Ikaros Hotel — Hotel in Zakynthos Municipality

If I could give this place zero stars, I would – in fact, I’d give it minus stars if I could. This hotel is a disaster from top to bottom and should frankly be shut down.||||CHECK-IN NIGHTMARE||||We booked all inclusive, but they tried to scam us into accepting bed and breakfast. When we showed proof, we were met with a sigh and attitude before being grudgingly handed wristbands. That should’ve been our first warning.||||NOTHING LIKE THE PHOTOS||||Forget the staged pictures online – this is NOT a 3-star hotel. It wouldn’t pass as a 1-star hostel on its best day. The place is literally falling apart. Stair railings are loose and dangerous. There is no lift – and no, it’s not “out of order” – there just isn’t one.||||FILTH EVERYWHERE||||The corridors were filthy, the reception and bar toilets looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in forever, and I’m not exaggerating when I say there was human feces on the walls.||||OUR ROOM||||Where do I even begin? Within seconds of taking our shoes off, our feet turned black. We wore shoes the whole time and had to have them by the bed if needing to go to the loo at night.|| • The beds had bugs and dirty sheets.|| • Mattresses were black with stains.|| • The shower flooded the whole bathroom, had no curtain, and couldn’t even face downward. Learn to shower holding the shower head.|| • Air con barely worked, and when it did, it sounded like it was dying.|| • Lights dangling from wires, door barely locked, balcony door didn’t lock at all – great for a potential break-in.|| • The fridge? Loudest thing in the room. Thought it might explode.|| • Towels were dirty and had stains|| • Room did not get cleaned for 7-days. No new towels, no clean sheets.||||FOOD & “ALL-INCLUSIVE” – WHAT A JOKE||||Drinks were the same three fizzy drinks, one beer, white or red wine and two local spirits from 11am to 9pm – not a minute more. Some days not all were even available. || • Food? Cold, served in short windows and always cold.|| • No signage. No variety. No snacks. No nothing.|| • Staff watched your plate like hawks, and if you didn’t clear your table, you were told not to return – even if you’d never eaten there before.|| • Staff ate before guests, cutting lines and loading their plates like it was their last meal.||||We ate there once. After that, we ate out for the rest of the trip – along with every other “all-inclusive” guest.||||Bring your own alcohol and spirits, otherwise you’ll be having a trip the shop!||||DISGRACEFUL SERVICE|| • No pool towels. No new towels for the room. No bedding changes. No cleaning for the entire week.|| • Asked multiple times for towels – never got them.|| • Some staff (manager) were rude, unhelpful, and borderline aggressive. Kicks people out for the stupidest of things and calls the police on them. || • People were nearly kicked out for being in the pool “after hours” (despite the sign saying otherwise).||• One guest almost got evicted for a show going into the swimming pool, yet guests all day wore shoes into the pool and had to sign a waiver to stay to say that he had to pay for any damages – no joke.|| • One guest almost got evicted for asking for two boiled eggs – no joke.||||POOL & “FACILITIES”|| • Pool hours? A mystery. Sign says 8pm, staff say 6pm, pool opens at 10. Nobody knows.|| • Sunbeds are broken wooden planks with filthy, stained cushions.|| • Pool area needs a pressure wash || • there’s a lifeguard but good luck getting saved as he’s to busy giving out drinks and cannot even see the pool.|| • there’s unsafe poles all around the pool that should be removed during the day when their ‘rope for pool closed is removed’. Poles with hooks, one child got his shorts attached to the hook and caused a huge rip. They’re so unsafe!|| • There’s WiFi, but only if you are in the reception area or at the pool area close to reception. WiFi goes off most of the time and isn’t available||||FINAL STRAW||||The manager was threatening guests, making them sign fake “disturbance” orders, and charging for damage that didn’t exist. All because a shoe accidentally landed in the pool. Utterly insane.||||⸻||||DO NOT STAY HERE||||This is not a hotel. It’s a rundown dump with zero standards, nonexistent hygiene, and a staff culture that treats paying guests like an inconvenience. All-inclusive is a lie, the photos are fake, and the whole operation feels shady.||||Worst holiday of our lives. We couldn’t wait to leave. Shut it down. Just don’t ever,...

I’ve stayed in many budget hotels while travelling, but nothing comes close to the disaster that was Hotel Ikaros in Zante. From start to finish, this place was an absolute nightmare. I am also not one for writing reviews but I have never been so disgusted in my life.

There are no lifts, so we had to carry our heavy suitcases up stairs. The rooms are tiny, dark, and depressing, with visible stains on the bedding. Every time we used the shower, the entire room would flood, leaving it smelling damp and foisty.

Things took a serious turn for the worse on our second day when €500 was stolen from our room between three of us in three different rooms. When we reported it, the staff were immediately defensive and incredibly rude, we demanded the police to come. The police came with a poxy card didn’t look real at all , infact didn’t even look like him on the photo. What they gave us to sign on a piece of paper, supposedly being police documents regarding theft – turned out to be about taxi services when we had them translated on chat GPT. It was a clear attempt to mislead us.

Shockingly, this wasn’t the end of it. Another €180 went missing from our suitcases the very next day, and later in the trip, a Bluetooth speaker worth over €100 disappeared obviously being stole by the cleaners. The best of it was the cleaners weren’t even coming into clean our room, no clean towels the full week we stayed, beds weren’t made all that was done each day was the bin was changed. Each time we brought this up, we were shouted at, shut down, and even threatened with eviction. They refused to listen and treated us like criminals rather than guests.

To top it off, we were forced to pay €50 for a key they falsely claimed was our third replacement. When we tried to dispute it, the manager called me a liar and threatened to call the police again, refusing to let us explain. Personally I think this is ridiculous considering hundreds was stolen from us by their staff. We caught multiple cleaners and managers in our room when we left our rooms.

The entire atmosphere at this hotel is toxic, especially towards young female guests. We were even told to be quiet just for the sound of our shoes on the stairs – not shouting or music, just walking.

If you’re considering staying here, don’t. Between the thefts, the threats, and the filthy conditions, this place ended up costing us far more than we ever expected. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. You’re better off sleeping...

I nearly never write opinions about hotels and usually don't whine much but... I've been to Greece before and also in a hotel with * or ** stars, but it was so much better, because 1) it was clean, 2) food was warm and more versatile, 3) you could drink as much as you wanted on all inc., 4) personell was nice. But in Icaros... rooms were quite clean although old (especially bathroom), but mosquito's dead body on the wall above the sink stayed there during all our stay 😁 I never saw anyone cleaning pool area, there were leaves, dead insects and sand in the pool. Food was monotonous but would be eatable if only it was hot, but often it wasn't. The bar is situated in such a way that you have to dry yourself before going there or you will get a remark from barman. Actually, you are getting remarks from barmen all the time 😔 "You want to take more than 1 drink? Why? Are you here with a husband?" "You want more alcohol? Why, you really like Raki? Maybe you should buy a bottle from us for 15 Eur?" I mostly joked in response but sometimes I wanted to start being rude. From me hotel gets 1 star for the pool, big and with pleasant warm water, but even there you could stay maximum till 19-20 and then you would be asked to go out. We were on Zakynthos in covid mini lockdown time, so there was no music, or I'd better say that music was occasionally on without any clear schedule, but always for 10 minutes at night while barman was cleaning the bar 😁 Then he would close the bar and switch off all the lights except for very poor ones near the pool. I also don't find location the best, it's near the road, so you have to listen to cars and buses passing by, while you are at pool. It's a good 10 min walk to the beach, which is a bit too far for me. In fact, Icaros is nearly at the very end of Laganas, but the plus is that the sea is more clean in this area, and the "wild" part of the beach is also near. Laganas itself during mini lockdown was quite boring and quiet. I recommend to travel by sea as much as you can, the sea shores are beautiful. If I visit Zakynthos again, I would prefer a smaller town but in a more impressive area - you can anyway get fast wherever you want, cause the island is...