Iria Beach Art Hotel

We stayed at Iria Beach in August 2024.

In general we had a good stay, but "value for money" was just not at all ok. Compared to all other hotels we stayed at in Greece, this was at least 40% overpriced...

I booked the hotel inspired (or mislead ;)) by the fantastic reviews. And just to be clear: The stay was totally fine and we really liked the area, the beach and everything else. BUT if you charge like a 5 star hotel (>500€+/night), you also have to deliver a best-in-class experience.

For this kind of rate you should have up-to-date rooms with modern bathrooms, king-size-beds, new furniture, working "do not disturb"-signs (buy a hanger for the door if the ancient electronical solution doesn't work anymore), free-of-charge sunbeds on the beach (!), some privacy on the balcony, well-equipped gym, decent-sized security box, etc. -> all of that wasn't the case.

Again, it was totally fine, but I would not recommend to pay more than 250€-300€ in high season for this, otherwise you would just be able to find much better value for money in other places on Naxos and on other islands closeby.

At least that was our experience and I felt really foolish for paying so much, so I wanted to share it to make sure other vacationers come with the right expectation. Then I am sure you will have a lovely stay.

I also would have shared this directly with the very kind staff/management, but I wasn't asked how we liked the stay upon departure (apart from that they were very helpful!).

We recently stayed 5 nights at Iria Beach Art Hotel, and we would not return.

Location: if proximity to the beach is important to you, it’s literally steps from Agia Anna, which is a beautiful sandy beach with many restaurants and bars. However it’s quite a busy beach so worth noting noise levels can be disruptive at night especially if there’s a wedding going on. Also worth noting that the hotel doesn’t have a private area of beach with sunbeds, so if you want sunbeds you’ll be paying an extra €20 - €30 a day to hire them (although there are a few areas where you could put down towels on the sand).

Rooms: we stayed in 2 different rooms and both were pleasant - stylish, comfortable and very clean, with espresso pod machines and adequate storage. Hotel website says toiletries are Korres, but that wasn’t the case. No hair conditioner or lotion is provided.

Facilities: fine. There’s no pool obviously but being so close to the beach you don’t really miss it. The gym is small and basic but you can manage a workout.

Food: breakfast is pretty good. It’s a buffet. There’s plenty of everything and it’s fresh. However for some reason there was never enough plates and you’d be standing around waiting for them to wash more. Just buy more plates! Also, the coffee is dreadful. It comes from a machine. Would be so much better if they invested in a proper espresso machine and served it fresh for you.

Staff: welcome from reception staff was warm and helpful. The two ladies who run breakfast were not friendly and I don’t think cracked a smile once the whole time we were there. Housekeeping very good at their jobs and smiley.

The main reason we wouldn’t recommend is due to an issue we had with our room one night. The safe started beeping super loudly, at sporadic intervals - obviously the batteries needed replacing. It kept us awake until about 5 in the morning when it finally gave up the ghost. We text the WhatsApp number we’d been provided with and got no response. In retrospect, we should have just called and maybe would have got a timely response then. However, my main complaint is the handling of the situation. We’d been kept awake almost all night and were offered nothing in the way of compensation or apology. Not even a bottle of wine. The only thing said was ‘you should have called’. Well, yes, but also you should keep on top of basic maintenance such as replacing safe batteries regularly. Left a bad taste in our mouths, especially given we were paying c. €300 for the privilege.
We love Naxos but wouldn’t go back to this particular hotel.