Zakos Court Apartments

The location is really, really good, and the rooms are decent. There are lots of nice cats around, too. I was told the apartment had been cleaned, but the floor was the only clean part of the place. After living there for nearly six months, I ended up cleaning the whole house myself.

We nearly had to call the police because the owner tried to take our money. This felt like a fraud.

After the first night I found the toilet leaking, and the water pressure was so low that showering was really difficult. The towels weren’t very clean, the air conditioning was too loud to sleep with, and the walls were so thin or poorly built that I could hear my neighbor boiling water in a kettle. The apartment was almost empty, with a few leftover dishes, a kettle that barely worked, and Wi-Fi that only worked in the living room. It’s meant to be an apartment, but I’ve stayed in hostels that were a higher standard. The business also felt shady. The elderly owner knew only a few words of English. We had to go with him to his restaurant to pay by card, and he left his keys locked inside the apartment. He had no spare, so our belongings were stuck inside and we had to pay for a locksmith ourselves. The owner had a four-letter word for that. I can’t recommend this place.

The arrival was a mess. There’s no reception, and when we got there late in the evening we had no key and no contact details beyond the number on our reservation. Nobody answered when I called. Our internet wasn’t working, it was getting dark, and we were in a foreign country with suitcases and no idea where we’d sleep. We hadn’t seen anything on Booking.com saying there was no reception. A kind woman who came into the building saw our situation and helped us. She took us up to the fourth floor to an elderly woman who spoke no English and seemed unfamiliar with tourists in the building. Eventually the helpful woman got a phone number from her, the same one I’d already tried. The man hung up when I called, but when she called for us we managed to communicate. A guest was meant to arrive in ten minutes, and he did, which eased our panic. He opened the restaurant door, handed us the keys, and asked whether we’d pay by cash or card. I said card, as I’d requested when booking through Booking. He told me I’d have to go to the owner’s restaurant to pay. We went there the next day. It’s a short distance from the hotel, but we still had to wait twenty minutes. We’d left the card in the room and forgotten to bring it, so we had to run back and forth in the heat. It was a long way and we were exhausted by the time we finally paid. I think there was a misunderstanding, since they should have brought the terminal. Why didn’t they collect payment through Booking, or take it straight away? They just sent us walking around as if that was in our interest. I also only got the Wi-Fi password at the restaurant, since there was no information about it at the property. When I eventually got online, I saw they’d emailed us a number to call to get the keys. That email arrived while we were on the plane, so we couldn’t read it. Once we’d arrived, checking email and expecting instructions there never even occurred to us. I’d always paid for apartments booked through Booking.com by card in advance, and they’d charged me immediately, so I’d felt secure. This time, even though we booked well ahead, they hadn’t collected payment at all. The apartment itself was okay for the price, with plenty of room for the two of us: two large bedrooms, a big living room with kitchen, and a bathroom. It had Wi-Fi, a hairdryer, towels, a refrigerator, a TV, and a large balcony. It wasn’t modern, but it was comfortable enough, and cleanliness was acceptable overall, though the toilet smelled a little. The neighborhood is quiet and the location is excellent, near the lake, sea, promenade, bars, restaurants, the InterCity Bus stop, and Finikoudes. Construction at a nearby apartment building made mornings noisy while we were there, but that was outside the property’s control.