Grecotel Casa Marron — Hotel in Municipality of West Achaea

A 1970's budget hotel (with no AC anywhere outside the rooms) at 2024 4-star prices!!! Grecotel Casa Marron Review.

Where to start.

There is no air-conditioning anywhere outside the rooms. We were given a scripted response that this is done for sustainability, which is a shameful statement. Respectable companies purchase energy from Renewables, they do not give pathetic excuses for their cheap cost-cutting efforts.

Moreover there was no consideration of guest comfort whatsoever, making us walk across non-shaded areas to stand in line at 3 different locations to get a drink, food or a salad. Every meal averaged 20 mins waiting in queues, under the burning sun. There weren’t even any outdoor fans, common in every coffee shop or restaurant in Greece. After every meal we needed an hour in the room just to cool off. There WAS an indoor bar, next to the restaurants and plenty of space to house all the buffets indoors, but of course it was closed . I suppose that would be too convenient for the guests and would require air-conditioning more areas, so it was decided to let them suffer instead.

If you need to get a filter coffee with evaporated milk, you have to go to the bar, ask for some milk in a glass then walk across the square to the machine to get your coffee, because the bar doesn't serve filter coffee and the waiters don't have access to milk. The buffet offers Honey made in China and "Greek White Cheese" rather than Feta - and this is in the Peloponnese! You should be ashamed to offer this to your international guests (and the Greek ones too).

The website, app and promo material as well as the info we were given was completely misleading. You advertise multiple restaurants, when in fact you only have different stands in the buffet. We thought we would have a choice of restaurants to eat at, beyond the buffet, which we would pay extra for. Instead we were stuck eating the same food every day. When you say you have a Pizzeria, it means you have 6 different pizzas, not pizza slices of 2 varieties. Similarly for all the other restaurants, there is no "Bakery", no "Kafenio", no "Trattoria" - these are all buffet stands or the same place shot from different angles.

The Faros restaurant was the biggest disappointment. We were told we would be able to eat there A la Carte, when we wanted some variety. Instead we found we could only go with a booking, that we could make between 9-10 am, with hardly any availability ever. And when we finally went, we could hardly believe our eyes - instead of a restaurant, it was a section of the snack-bar, converted in the evenings, sitting down in folding pool chairs, dirty with sand from the people sitting there earlier. And instead of an A la Carte Experience, we got a set menu without even a veal dish, just cheap budget ingredients.

The pools were tiny and suitable only for children (maximum depth 1.30) and you were swimming in people's sweat. There was no service in the pools, so again you had to walk over and wait in the heat. I would have happilyh paid for service or food ordered this way, a common feature of quality all-inclusive hotels.

But the thing that just boggles the mind, is that in a supposed 4 star hotel, there isn’t a SINGLE place to sit, drink a beverage and read a newspaper in an air-conditioned space! I have traveled the world and never seen this before!

Even our 7-year old asked to leave early, because she was bored of everything except the beach!

The difference from other Grecotels we have visited was staggering. I will not mention the the resorts in Kos and Sounio, but even Olympia Oasis and La Riviera, in Kyllini, which are nothing special, are still light years ahead of this place. We were told that those are 4+ stars while Casa Marron is 4 star. It is not. It is at best a 3-star that reminded me of the first all-inclusive hotels in Greece in the 1970's.

Simply pathetic in 2024 and definitely not worth the money, unless all you care about is...

The hotel was absolutely lovely. We went with 2 young children and it was perfect for them. The 4 outside pools were all great (just beware that they are not heated so a bit chilly at first). The slides were really fun too. There is a small playground too which isn't advertised too much but was perfect again.

The beach was quite stoney and would recommend beach shoes if you want to go in the water. There were plenty of umbrellas with sun loungers and a decking pathway making it a lot easier to navigate your way along.

Food was good. Any longer then a week and I think we would have got bored of the repetitiveness. If i was being picky then it was a bit disappointing not to see more 'traditional' greek dishes or seafood considering we were by the sea. It also would have been nice to have something other than spaghetti bolognaise every night for the kids.

Between 11am-5.30pm you can have crepes, pizza, sandwiches, ice cream and cakes. The bars are also always open as well as there being drinks machines to help yourself. This made eating and drinking really easy. I'd really recommend making your way through the cocktail list and ordering an iced coffee for breakfast. My only slight gripe would be that they weren't very forthcoming with offering bottled water which was a shame. We were only allowed a bottle for dinner but would have liked a bottle per meal really and didn't feel that was much to ask considering the climate. The service also went downhill over the week - we were offered wine the first couple of nights but never again after that and had to catch someone's attention to ask for it as the bar wouldn't serve it. Not a huge problem, more of an inconvenience and a bit of a shame considering the hotel is 4 star.

The room was great. We were upgraded for free upon arrival which was a lovely surprise. It was spacious with plenty of storage. The mini fridge was good for keeping things cool. The bathroom was spotless and nice toiletries provided. The cleaners did an excellent job each day. The only issue was that we didn't have any hot water. We did report it twice but were told maintenance had been informed and then just told to run the tap for longer (we had previously had it running for 15 mins or so with no change in temperature so there was obviously an issue with it that they weren't willing to fix). This meant that showering was quite an unpleasant experience and made washing the young children very challenging. This put quite a dampener on the stay and I wouldn't stay in the same room again due to this. The response when we reported it was disappointing and we were made to feel as if we were being stupid and just making a fuss. But trust me, it wasn't even luke warm, it was cold. Other people we met confirmed that they had hot water so it just seemed to be our room. Not what you expect from a nice hotel!

I haven't seen many reviews mentioning the fact that the hotel is very close to an air base and as such there is a pretty much a constant flow of fighter jets and helicopters flying over. We didn't mind as was quite interesting to see but they were loud and anyone with kids who have sensory difficulties may find this a challenge as it can't be escaped.

There were lots of families staying when we were there and the kids would all play in the courtyard of the dining area each night which was lovely. We visited the kids club one evening to go to the family disco but didn't find it very welcoming and was a lady doing dance moves which the kids were expected to just copy. My kids were too shy to join in and it seemed aimed at older kids who were enjoying it more.

All in all though, it was great. The slight negatives I've mentioned wouldn't stop us from staying again (provided we had a different room) and I would still recommend to anyone else, especially those looking for a nice family holiday.

For those wondering how to get there, we flew into Kalamata and hired a car. There is plenty of...

I am taking the time to write this honest critique to express my deep disappointment of visiting , with my family , Casa Marron [Grecotel] in Lakkopetra let alone share it with the readers here. At the time of writing this, please note that we made a special request to depart [and did so today 19.08.2020] sooner than scheduled.

I stayed with my family in an hypothetical bungalow [no. 95*] with sea views on an all-inclusive arrangement at Euros 335 per night!

First, those who have travelled considerably will agree with me that a structure of a bungalow [i.e. a small house or cottage] would only be that of a detached bungalow. Unfortunately, our "bungalow" was, in fairness, a semi-detached room [i.e. having a common wall on both sides and on top] on the ground floor. This is not featured in the photos of the website. The interior did not reflect the looks as these appear in the hotel's web. No Sir.

Put simply, the photos in the website are very generous aesthetic-wise. In fact, the interior goes back in the 80s /early 90s whilst some [but not all] fairly decent furniture is fitted in. However, the remarkably old spare single beds were a disgrace and should not be offered for use by the guests not least because they look as "hospital and/or Camp beds".

The outdoors ie. size of balcony of the "bungalow" was more or less about 3- [ridiculously small for a family of 3 -4 etc] having again a common wall on both sides. Again, this is not featured in the photos.

If you check the "Marron Bungalow with Sea View" description on the hotel's website, you will find out that this is ono "from Euros 139", but, not all-inclusive. So this would mean that in my case, i was charged some extra Euros 190 -/+ [thereabouts] to meet the all-inclusive package. For what is worth, the fresh orange juice, chargeable at Euros 6 per item, was somehow not included in the all-inclusive regime. But, fair enough, i do not want to make any further comment on the juice. What i would like the readers to know is that the price of Euros 335 per night, for that type of room, cannot, to my mind at least, justify the very cheap quality of the all inclusive food not least because of the surprisingly cheap snacks [some ring shaped breads, mini cheese pies, mini ham & cheese pies, buns, chocolate or, alternatively, ham and cheese crepes] but also the breakfast, dinner etc. In one word, the food generally was not only awful in taste but a great insult too being offered to the hotel's guests [irrespective of all or no all -inclusive].

The pools were ok. We did not use them though because these were too crowded.

The STAFF were very polite and were there to assist as and when.

The sun beds at the beach are the old fashioned 90s style. Please do not think the sun beds at the beach are similar to those at the swimming pool. Nevertheless, to my mind, these cheap sun beds do not look good for a 4 star hotel but this is what it is.

The breakfast, too , very cheap in quality.

The playground for kids was out of order.

The water-sports were marginally ok.

One night at the outdoors restaurant area, i opted for lentils. I thought how bad can lentils taste. Those lentils had a maximum of 10 -12 lentils pieces in my soup plate i was given. Yes, that was dinner for me. No further comment...

In a nutshell, i would not recommend this hotel to...