Caramel Grecotel Boutique Resort

This may seem like a negative review but it’s an honest critique of our recent stay. We chose the Grecotel Caramel because of the plethora of positive reviews. I suppose these should always be viewed as objective. This is reported to be a luxury 5-star boutique hotel. It is certainly a boutique with 69 rooms. Overall, the week was enjoyable and very relaxed. The staff in general were great, especially the beach bar team who were fantastic. We normally only go to adult only hotels but as we were out of the school holiday period we took a chance. Initially there were only a couple of kids but as the week went on more arrived, more on this later. On arrival all seemed standard fare at reception and all went smoothly. The guest relations manager advised us that we had been ‘upgraded’ to a suite. This was a nice surprise as it sounded great. We were shown to the large room and left to it. We quickly unpacked and realised the ‘suite’ was in fact a family room. The apparent lounge area had two beds, no sofa or TV, it was a second bedroom. It did have two bathrooms which was handy. Storage was sparse with no wardrobes just two open hanging rails and a couple of drawers. Most of our clothes were either all out on show or remained in a suitcase. Furniture was minimal, cheap, nasty and unstable. For a family room this would be a disaster as it would all be knocked over easily (see pictures) Bed was comfy, but the standard pillow was hard and small. The first night was sleepless because of them. I asked at reception if they had other pillows, thankfully they did. There was absolutely no information in the room, such as a pillow menu, no local info, no menus. Some of this was on their app. The app was OK but a bit clunky. It became apparent that the room overlooked the front car park and a busy, noisy road, not the ground floor garden room we had booked. We tried the balcony but with no view and the noise it was a non-starter. We were woken numerous times by loud mopeds. It was obvious this was no upgrade; the room was as about luxurious as a week old McDonald’s burger. We had unpacked so really could not be bothered to complain and move. We spoke to another couple who had the same disappointing ‘upgrade’ experience. We were not offered our original booked room so if you are offered a ‘Grecotel upgrade’ ask to see both rooms! The pool area was clean and the sunbeds very thick and wide. There was never an issue getting one. The attention from the staff was good with plenty of towels available. Now considering this pool is used by kids (and many older guests) there was only a single set of entry steps to the pool, and these were on the opposite side to the sunbed area. The pool was about 4’ deep across the whole pool so not easy for those even slightly infirm or young to climb out. There was no shallow part for kids, despite being a family hotel?? Shade was at a premium as the parasols were heavily weighted and difficult to move. Y