Panos Luxury Studios — Hotel in Paros Municipality

Horrible experience with the hostess, Mina. First, I was a part of a group of 5. We booked two rooms which would allow us to have five separate beds, something that was a DEALBREAKER and we wouldn’t have booked a stay at Panos Studios if we could not all get our own separate beds. However, at check in, Mina showed us our two rooms and they both only had two beds in them. Apparently she had double booked the room with three beds and didn’t bother to inform us beforehand. She expected us to just take the room and didn’t offer any compensation until I pushed her. From there, we were able to negotiate a price but to me it was weird paying for a room I didn’t book while the room I DID book was occupied by people who hadn’t reserved it MONTHS in advance for that night. Second, during the night she tried charging the card I had put on file multiple times without my knowledge. While originally this wouldn’t be an issue, since it is a card from a bank foreign to Greece and she manually typed in my card number instead of swiping the physical card, my bank marked it as fraud. And since she charged it multiple times and the payment was flagged as fraud multiple times, my bank then blocked my card and I had to call to get my card unblocked. I woke up with my card blocked and had to wait the time difference in order to call my bank and have the block removed. Luckily it was a Friday, or else I would have had to wait until Monday to access the money in my account. I was ready to pay at any time, all she had to do was ask me instead of using the numbers to charge my card. Even on the day that I left when I tried to pay, I asked for a second to get my things together and Mina continued to huff and start putting my card number in manually again. I told her to not, as my bank might mark it as fraud again, but she continued on anyway. The only reason this place gets any stars is because of the clean condition of the rooms and the amazing job of the cleaner, who was a lot nicer and more honest than Mina. There was also free transportation to/from the port. However, these factors were not enough to overshadow the horrible experience I had whenever conversing with Mina. I would avoid this place just for her, as you most likely will not get the room you booked (and you won’t know until you’re walking in) and your card charged multiple times against your knowledge until your bank flags it as fraud.

Also, I want to note that I believe a large part of this was due to the fact that members of my group were black. Either that or she’s like this with everyone, but she treated us as children and wanted two people to sleep in the same bed because she did not plan accordingly or even tell us that she didn’t have our room available until we were at the property, bags in tow, and physically walking into the room and seeing only two beds. I also saw her being a lot nicer and more patient with the white guests that were staying in the Studios at the same time as us. So if you’re a fellow black traveler (or a traveler at all) I would definitely...

Liked · The host and owner of the property, Mina was super attentive to our needs. She went over and above to ensure we had a good time. She drove us to the next town to catch a boat cruise for the day and booked this on our behalf when our original boat cruise from the previous day was cancelled. She supplied surprise snacks every morning to all guests, pastries or fruit. The room was beautiful and fully equipped, super clean with fresh towels and toiletries supplied daily.|Disliked · The kettle did not function correctly as it didn’t come to a full boil before switching off. However, the owner changed this immediately. Unfortunately the people above were noisy on our first night, dragging furniture with heavy footsteps when walking around. There was also a water filter system attached to the wall outside our room, behind the bed which filled up and filtered on a continuous cycle. As light sleepers, this was also very noisy and kept us awake the first night. We advised the owner and she had this cleaned out immediately. It was less noisy for the rest of our stay but we were still aware of it being there as it was directly behind our heads! There was an issue with the owners car upon our arrival and no one met us from the ferry to take us to the accommodation. We were not advised and were left waiting. When we contacted the owner we were told to walk and follow google maps. We tried to explain to the host we had a lot of luggage as we were travelling for 3 months and I had a sore leg but she insisted we walk and the phone cut off. Unfortunately google maps took us through the backstreets with very uneven ground which was very difficult to navigate with heavy, large suitcases and a lot of other luggage. We arrived exhausted and sore! The room was beautiful and fully equipped. However, it was compact and difficult to fit all of our luggage so we had to ask the host to remove a table and chairs so that we could fit the luggage in. The owner went over and above to ensure we were happy and we would stay...

I think the name of this accommodation is a bit misleading as there's nothing luxurious about these 'studios'. The room was very clean but it was extremely small. We had to re shuffle the furniture to be able to open our suitcases. There's way too much furniture in the room for the small space. The bathroom was extremely small and the shower was leaking. Also what you need to know is that the whole family lives in the building and this is not a hotel. The location is good, only about 5 - 10 minute walk to the port and the host offers to drop you off if you feel too lazy to walk. The 'luxury' studios do not offer sleepers, bathrobes or body lotion. There's an iron and ironing board and a safe which was very handy for storing your valuables as we had someone entering our room twice even though we put a do not disturb sign on. Every other accommodation we stayed at in Greece during the pandemic kindly informed us that there won't be any housekeeping to reduce the possibility if the virus spread. I found the fact that someone felt the need to enter the room disturbing and they even hid the cushions from the bed inside the wardrobe. Very strange! It was almost like they felt the need to check the room as if we were doing something wrong! The studios are advertised as sound proof but don't be fooled there's no soundproof and you can hear people outside. The owner likes to be on the phone a lot when sat in her 'reception' area downstairs and you will be able to hear the conversation. TV offers very limited channels, all in Greek and the signal drops every now and then. Overall our stay was pleasant but I would definitely look for an alternative if we are ever back in...