Mystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Santorini — Hotel in Municipality of Thira

Mystique was a very disappointing end to our honeymoon. The facilities are in dire need of renovations and the front desk manager needs additional hospitality training. It is disgraceful to call this a Category 7 SPG hotel.

Based on online reviews we were initially sad Mystique was not available for the entire week of our stay in Santorini. We ended up booking Andronis Luxury Suites for the first 3-nights. It is now time to leave and thank god we spent the first 3-nights at Andronis. Which was more central, beautifully maintained and the staff was top notch. The last 3-nights at Mystique were a nightmare and we cannot wait to go home in the morning. What a horrible way to end our honeymoon! The specifics are as follows: Luggage – The night before the hotel switch I asked Mystique’s front desk manager, Anisa, if they could help with our luggage from Andronis in the morning since we scheduled a 9AM catamaran tour. She asked me why I didn’t ask Andronis to send it instead… I told her since we were checking INTO Mystique wouldn’t Andronis have the same question for us about you guys? We didn’t even take their courtesy shuttle from the airport which is 30 minutes away vs. the 5 min drive from Andronis.

Quality control – We booked the Spiritual Suite & Spa which is one of their more expensive suites and features a private fitness room and an in-bathroom Jacuzzi. As soon as we walked into our room we were hit with a gust of hot damp stale air. It was obviously coming from the Jacuzzi inside the bathroom. I tried turning up the A/C but hardly anything came out of the vents so I tried opening the window in the bathroom. To my surprise the window was broken as was the floor standing dehumidifier in the bedroom. We called the front desk and they sent a technician. We spent the next 1.5 hours waiting for them to diagnose the issues. The technician’s diagnosis was the A/C was only a level 2 so we will just have to wait for the room to cool down, they were going to order the window part in the morning and the dehumidifier was broken. Anisa, their front desk manager showed up after the technician left and her recommended solution was to keep the bathroom door closed. It is now day-3 and let me tell you it is still a swamp in here despite having the a/c on max and the bathroom door closed all the time. We’ve spent the last 3 nights sweating in bed and getting eaten by mosquitos because the broken window in the bathroom is the only ventilation in there. The dehumidifier is still broken and unplugged in the corner. We finally asked them to drain the Jacuzzi completely since it has become unbearable. For comparison the a/c at Andronis was so cold we had to turn it off despite having a similar setup plus a pool. We also didn’t realize there were mosquitoes in Santorini until we showed up at Mystique.

Cleanliness – Our room also featured an outdoor Jacuzzi but it was entirely useless since the bottom was covered in debris and the top featured a layer of dead bugs. We told Anisa about it when she came by the first night and she blamed the high winds from the night before and that we should feel free to call them to clean it. That would be totally understandable but it was already 4PM in the afternoon… Also don’t hotels regularly check and clean guest facilities before check-in, never mind a Category 7 SPG one? Our room also featured a layer of soot on the floors and a blood splattered mosquito on the wall over our bed. It is now day 3 and the outdoor Jacuzzi is still unsanitary for human use and the mosquito memento is still there… For comparison our room at Andronis was spotless. The indoor and outdoor Jacuzzi and pool was cleaned 2x a day and the floor was so clean you could probably eat off of them. Housekeeping folded our clothes and left thank you notes when we left gratuities.

Safety – Because our room is so damp and hot my wife wanted to lie on the couch in the nude to cool off after a shower around 1PM. To her surprise an unannounced hotel employee suddenly opened the door and tried to come in. My wife was in shock and screamed for him to leave. It turns out he was trying to deliver some fruit to our room but he didn’t even bother to ring the doorbell! Around 3PM housekeeping wanted to clean our room but we asked them to come back in half an hour. We left for a hike to the bay about 20 minutes later and noticed the master housekeeping key was left in the cylinder on the outside of our door. We didn’t think too much of it since we thought housekeeping was coming back soon. When we came back to the room around 7:30PM the master key was still on the door and our room was still dirty. Basically the key to every room in the hotel including ours was left on our door for almost 5 hours. If anything valuable is missing who is to blame and who is responsible?

Management – The front desk manager Anisa was less than helpful during our entire stay. Aside from the before mentioned issues she constantly talked over us when we tried to explain the situation and without fail ALWAYS put the blame on us. When we called about the key in the door and dirty room she blamed us for not being ready when housekeeping came by. When we told her about the swamp in our room she asked why we didn’t close the door. We did and in fact we asked them to drain it eventually. By the way if the A/C isn’t sufficient to cool the room shouldn’t you either upgrade the A/C or take the Jacuzzi out? Don’t blame your guests! When the Jacuzzi or floors were dirty she blamed us for not calling them to clean it even though that was why I was calling in the first place. I told her the bedroom TV, speakers in the suite and exercise bicycle has not worked from day one and she without fail asked me why I didn’t call to let them know? I told her the shower leaked water all over the floor and into the bedroom and she asked me if I was showering correctly. Is it my job to inspect the rooms and call every day to report issues? What is the primary function of her role then?

I am so disappointed with our stay at Mystique. It was supposed to be a magical ending to our honeymoon. Instead we were treated with disrespect and the accommodations were subpar even for a motel never mind a Luxury Collection Category 7 SPG hotel. This is our 4th Luxury Collection hotel and no way does Mystique deserve this designation and should be dropped by SPG completely. It cost us over a $1,000 a night to stay here and it basically ruined...

The Mystique, located within walking distance of the quaint tourist town of Oia, has spectacular views onto the volcanic crater that makes the sunsets on Santorini so famous. The staff are wonderfully friendly, courteous, and helpful. As an SPG Platinum member we were offered a ‘one step’ upgrade from a vibrant suite to an allure suite, although better upgrades were available. We did not press the upgrade issue as the SPG ‘best available accommodation’ guarantee does not apply to non-standard suites. The hotel restaurant, although fantastically expensive, offers outstanding international continental cuisine and stunning views from its outside verandah. A modest dinner here, with local wine and no expensive ingredients such as lobster or foie gras, will come to about EUR 100 per person; at the Greek home-style Anemomilos restaurant across the road from the hotel dinner with local table wine is about EUR 15 per person. Both are excellent and worthwhile, within their respective genres, although not on similar levels of elegance or sophistication. Unfortunately, the hotel’s location on the wall of the volcano limits its accessibility very severely, making it the equilivent of a five-story walk-up with no elevator. Unless you are physically able to easily climb up and down the numerous steep stone and concrete stairs you will find the location very difficult to navigate. Other nearby hotels, located nearer to the main road, might be more suitable and would offer similar views. The hotel is nearly impossible to find as it has no signage on the main road and is located slightly off of it. Although local law prohibits private signs placed directly on the main road, this situation could be corrected by renting adequate signage space from the small store nearby which seems to have plenty of clearly visible posters of different sizes and shapes, as do numerous other business establishments of all types. There is no parking area and no staff posted outside to welcome guests and handle baggage. Again, this could be corrected by acquiring space for a kiosk on the main road where services such as baggage handling and valet parking could be supplied as befits a luxury hotel. The Mystique offers complimentary pick-up service at the local airport, but they did not send anyone to meet us despite being informed well in advance of our exact flight arrival details, apparently because we were renting a car. We were not informed that this service would not be offered to us, but we did have the good luck of accidentally meeting one of the hotel’s employees when we stopped in a nearby spot to ask passersby where the hotel might be after hours of searching in vain and asking many other people. All of the rooms are officially classified as luxury suites but most are really at best junior suites consisting of one large room with an open space divider. The floors appear to be white-washed concrete, complete with footprints of former guests. This situation could be corrected by acquiring some of the much admired Greek rugs such as flokati. The seating area is also made of concrete attached to the walls. Although cushions are provided, the sofa is very awkward and uncomfortable. The whole set up is more along minimalist lines than really luxurious, perhaps in order to invoke a local peasant environment. In any event, a traveler who comes to the Mystique expecting luxury will be severely disappointed. Bathroom amenities are limited to soap and shampoo with no conditioner or lotion supplied; the little extras (such as mouth wash or tooth brushes) normally associated with luxury hotels are missing. If these items were supplied, we could not find them and we did look. For luxury hotel accommodation and comfort, the Arion (a sister Luxury Collection Hotel in Greece) could well serve as model for a future renovation of the Mystique. Senior travelers or others who have difficulty bending down will find it impossible to reach many items in the room, such as the towels in the bathroom, the items in the fridge, the glasses, etc, as all of these are placed nearly on the level of the floor. This could be easily corrected by using everyday devices such as towel racks or shelves. In short, little planning has been devoted to the guests’ convenience and comfort. The views are fantastic and the staff are wonderful, but the Mystique is a disappointment as a...

First, three clarifying comments:

Oia is one of the most picturesque, popular and expensive destinations in Greece, especially in high season

Real estate on the desirable south side of Oia, where Mystique is with the caldera views is scarce

Mystique is supposed to belong to the top category of Starwood,7, in the company of properties such as the St Regis New York, the Gritti Palace in Venice, the Cala di Volpe in Sardinia and the Phoenician in Scottsdale. Mystique offers supposedly only "suites".

Taking all these into consideration, we wanted to love Mystique - not only because the steep lowest price for a "Vibrant Suite" of €765 per night - and were miserably disappointed. While the setting and architecture are beautiful, this hotel fails miserably in terms of price-quality ratio

Rooms:

The Vibrant "Suite" is the size of a 3-star hotel room in Paris: charmingly small and impossible to move due to space constraints. We couldn't even place our luggage in any convenient place, as this would have blocked movement in the room. While design is clean, small details such as mess of cables hanging in front of the TV and an awkwardly positioned AC box. The latter didn't cool the little room enough during the hot July weather. The door to the more spacious bathroom was broken and couldn't be closed without a loud BANG! The room's best feature was the balcony with a breathtaking view of the caldera.

Other "suites" are more spacious and come with pools, albeit at even steeper prices.

Service:

Level varied enormously - from charming and welcoming at reception to incompetent and distant at restaurants. English level of some staff member was insufficient to get what we wanted for breakfast. Probably result of counting on seasonal staff that doesn't return every year.

Food:

We only tried the Asian restaurant on the evening of our arrival and that was sufficient to convince us to eat as little in the hotel as possible. The quality of the sushi was comparable to that of a main street mass sushi restaurant in any major of the world - at four times the price. While breakfast was included in price, neither freshness nor quality of ingredients made us happy. Bread in particular was dry and tasteless - what a sin to begin the day like this!

Privacy:

If you come to Mystique, you should forget about privacy (see points 1 and 2). Given steepness of hotel and positioning of most of the suites, your "private" balcony or pool will be exposed not only to other hotel guests, but also to outsiders. The Mystique is not private, external apartments are in the middle of the hotel grounds, meaning that access to hotel is public. In comparison, the Katikies a few hundred meters away in Oia has an entrance guarded zealously by their security personnel and access to the hotel premises is reserved only for guests.

General assessment:

Good if you don't mind about lack of privacy or are more interested in architecture or paying astronomical prices for a larger room than in a truly luxurious experience. Bad if you want a quality sleep, a decent breakfast and a consistent high level of service. We left sad and disappointed - and much poorer. If you're Platinum, forget about any kind of upgrades. Starwood should be careful to include such properties in...