Gouves Bay Hotel

I recently visited Mr. Costa and Miss Marina and I must say it was an exceptional experience! The ambiance was serene and relaxing, making it the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life. The staff were professional and attentive, ensuring every detail was perfect. My therapist was incredibly skilled, tailoring the massage to my specific needs and preferences. I left feeling rejuvenated and completely at ease. I highly recommend Mr. Costa and Miss Marina The staff at Alicia and Magdalena were absolutely wonderful! They were attentive, friendly, and went above and beyond to ensure we had a great dining experience. Their professionalism and . Highly recommend I will never forget the best guy at the Hotel Mr Rio

The location of the hotel is good, 20 minutes from Heraklion airport and on the sea front. The initial impression of the hotel was it is smaller than expected, but clean and well presented.

The room was spacious and clean and we had a balcony overlooking the playground with the mountains in the background. The bathroom let it down, it was in need of updating and rather than a glass door it had a curtain shower and would flood the bathroom whenever we had a shower.
The pool area is fine though it isn't big, there is a large grassed area with sunbeds as well as around the pool but there could be more sunbeds as it will often get busy. The hotel offers entertainment but it didn't float our boat. We would have liked a Greek night' and Greek music playing during the day. But the hotel played modern music, quizzes in the evening, there was a band on one of the nights, just don't expect great entertainment!
Whilst we were staying the fire alarm went off early in the morning and we had no idea what was going on, apparently it was due to a power cut. The hotel didn't have a backup generator?? Power was off for around 6 hours but luckily we were out on a day trip.
Overall we were a little disappointed with the hotel, it has a 4* rating and 4* TripAdvisor rating so we were expecting better. Realistically I would rate it a 3* I wouldn't recommend this hotel if you are expecting a 4* experience

Upon arrival, we received the key for room 303. We had booked a ‘triple room with garden view’. Clearly that translated to ground floor room facing a car park and pile of rubble. Not only was the view hideous, the room was not habitable. It was vile!

The bathroom was disgusting, shower cubicle and curtain looked like it had never been clean, toilet had a skid mark in yet had a ‘just cleaned’ piece of paper attached to the seat… and not mention the fridge was rusty and the lock on the door was pathetic! (See pictures below).

I instantly requested we were moved to a different room else I was simply not staying. The room we were moved to (210) was a huge improvement and actually clean! I don’t understand why such an awful room is even available for guests to stay in.

On the other hand, the overall stay after a rocky start was actually quite good. The food was consistently nice and wasn’t too repetitive. The staff were extremely nice, namely Rio.

However, the facilities I feel can be improved significantly. The pool states only 15 people can be in it at once, which makes sense because it was tiny! So why would a hotel hosting so many guests only have one pool? It was also incredibly deep and not enjoyable to swim in because of that. There was so much space that hasn’t been utilised at the front of the hotel where they could build another pool! Yet it’s just a few hammocks and empty space instead.

There is grass surrounding the pool which I’ve personally not really seen at a hotel before… because of this we got absolutely eaten alive my mosquitoes so take this as your warning to pack your bug spray!

Overall, it wasn’t an exceptional stay for us. It wasn’t the worst but that’s not the review you would want as a hotel. If you’re looking for luxury, don’t put this on the shortlist is what I’m saying.