Domes Aulus Zante, Autograph Collection — Hotel in Zakynthos Municipality

DO NOT BOOK THIS HOTEL UNLESS YOU CHECK ALL THE POINTS BELOW Price - the price of one night in the hotel is quite high, approximately 70 EUR more than the 5 star hotels in the same area. The information on the hotel website doesn’t correspond to the reality. Please check photos below and compare them with photos on the website. The territory of the hotel is like dying forest. There is no quality in anything - starting from the hotel furniture finishing the rooms and leaking showers. It is not a 5 star hotel, maybe 3 or max 4. Hotel website shows 4 restaurants on the area. We were not able to enjoy these meals because you have to book the table in advance and all places were booked out for several week in advance. The restaurants are extremely understaffed, there are available seats but they don’t offer them, so no chance to have a dinner if you haven’t booked the place in advance. Probably one month before your arrival. Quality of service. There is no service - everybody tried to smile away the problems without fixing them. On the second night of our stay the toilet started to leak. We reported that issue to the reception and fixing plus cleaning took around 4 hours (from 6 till 10 pm). When we asked receptionist Alexandros on how long this will take - he said “if you hang around the reception, we will let you know”. No room change. Another point is a late check out - we submitted our request for late check out in advance, like 3 days before departure. Then the reception desk asked us to check with them again during the last evening of our stay. Of course they didn’t find any room for late check out, even though we were ready to pay half day stay for it and there were almost 10 available rooms for the same night on the Booking. Separately I want to say a big THANK YOU to the staff of the bar and Monachus restaurant. They work great, but they are understaffed. By the end of the day you can see that they are extremely exhausted, but still provide the best service. I wanted to leave them tip, but as this hotel doesn’t have any currency exchange, couldn’t do so. The room. We stayed in the Sapphire Nest in the 700 building. The room is quite small, but has everything you need. I liked the big jars of toiletries. However the shower and the sink are not separated from the sleeping area, which you won’t see on the website pictures. The quality of the room was okay, however the shower leaks to two directions - to the bed site and to the toilet, so if you like to take a long shower, be careful with the leakages. The problem with the toilet I’ve described earlier. The food. Again big thanks to the chief and kitchen o the Monachus restaurant! Many dishes, everything was tasty and prepared with good quality. You can see that there is not enough people working there, but still they cope well with amount of guests. I would suggest better cleaning of the area and cutleries, as plates and cups were not really clean. Coffee machines always had the maintenance pop up, which you need to close and then do the coffee. Beach area and swimming pool. I was swimming in the pool just once, because it was cold there. So if you come in may or have no luck with weather, be prepared to cold waters. Beach side is perfect - far from the town, almost no people, great for long walks or staying there for swimming. Also you’ll see some ladies asking about your experience and noting down your concerns…not sure if these notes are going further, considering the level of quality. For this price you can stay in much better places with great service, so if you checked this review, book something else in order to have a better experience. During my numerous talks with receptions or waiting time for check out (took almost 30 min in the queue), I saw several people also expressing their concerns regarding the quality of service. So I’m not the first one and not the last one for sure.

P.S. I removed my first review regarding only the toilet issue and after check out posting an...

Really 2 stars. People who give this place 4 or 5 stars are people who eat McDonalds. What kind of people stay in this hotel if management charges 10 euros for a beach towel? Do they steal those old towels? What do they offer for their exorbitant prices.? The food is not good, frozen fish, frozen potatoes,and mostly all vegetable are frozen.They charge you separately for the safe in the room. Nowhere in the world does any hotel charge almost 4euros per day for the safe which has a KEY, not a pin. THIS IS A SMOKING HOTEL. I HAVE SEVERE ASTHMA AND I HAVE BEEN SICK SINCE I CHECKED IN.THE SMOKE COMES IN FROM THE AC VENT. According to the law, they have to inform you so you don’ die while you are here. They advertise their famous meze but you can only make reservations once. Really, nothing that is worth it. The towels are old and look dirty. The room very poorly and cheaply furnished. This is NOT what you’d expect for almost 2.000 euros per week in the beginning of June. People come with children, but also withBABIES AND INFANTS who cry continuously because they need to sleep and be taken care of, not vacation on foreign beaches. They are too young to be on vacation and it’s bad for them and for everyone else as they cry continuously. NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL. I COULD HAVE STAYED MUCH CHEAPER IN ANOTHER PLACE AS I DON,T THINK IT COULD BE WORSE. You would have a much better and cheaper vacation in the Baleare islands or anywhere in Italy. Greece has become so expensive but you can stay in Spain for half the price and triple the amenities. Also, No toiletries, no shower cap, nothing but shower gel dispenser that doesn’t really work and the gel smells funny so I bought my own. In my experience this hotel should NOT get more than 2 stars or even 1. The “entertainment “ is a joke. The hotel management replied to me saying they don’t advertise “luxury items “ such as toiletries, but this is customary for 4 star hotel. That’s what you expect from a 4 star hotel. I RECOMMEND CHEFALONIA AS A MUCH BETTER ISLAND NATURALLY MORE BEAUTIFUL AND BIGGER WITH MUCH BETTER BEACHES QUAINT TOWNS WITH QUALITY WRITTEN ALL OVER IT. [if you want the Ionian islands]. CORFU IS ALSO MUCH BETTER AND SO IS LEFKADA. Not to mention I had to fix everything in the room every day. The shower was broken, the drain clogged, the toilet paper holder broken. The poor staff had to deal with my numerous requests all the time. I would not recommend this place to anyone. The place is full of people and kids squirming around. The poor waiters don’t have time for each one of us. Everyone is running desperately to get food at breakfast, lunch and dinner. People bump into each other and it’s a miracle serious accidents don’t happen. In Taormina I paid $780 for a week for a double room in hotel Continental, which is a 3 star but functions and looks like a 7 star compared to this. They provide free taxies at any time of the day to take clients to whichever beach they like. The food and the views and the water are BREATHTAKING! I AM A GOOGLE GUIDE ALL OVER THE WORLD, as I have done a lot of reviews for them for years and I have a lot of followers. ITALIANO. NON VALE LA PENA E TROPPO CARO E NON offre molto. E come in albergo di 2 stele in Italia. I’ll cibo non e buono e si deve mangiare in altri posti. In camera non funziona niente. Piutosto non e molto pulito. Non c,e asciuga capelli in camera, ne anche cuffia di docia. Veramente non offrano niente per i soldi che prendono.

FRANCAIS. C,est pas un bon hotel e les prix sont tres haute. C,est un type de tourism industrial sans la qualite. Choisier attaintement!

ESPANOL: No vale la Pena. Costa mucho pero sin la Qualidad. Se come mal e la comida e congelada. La Otra isla CHEFALONIA esta mejor. Seguramente non tiene ...

Our first trip to Zante, we travelled as a family and it was a first time 'All-inclusive' holiday for us. The hotel is a short ride away from the airport.||This hotel has the best location and has such a chilled-out vibe. We appreciated the warm welcome by staff and cool drink on arrival, before being whisked off to our upgraded room in the buggy. There was a lot of information given on arrival in a noisy reception area (evening disco) which felt a little overwhelming and was hard to hear. As it turned out the booking system for the restaurants didn't allow us to cross reference our two rooms, so we booked in person the following day in reception. |We found The Gridlia restaurant and staff were the best, the Meze overrated and the Italian didn't deliver anything special that I couldn't cook at home. It's a shame as we had hoped to be 'wowed'! However, the buffet restaurant and staff throughout the day provided great food and service for breakfast, lunch and evening meals, Frankly, it wouldn't be a issue if you missed out on booking the restaurants. ||Of course, the unsung heroes in the hotel being the 'behind the scenes staff', both in the kitchen, the housekeeping and ground maintenance. They deserve a mention and a thank you too. ||The pool was quiet when we stayed in September. There is a Young Settlers water play area near the pine forest, front of hotel, for children which no one seems to know about - and a little shallow pool within the sunbed area, ideal for babies and toddlers to have a splash. The surrounding floor tiles in the pool area are very slippery when wet, and the shallow steps at either end are great, but at least one set could do with a handrail leading into the water for those of us who find accessing a pool difficult. The pool area has a fridge with cool drinks and snacks, a bar and at lunchtime a small buffet. ||The beach is easy to access, the water warm and shallow and you too might also enjoy a solo swim with the local adult turtle, called Sortolis! ||There is a walk through the pine forest within the hotel grounds, that also leads to a path by the main road, if you want to walk further and not have to walk along the beach. There is a tennis court as well. The grounds have a mix of mature and young planting. Gardeners will appreciate how long a young plant can take to get going, especially in the extreme heat Greece will experience, but in a year or two the gardens will look lovely and less bare. Perhaps it would be nice to include a few seats to sit on in the evenings along the paths ? ||Our rooms had a useful interconnecting door and were spacious and comfortable. The housekeeping was brilliant! The welcome gifts were a lovely surprise and the hotel toiletries are very good - by Olivia Thinks - wish the hotel shop would sell these products too. I would have bought some to take home. ||We were given a little farewell gift as well, on departure and the staff couldn't have been more helpful in arranging collection of our suitcases from our rooms, storing them by reception during our last day. We never felt anything was too much trouble and felt safe in the hotel complex and beach.|If we return to Zante in future, this hotel would be our first choice.||A few suggestions:|Drinks machines in buffet restaurant need to be constantly refilled due to numbers using them. Perhaps provide more coffee jugs per table? They don't seem to be freely available. |The bathroom was very small in comparison to the larger bedroom and didn't have an extractor fan, we could see the damp patch on the lower bedroom wall, which could be a long term issue. The fixtures and fittings were showing signs of wear and could probably do with replacing...