Evita Mare

We arrived for a holiday to find parts of the hotel unfinished. The pool and sunbed area were still being built, and even after eight days it wasn't complete, with only some sunbeds finished. Room cleaning was poor, about 3 out of 10. They made the bed and that was it. Food was 5 out of 10, alcoholic drinks 3 out of 10, and beer 4 out of 10. Be careful if you're thinking of going.

We arrived at 10 AM after travelling all night. Check-in was at 3 PM, which is standard, so we had lunch and waited. But at 3 they told us there was no room and that we'd be moved to another hotel. We checked the proposed place, found it horrible, and refused. They said there was no other option and left us sitting in reception. Not even an apology. While we waited, at least 20 other people were either denied rooms or rejecting rooms that were small, smelly, and nothing like the photos. Our travel agents eventually found us somewhere else. I travel a lot and have stayed in everything from hostels to five-star hotels, but I've never had an experience like this. The hotel keeps overbooking and blames an electricity problem. I saw earlier reviews describing the same "problem" going on for years. Honestly, I don't believe that's the real reason. It seems to me they overbook deliberately and then move guests to cheaper hotels. The lunch was decent, at least. I can't understand how a place like this can keep operating. Avoid it. P.S. Admin, don't bother replying. You aren't sorry, and you aren't even trying to make things better.

There was a friendly cat who belonged to someone working at the hotel, and she came to visit us every morning. That was about the only good part of the stay. My friend and I were moved here because Evita resort was apparently "fully booked," even though we'd booked at the start of the year. The receptionist promised this hotel would be much better. That was clearly a lie. My bathroom had no shower door, so I ended up using my friend's room to shower. There were wires sticking out of the wall, ants crawling over everything, and a constant sewage smell from the bathrooms. I watched the dirty pool get cleaned only twice during the week. The food was repetitive and pretty nasty, so we went out for dinner each night. The island is beautiful and I'll come back, but I'll choose another hotel. My friend and I each got a £200 refund.

The Ukrainian woman at the bar was kind and always smiling. The beer was the best drink we found at the hotel, though the other drinks were too sweet and needed watering down. Our first impression was promising. The woman at reception was kind and helpful, our first-floor room was clean, the pool looked good, and the air conditioning worked. Meals changed that impression quickly. We found very little to choose from and ended up eating spaghetti for most of the holiday, like many other guests. The potatoes seemed two days old, the cucumber either cut the day before or left in the fridge for hours, and the rest of the food didn't taste good. It was the worst all-inclusive food we'd had. We were glad to eat elsewhere when we went on trips. Breakfast was the only meal with any real choice. There didn't seem to be enough employees. Sometimes a table had no cutlery, so you had to ask or fetch it yourself. One evening we returned from a trip for dinner at 7:30 PM and found almost nothing to eat. We had a little, waited half an hour, and even after telling an employee the food was gone, nobody replenished it. We had to go to a restaurant. When we came back, the buffet looked just as we'd left it. I guess other guests complained too, because things improved for a few days. When desserts ran out, though, they just put out watermelon instead. Our room went uncleaned for two days. We thought they'd forgotten and would do it the next day, but they didn't, so we had to ask. They cleaned it on day three but didn't replace the towels. The hotel didn't ruin the holiday, but it was our worst stay on Rhodos. If they took care of the food, we'd give it four stars. We weren't the only guests who thought food was the main problem. It has a lot of unused potential.