), was interesting as your rooms have no numbers or labels. So, good luck to those who have weak memory. Find landmarks and get back in before dark on your first day. And for the non-walkers, it can be quite a long and slippery walk to your room! Their reporting chamber isn't where your room will be. But I think it's not just them, it's the case with most hotels in Oia. So, take your pick - you want the view in Oia or you want Fira? The score I give is ideally 3.5 but Google doesn't recognise any 0.5 scores. And it mostly for the view...

While we enjoyed the view from our room, room 105, and the lovely patio space, our 6-day stay was VERY lackluster at this hotel. I give 3 stars only for the view and the transfer service to/from the airport. We had to pay €20 each as a deposit for an iron and kettle, which are listed as amenities on their website but it doesn’t say anything about having to leave a deposit. We were told the room had just been cleaned, but the cleaning was obviously SURFACE cleaning at best! The previous guest’s toiletries were still in the shower, there were pistachio nut shells behind the toilet, someone’s hair was on our dresser and the tub/shower was not clean. We had clean linens and a mopped floor, THATS IT! We ended up asking that they not “clean” our room as we were doing a better job ourselves. We also were not notified that literally every adjoining hotel property was under construction; therefore we woke up to yelling, commotion, drilling and hammering every single day, which lasted well until after sunset every single night. The Wi-Fi was in and out our whole stay and our TV didn’t work at all. We were given excuses for all of our complaints. The hotel check in staff was very rude, with the exception of the older woman with long brown hair and glasses (didn’t get her name). The man and younger woman were very rude and always seemed annoyed when we asked questions. We requested porter service to check out and waited for 45 minutes past check out time and no one showed up to take our bags, so we had to lock them in the room and walk to the check out point where they immediately sent someone to get our bags. But weren’t they supposed to have already scheduled that service for us? We tried several times to call the office and of course no one answered. This hotel is barely a 3 Star. The view gives it that rating worthiness. Had we known this was going to be our experience, we would’ve gladly paid extra for a much better hotel in a different area of the village. WILL NOT STAY AGAIN AND DO NOT RECOMMEND IT, EVEN WITH THE...