Blue Palace, a Luxury Collection Resort, Crete

We have just returned from a stay at the Phaea Blue. Whilst it was a lovely stay in some respects, it is lacking in others and some areas need addressing to call themselves a luxury 5 star boutique hotel. Some of the staff really made our stay feel like a 5 star experience, in particular Maria, Vaso and Tassos were outstanding and we will truly miss them. Unfortunately, the construction work is intrusive, loud and constant. We were not warned about this when booking, nothing is on the hotel website, or in any email exchanges. Furthermore, nothing was said to us at check in. Had we known we would not have booked. Our room was lovely and impeccably clean, however, there was some things missing that would make it more comfortable and what we would expect for a 5 star luxury hotel. There wasn’t anywhere to do your hair. The options were either to stand in the bathroom, balancing the hair dryer/straighteners between the sinks! Or sit on the small table and prop a mirror on some books. A little more thought needs to be put into the rooms. A small table, chair and mirror with a plug close by would be easy to do. The ‘partial sea view’ was blocked by cactus. The hotcast technology was temperamental and needs updating. We could not fault the cleaning team who worked tirelessly making up the rooms twice a day. Fantastic! The private beach is lovely and well hosted by a team who work tirelessly to look after you. The facilities are extremely clean and well maintained. The only negative was that the umbrellas don’t offer enough shade. There is a well shaded area that is only available to the grand villa. More of these need to made available for other guests. We saw a couple of families struggling with toddlers and babies to find shade. The bottled water is charged for at the beach but you can bring water from the hotel for free….why isn’t this free like the rest of the hotel? The hotel pool is small, tired and dirty. Some basic maintenance/ repairs need to done: Cracked tiles need replacing. Tiles need to be cleaned (a previous reviewer has included a photo). Soft closure on one of the pool vents needs fixing. Pool water needs to have dead bugs and leaves removed. Some mornings there were dirty glasses with ants all over them. There should have been staff to clear things away and clean. There is no service around the pool,meaning you have to go into the hotel to get any drinks or food. Often we ordered drinks and when they were brought out to us other people would request drinks from the member of staff. Why not have staff host at the pool? The umbrellas don’t offer enough shade and the seating areas around the pool don’t have any shade at all. Several couples came to the pool saw there wasn’t any shade, made a comment and left! The 2 hotel restaurants serve similar menus and are adequate but very expensive. The restaurants in the local town offer better food and hospitality at a fraction of the price. The concierge team were excellent. They

We recently stayed at Phaea Blue in Crete and, unfortunately, found that the reality simply didn’t live up to what’s portrayed online. The carefully curated images and descriptions suggest a high-end, serene escape, but much of what we encountered fell short of those expectations. We booked a Deluxe Sea View Bungalow with Heated Pool. That name alone sets high expectations, but what we got was far from it. The room was cramped, with the bedroom and bathroom awkwardly squeezed into one small space. It felt more like a cleverly lit studio than anything resembling a luxury bungalow. And to be clear, it wasn’t a bungalow at all, just a ground-floor unit in a two-storey block. From the moment you enter, it’s clear that what’s being sold and what’s delivered are two very different things. We raised our concerns with the hotel, and to their credit, they moved us to a higher room category. This upgraded room was genuinely better. It was more spacious, more private, and a notable improvement in quality. However, even this didn’t quite match the glossy online imagery. While it was more comfortable, it still wasn’t especially memorable. The sea view was only partial and mostly blocked by the rooftops of other apartments, with a noisy construction site beyond that. The “private” heated pool was also a disappointment. It wasn’t clean, and even after we raised it with the hotel and asked for it to be cleaned, it remained dirty and uninviting. Rather than take responsibility, the hotel then suggested the condition of the pool was due to our sun cream, despite the fact we never actually used the pool at all. It was difficult to see how it added any value to the stay. We asked to speak with the general manager, but they never appeared. And when raising complaints with the front of house team, we noticed a pattern. Rather than acknowledging the issues or seeking recovery, the instinct was to defend the situation. It left us feeling unheard and as though feedback was treated as an inconvenience. The beach, which should have been a highlight, was unfortunately compromised too. The location is beautiful, but the constant sound of drilling and construction noise from next door completely ruins any sense of peace. There was no warning about this on the website, in emails, or during check-in. For a resort of this calibre, that lack of transparency is hard to excuse. We were also surprised to find that no complimentary water is provided on the beach. In the heat, and at a resort claiming to be five-star, you’d expect at least that basic level of comfort. Dining at the hotel was hit and miss. The settings are attractive, but the prices are significantly marked up, easily by 20% compared to what you’d pay for much better food in the local town. We ended up walking into town most evenings (10-15min walk), where the experience was far more enjoyable. Local restaurants offered more authentic flavours, warmer atmospheres, and none of the price-to-quality imbalance found