Afandou Mare

I wonder what people are really looking for. The hotel is old-fashioned and needs renovating, it’s in an unattractive spot, and the food prices are crazy. But by Greek prices and standards, it’s fine apart from that. The pool is clean and open from 10 to 18, breakfast is decent, and the service is polite and cheerful.

The only thing I can really praise is the clean pool. It’s open only from 10 AM to 6 PM, which seems odd in this heat. The hotel is close to the sea, but the waterfront is neglected, with rubbish and abandoned materials, and the beach is rocky and uncomfortable. There’s an unfinished, abandoned bar or entertainment space behind the hotel. The area feels neglected and unattractive. The nearest reasonably priced supermarket is a 40-minute walk away, very impractical in the Rhodes heat. There’s only a small kiosk about five minutes away selling alcohol, water and cigarettes. Hotel and local shop prices are inflated: a litre of Coca-Cola Zero was €4 here, compared with about €1.50 at the supermarket. Restaurants nearby were overpriced too. I paid €69 for a fish dish and €12.50 for a Greek salad, prices more like an upscale restaurant in a major city. The building looks as though it hasn’t been renovated in 30-40 years, and the booking-site photos are misleading. Furniture in the rooms was old and damaged, the TV was small and only had Greek channels, the air conditioning was noisy and barely worked, and the fridge wouldn’t close properly. Wi-Fi didn’t work on the first floor, and the building had no running water for several hours. Breakfast was basic, repetitive and poor quality. The owners know about these problems, but instead of fixing them they changed the name from Sivila Hotel to Afandou Mare, which seems like an attempt to get away from a bad reputation. The new name also makes the hotel hard for independent travellers to find on Google Maps. It badly needs a full renovation, and the prices don’t match the standard. I can’t recommend it.

The pool area is a real plus, and the rooms are decent, with plenty of nice places around the hotel to sit. But the food was awful. The eggs tasted bad, the bread was the driest I've had, and the juice was often just water with a faint fruit taste. Poolside, a burger costs 13.39 euros and is dry and dull; for about the same price, the pizza is frozen and costs 13 euros. I wouldn't recommend breakfast or eating by the pool. Service was hit or miss. Some staff smiled, while others seemed indifferent. Housekeeping was unpredictable too, including one day when cleaning didn't start until 7 pm. During the week my family and I stayed, the hotel had a power failure and the water stopped working. After I had finished writing this review, the power went out for a second time. You'll need a car. The hotel feels like it's in the middle of nowhere, with few decent supermarkets within reach. Despite the comfortable room and pleasant pool, the food, location, technical problems, uneven service, and erratic cleaning leave me at two and a half stars.

Free parking was the only real advantage for us. It made renting a car and leaving the hotel easy. I'm writing about Afandou Mare because that's the hotel's new name, though it doesn't appear under that name on Google Maps. The breakfast room was dirtier than the photos suggest. The chairs had a layer of grime, and half an hour before breakfast ended, tables were still covered with used dishes. The food itself was poor, mostly odd bits of vegetables and dry bread. We didn't try lunch or dinner, but other guests we spoke to said those meals were bad too. The juice machine failed all week, sometimes dispensing only water and sometimes nothing, leaving coffee as the only drink. We were lucky not to have children with us. Our room was very dirty, with strange marks on the mattress and bedding. The toilet seat was loose, the hair dryer didn't work, there were no cups or glasses, and the room looked nothing like the advertised pictures. Cleaning usually happened around 5 pm as we returned from the beach, and they only rolled up the towels and sheets without changing them. Staff didn't greet us, and often made us feel unwelcome. There isn't a decent supermarket within walking distance, and bottled water at the hotel cost 9 euros for six bottles. For the last three days, there was a sewage smell near the pool that was noticeable when we opened our room door. This is easily the worst hotel I've stayed in. Don't stay at Afandou Mare.