Potidea Golden Beach Hotel

The one good thing was having a roof over our heads for the night. Check-in took nearly an hour because the receptionist didn’t know we were coming and couldn’t speak English. When we checked out, we waited another 40 minutes for someone to show up, and I had to call the emergency number. A woman who answered spoke to me like I was an idiot when I said we’d missed the bus from the village because of the delay. The next bus wasn’t for over an hour. The pool was empty and uncleaned, the restaurant was a mess even on our fourth day, and everything looked rundown. There are three buildings, but only the main one with reception seemed to be looked after. The other two were disgusting. The rooms and amenities also bore little resemblance to the booking pictures. At €70 a night, this felt worth perhaps €10-15. It’s advertised as three-star, though I can’t see how it’s worth even half a star. Absolutely atrocious service and stay. Do not stay here.

The lack of connectivity was a major problem. The listing says there’s Wi-Fi in the rooms, but it only seemed to be available in the lobby, where it didn’t work either. There was no mobile reception anywhere on the property, so we couldn’t easily contact people, make travel arrangements, or get work done. Things became so difficult that we called the police. My girlfriend and I found mold in every room we saw, with a strong, awful smell as soon as we opened the door. Some mold had simply been painted over. The beds were stained and dirty, and also hard, lumpy, and worn out. When we complained about the mold in our first room, they moved us to another that smelled the same and had the same problems. In some rooms the air conditioning didn’t work, leaving us in a hot, damp space. The management seemed completely incompetent, and the staff just as unprofessional. I’ve stayed in remote budget hostels that were cleaner and more welcoming. The smell and filth made this feel like a health risk, and I wondered how the place was allowed to operate. It was one of the worst travel experiences of our lives. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Stay somewhere else, even if that means sleeping in your car.

Being close to the beach was a real plus, and I slept surprisingly well on a bed that was a little firm. Our room, 305A, had a view of the sea through two buildings from the balcony. Nothing spectacular, but good enough for me. The rooms I saw had working air conditioning and fridges. We even managed to get around the €5 per day AC charge with a press of the button on the indoor unit. Check-in took more than two hours, and the service was poor. The hotel also needs maintenance. Some days the food was barely edible: the scrambled eggs were greasy and seemed rancid, and the wieners had a distinctive spice that gave them a strange taste to me. The cheese and ham were good. For dinner I had boiled meat with only salt and some bland pasta. Other food was available, but it had been prepared for another group. Air conditioning is charged at €5 a day.

€70 a night for this was awful. There’s no water in the kitchen, the air conditioner didn’t work, and the kitchen was completely empty, not even a glass or spoon. The room smelled, there were spiders above our heads, and the beds were terrible. There was no mosquito net, so we spent all night fighting mosquitoes. We couldn’t open the door, but the room was unbearably hot. If you care about yourself and your family, don’t go there. It deserves a zero rating, if only zero were an option.