Minos Ambassador Suites & Spa - Adults Only in Rethymno

Very bad first impression when dropped off outside an old tatty lift and didn’t have a clue where to go. You’ll have to walk over glass sided bridge to get to the Ambassador hotel which looks smart and clean and the bedroom was great , large with all the amenities we needed and a lovely comfortable bed. Then it all goes downhill from here on! Balcony overlooking a wood yard with rusty corrugated fence panels, totally unacceptable, complained to staff and it was dismissed and shrugged off, breakfast bland and tasteless with little choices and dry pastries , fresh fruit was lovely , yogurts and many other foods were not labelled to know what they were or what the ingredients were , all very important for anyone with food intolerances. Dinner only three choices of main meal and overcooked and little of it , sweets the same every night and all bland. We ended up going out for dinner each night so that we could have the food and holiday atmosphere we expected in a 5* hotel. This seemed to be the case for a lot of the guests too because the restaurant was so empty every evening. This hotel needs a good shake up and staff need to be trained up to a 5* standard, there was a lot of bickering and cross words between them , not happy in their job and getting orders wrong is unacceptable with so little guests to serve. They ask for smart dress code in the evening yet some were eating with sports wear vests and baseball caps on.
We went to the beach most days and into Rethymnon because at the start of the holiday certain guests would be up at the crack of dawn to secure their sun beds. Staff need to be firm and monitor this, it’s unfair for others who have the right to use them too.
We’ve stayed in many 5* hotels small and larger all over Greece and other countries and have been amazing, but this was definitely not anywhere near a 5* experience. A bit confusing too when they say they have two restaurants! They don’t , you are only allowed to eat in one, the other is the bar area with sofas and coffee tables. Asked spa about a pedicure and they don’t do those either but advertise that they do.
The reason we booked this hotel was because of a high percentage of excellent reviews. In future I won’t be taking those seriously . Something has gone wrong somewhere and it needs to be sorted.

The hotel is very nice and modern, the rooms are clean and large, the pool has nice views, but that's where the pluses end. This hotel is absurd. The hotel has 5 stars, but it doesn't even deserve 3. Let's start with the food, because it's the biggest minus of this hotel. There is very little choice for breakfast and everything is really very modest, cold, burnt or overcooked, little fruit, and when you go down for breakfast at 9 o'clock there will be nothing warm. Dinner is even worse. There are 3 dishes to choose from. I ordered duck which looked nice, but it was inedible. It was like rubber, you couldn't cut it. The dinner portions are a real joke, like for a baby. The hotel service is also not satisfactory. The service is only nice to you if you order a whole bottle of wine at dinner, and spend all your money in the hotel on drinks and beverages. The sauna and massage are also a scandal. The massage costs 80 euros for 80 minutes of massage, and the sauna is also charged 30 euros for 30 minutes. I have never encountered a sauna that was paid for. However, the food is the biggest minus. If you don't want to be hungry, you have to go to the city and buy food, because you won't survive on the hotel food. This hotel does not deserve 5 stars and I am very disappointed and disappointed for the price of this hotel. Absurd, I do not recommend this hotel to anyone!