Spa Guest House by White Hills in the Heart of Hotel in Arachova

“Terrible experience. The rooms were in awful condition – the jacuzzi didn’t work, the Wi-Fi was down, there was no light in the bathroom, and the whole place is run-down and neglected, clearly in need of renovation. On top of that, the owner was extremely unpleasant. Instead of taking responsibility, when we asked for a discount because of all the issues, he threatened to call the police. The price was completely outrageous for what we got. Everything that was advertised turned out to be misleading at best, if not an outright scam. Avoid this place at all costs.”

We have stayed in Arachova several times and this year, I persuaded my friends to pay a little more than usual, to stay at Nostos Suites (part of the White Hills group), as it was my husband’s birthday. We booked 4 rooms; 3 standard and 1 deluxe with fireplace. All of the photos on the website show the rooms with fireplaces as being spacious, as you would expect of a ‘deluxe room’. This was meant to be an extra birthday treat. When we arrived, we discovered that the deluxe room (204) was quite small (much smaller than 2 of the standard rooms, which had sofas and balconies), so that was disappointing, but far worse was to come. That night it was very windy and the chimney cowl was incredibly noisy. It was making a scraping, rattling, squeaking noise, which was amplified by the flue/fireplace and kept us awake all night. On the morning of my husband’s birthday we should have been looking forward to celebrating, instead we were tired, miserable and packing our bags. The noise had also kept our friend awake, in the adjacent 205, so we asked if the 3 of us could change rooms. It was clear that staff were aware of the noise issue, as they said the roof was too slippery to send someone up, to deal with the problem. We were told only one other room was available and my husband and I were moved into 104 (directly below). Again, this was a small room, with several maintenance issues. There was an electrical socket hanging out of the wall, with an extension lead plugged into it, the light fitting in the bathroom was broken, the water from the bathroom basin was only a trickle and it was impossible to close the bathroom door, for fear of getting locked in (the handle/lock was clearly broken). The shower was tiny and I constantly banged my elbows on the sides of the shower, whilst attempting to wash my hair. It felt as though we were being punished for asking to move rooms. Meanwhile, new unsuspecting guests had been moved into 204. Saturday night was windy again, so once again our friend in 205 was kept awake by the noise. I asked at reception for a revised bill, taking into account our ‘move’ and was told that there would be no extra charge for changing rooms! When we finally checked out, the bill had only been reduced by around 23 euros, which didn’t even reduce the price to the cost of 4 standard rooms. I chose not to press the issue at the time (the guy on reception gave the impression that he had no authority to help us), but the whole experience was thoroughly disappointing. Our room downgrade made for a particularly unpleasant experience and the reluctance to offer any reduction in the price, added insult to injury. On our return, I contacted the property, with the above comments, but after a 2 week opportunity to respond they haven’t had the decency to reply. Next time, we’ll be returning to the Likoria Hotel.