Turtle Beach Hotel

The room was nice and the view wonderful, so the stay was good overall. I didn't like having a glass wall between the bed and bathroom; a curtain would have helped. There was no information around, for example about the WiFi password or pool hours, and I thought the signs were lacking. Staff seemed more focused on making money from beach guests, since they regularly took sunbeds from the pool down to the beach. The pool was often dirty with dead insects, and some umbrellas had mould on them.

We ate all our lunches at the restaurant, where the food and drink were good quality and reasonably priced. Staff were all kind and helpful. The rooms were spacious, clean, and comfortable, and everything worked as it should, though the rooms and equipment could use some improvement. With clear water and a spot right on the beach, it's a quiet, beautiful place for a seaside holiday and offers good value.

I booked seven nights but left after two because the hotel was awful. Our room was in the annex, which hadn't been renovated like the rooms in the photos. On the first night there was no hot water, and although the WiFi was there, it didn't work at all. Frogs croaked all night, so light sleepers couldn't get any rest. When I raised the hot water and WiFi problems, the owner rudely said, "No, everything is working fine." I'd choose somewhere a little farther from the sea. It would surely be better than this place.

The garden with its tropical and other plants was pleasant, and the pool was acceptable. Agios Sostis itself is calm and nice, with a narrow but pleasant private beach and plenty of good restaurants. Getting to the main town often took nearly half an hour, and Banana beach, the island's best beach in our view, was a 45-minute drive each way. We spent hours in the car each day, since Zakynthos is a fairly large island. We were three people and stayed from July 6 to July 20, 2022. The photos had given us high expectations: we chose a renovated room with a sea view, expecting something high quality and 5-star looking. Instead, we got a view of the inner yard, and although the room was called renovated, it looked nothing like the pictures. Finding the tiny parking lot behind the hotel was difficult. Reception was never staffed, and the managers were always at the bar, which wasn't convenient. The layout was odd. As soon as you opened the door, you were right by the large queen-size bed, with the kitchen next to it. The single bed, TV, closet, and a drawer were in the other room. There were no table or chairs in the room, which was frustrating when we wanted breakfast or a post-beach salad indoors. The kitchen looked renovated, but none of its doors were straight and they scraped against one another. The cutlery drawer was right down under the sink, and the drawers above it smelled like sweaty shirts. There wasn't a proper trash bin, just a tiny one in the bathroom, so we had to hang a plastic bag on the other room's doorknob. The shower had a nice wide rain head and a handheld one, but was completely open on one side, with just a glass pane by the toilet and a door on the other side. The whole floor got soaked every time someone showered, though luckily there was a drain. The toilet flushed poorly and broke once. A quick button press wasn't enough, you had to hold it down for a long time. The bathroom door didn't lock, and the doorknobs were badly worn. Towels and linen weren't changed reliably, sometimes they were, sometimes not. The balcony was quite nice, with a small table and four plastic chairs, and its new door felt solid. The air conditioning worked okay but could have been better. There was only one unit, so the other room was often much hotter than the main one. The staff and hotel seemed geared toward partygoing young people aged 18-27, who might not care about the things I mentioned. Other guests, including young people who want comfort, may not find it lives up to expectations. We won't book again. That said, we weren't uncomfortable the whole time, and there was no single dealbreaker. You adapt and stop noticing things, but the problems added up enough that we won't return.