Marina Sands

Our room needed renovation. There was a large musty patch on the walls that hadn't been replastered for a long time, and the bathroom and toilet had an old, creaky, moldy faucet. The mirrors in the bathroom and main room were ugly, like they'd come from a garbage dump. They didn't change the towels every day. The one meant for the floor was picked up, shaken free of dried dirt and hair, and put back beside the bath. We noticed a brown spot on it. If it had gone to the laundry, we would have had a different towel, but the same thing happened every day. I also wouldn't recommend this hotel to families with children or to non-smokers. There's a terrible smell of smoke everywhere because guests and staff smoke wherever they want. Asking people to move farther away is no use. They argue that smoking isn't banned on the hotel grounds, beach, or around the pool. It was a very poor holiday compared with what you'd hope for. Maybe smokers, or people who don't mind dirty rooms, would be okay here.

We just got back from a week at Marina Sands. The setting is beautiful, the rooms are nice, and the sea is just 10 meters away. Reception was outstanding, especially the lovely Angeliki, whose help and above-and-beyond service added so much to our stay. The only letdown was the bar closing at 7.00 pm. It would have been nice to have an evening drink there with fellow travellers after dinner.

I would never recommend this place. We were in apartment room 22, and the next day it smelled disgusting when we went in. We couldn't work out the source at first, but it was worse than feces or soil. We told the receptionist, and the lady's exact response was, "and what do you want me to do about it". I tried to find a solution, but she didn't want to help. We eventually traced the smell to the air conditioning, not the plumbing, so we left the doors and windows open and stayed out of the room for two hours to let it clear. They don't service their air conditioners, and it shows. The smell seemed very dangerous and cancerous for your lungs. We had paid everything in advance as required by Booking, but at departure they made up an extra fee. There were hidden charges, and signs around the property also said AC costs €10 a day extra. The hotel is on the outer edge of Agia Marina, away from the middle of everything, about a 15-20 minute walk from central Agia Marina and Platanias. The service was awful and rude. Not worth it.

We've stayed at Marina Sands three times, but the hotel and staff seem to get worse every year. Service was lousy, rude, and sluggish, the rooms were cleaned poorly, and their condition was horrible. We booked and paid for renovated rooms but got the same room as last year, which hadn't been renovated. The location is great, so it's a shame everything else spoils the experience. The rooms and service are at best one-star quality. Internet is a joke: slow, unreliable, and with poor coverage. Use your own 4G instead. Breakfast is boring, and the poolside restaurant is expensive with very slow service. This was our last visit to Marina Sands.