Hotel Mariana — Hotel in Zakynthos Municipality

We were specifically looking for small and friendly accommodation in Zakinthos, close to the airport, with basic facilities for a few days trip, so I could prepare some freelance work with a bit of relaxation. Having visited the Greek Islands for over 40 years, I only did a bit of research before booking, (mainly google earth to confirm the location on the edge of the stunning countryside), I was aware of the huge number of negative reports about the complex, but being in my late 50s this really didn't bother me as It appeared most of the negative feedback was from the younger generation who were at the location to enjoy the clubbing scene. Upon arrival I was quite shocked to discover that there was a €50.00 ( CASH ONLY) deposit per head policy and this was implemented in almost military fashion, however, we were not that concerned being a more mature couple who in all our years of travel have never had any issues. On the first morning we found a nice location around the pool, which happened to be close to the reception area, within a hour or so I became aware of the huge amount of agitation new arrivals were suffering with the €50.00 deposit per head policy, a large family were trying to explain that €300.00 deposit out of their planned spending monies was unacceptable and was not explained by the company they had booked their holiday with .( Having since researched this, it is fact most companies offering holidays to the Mariana make no mention of the €50.00 CASH deposit).I decided to take a closer look at the feedback from previous guests who had stayed at the Mariana, it soon became clear there were dozens and dozens of guests who had lost the majority (if not all) of their deposits for a number of bizarre reasons, ( a missing knife, make-up on bedding, persons visiting their room etc) Having been involved in criminal and anti social behaviour investigations for over 20 years I became interested in what exactly was going on? There were quite a few youngsters staying at the complex, most were very well behaved, a few were quite correctly dealt with robustly by the Management team for drug abuse and removed from the complex. Speaking with a number of guests it soon became clear that there had been an unusually high number of guests who left over the past week who had lost most if not all of their deposits upon checking out. So how was this being implemented? The Mariana is not affiliated with any major tour operators that have a holiday representative at the complex, so the only point of contact are staff at the complex. 2 males who are clearly connected with the Management of the complex, they are Greeks with other heritage ( possibly Australian) and mainly situate themselves at the bar pool area, there is a female ( Also Greek)who works in the reception area who clearly also has some status within the complex. The 2 males who situate themselves at the bar area will deny they are anything to do with Management and will state they are simply bar staff, who will be leaving at the end of the season!!If any guest tries to raise any matters with these 2 males they will be told “ we are bar staff only, you need to go to reception” . Reception staff will not be in a position to resolve any matters that require a decision around a complaint etc, and will tell guests only the Management can deal with that and they are not available!The complex has extensive high quality CCTV with cameras situated in many locations, entrance to accommodation blocks etc with PIRs that ensure cameras activate effectively monitoring all persons entering accommodation blocks and movement around the complex ..This part of the operation is done with ruthless efficiency, CCTV is being reviewed at regular intervals and those who have had visitors to their room for a period of time will simply loose most if not all of...

My friends and I stayed here for 7 days, 6 nights. At first I was scared to stay here because of the reviews however after staying here it’s clear that people just don’t do their research before arriving, reviews, the website etc. You are expected a deposit of €50 pp and that is in cash, making it easier to get back at the end of the stay. You are also expected a tourist tax but you should expect that with every holiday you go on abroad.

Due to Loveholidays not informing us that check in is at 2pm, we arrived in Zante at 5am and arrived at the hotel at 6am. The owner let us keep our luggage in the reception and then had a lovely chat with us about places he thinks we should go explore until 8am which is when the pool opened. So we were able to wait to be checked in near the pool. He was very lovely and helpful, also very hardworking, he’s at the hotel most of the day and night. They also checked us in earlier which was absolutely lovely.

The rooms are good for what they are and the cleaners change the bins daily, changing sheets every three days. A lot of the reviews said that they got their belongings, cash etc, stolen from them whilst they were out so take that however you like, however my friends and I did not have that problem although leaving cash out in the open in the room.

You can pay for food and drinks at the bar with card and the food their is adequate, the cook is a lovely, hardworking woman. Also the food and drinks are very good price for what they are and you can buy alcoholic beverages whenever.

The only thing I would complain about is the staff, they’re quite slow and don’t help at all times. Our electricity was turned off for a whole day and when we went to speak to reception they told us “we’re going on a break so we can’t help right now” and that was that, however as soon as we spoke to reception when they were available our electricity was fixed straight away.

Overall, this was a great stay. I would say that it is not a hotel for families or children, or anyone trying to have a romantic holiday as there are a lot of younger groups that are trying to have fun and are quite loud.

The strip is a 20 minute walk away, the beach is 30. There is a spar close by to buy drinks and snacks, it’s around a 5 min walk.

Anyways, don’t look at these reviews and be automatically worried, you just need to respect the staff and the rooms and you’ll receive the right treatment and get your deposit back.

Thank you very much Mariana Hotel...

JUST STAY AWAY FROM THIS HOTEL! SCAM and disgusting. In Greece you pay 0,50€ taxes for THE ROOM a day, not per person! When we arrived to the hotel, the women, excharged us 0,50€ pro person a day! SCAM! SCAM! SCAM! Then we had to pay 50€ per person for the caution deposit. (They will do everything to take your money!) Dont let anything money, watches, phones... things with value in your room, because they will disappear and the hotel will say you let the balcony open. STAFF is very arrogant. The rooms are old and the walls smell bad. The fortuniture is the same, old, rosty, defect and stinks. The Beds are not comfort, maybe they are 20 years old. The toilet room is the baddest and darkness thing in the room (1 small light, you can see nothing). There are insects coming out of the canalization and fly in all room, small cockroaches and moskitos everywhere, the shower is defect, so you have to shower with the shower head in your hand, the shower doors are broken, then you have water in all your toilet., mould everywhere, the toilet walls are black. IT IS DISGUSTING! The Swimming pool, the boards had mould to, so you cant just chill there because it is disgusting, when you put your head or arms on the board of the swimmingpool. Air Condition or WIFI cost extra. If someone come to visit your room you pay 50€ from the caution deposit, if you put makeup on the towels you pay 20€-50€ too. So they tried to give us towels with makeup. So we should pay it. But we got them. After you do check-out, you have to wait between 1-2 hours or you dont get your Caution back!! The rececpionist call the old man, the old man go very slowly check your room, he comes back and say if you brake something or not. Just call the TAXI, when you have the Caution on your hands. Or you have to pay the taxi while he is waiting for you. I never saw a hotel like this before.

Before you buy any T-Shirt there... first, after you stay in this hotel you can buy the t-shirt with "I SURVIDED ZAKYNTHOS", if you go to zakynthos, you know what i mean!

Just dont come to this hotel and believe me, you have the best holidays...