Philoxenia Hotel in Psakoudia

AVOID AT ALL COST. Animal abuse, stressed out staff, cruel and incompetent manager, terrible WiFi. The manager of the hotel, Irini, turned our stay into in a nightmare. We wanted to adopt a sick kitten, which the hotel refused to treat. She have had him and his siblings disappear and lied to us about his location multiple times. When faced with this difficult issue, she lied to us multiple times and then ran away from the hotel, stopped answering the phone, even from our travel coordinator and the travel agency. The hotel staff is afraid to speak to customers, the atmosphere feels off and weird. Horrible place to stay for your holidays. They want to scam you at every moment - they wanted to scam us for the Internet access in our room, even though we already paid for it. We left more distressed and traumatised. I've never experienced this level of cruelty, incompetence and idiocy.

In short: this hotel may suit passive tourists who stay within the grounds, but for us the lack of proper parking, unsafe conditions, poor beach, and the way the hotel handled the accident completely ruined our holiday.

Positives:

The food is good, but I would recommend half-board instead of full-board. Lunch and dinner are almost the same, with repeating flavors and spices, so after a few days it becomes monotonous. Having lunch outside is a better option.

The staff themselves are friendly and helpful.

Negatives:

If something is not explicitly written in your reservation, don’t expect it. Anything marked “optional” should be considered as unavailable.

Rooms facing the forest can be listed as “not ground floor” but due to uneven terrain they actually are. If you don’t want a ground-floor room, request the 2nd floor.

Safety is the biggest problem. Parking is totally inadequate — maybe 30% of guests can fit in the hotel area. The receptionist told us there was shaded parking right in front of our room, which turned out to be just the forest. At night it didn’t feel safe at all, so we spent the first part of our holiday worrying about the car instead of relaxing. Then, on a calm sunny day, a tree actually fell on our car. At first the manager promised repairs and transportation, but once the car was freed they denied responsibility, saying the land “doesn’t belong to the hotel” and told us to sue the municipality. From that point, our holiday was completely ruined — instead of enjoying our stay, we had to deal with damage, uncertainty, and zero support from the hotel. If you come with an expensive car, full insurance is a must.

The advertised “wood path” to the sea (200m) has steep steps without a rail, which is unsafe for kids or elderly. The longer way around is safer but not what was advertised.

The beach itself is poor compared to nearby beaches. In Psakoudia there is a lot of black sea grass, which makes swimming less enjoyable than in other places just a short drive away.