Golden Mare Resort

Throughly enjoyed our stay at this wonderful hotel. George and the staff were attentive, friendly and helpful. The location was beautiful. Don’t understand the negative comments of some reviewers. Would highly recommend Golden Mere to anyone looking for a relaxing lovely break.

Mine and my girlfriends stay at Golden Mare Barbati was extremely disappointing. The hotel looks attractive from a distance, but up close is a whole different story. We experienced a lot issues throughout our holiday, many of which were reported multiple times but were never properly resolved. Room & Maintenance Issues - No hot water for most of the holiday. -Night 3: No hot water at all and had to take a cold shower. Told it would be fixed within an hour, but it wasn’t, so has to wait ages until we committed to just getting in it cold. - Night 4: Still no hot water. - Night 5: Only lukewarm water. - Hot water finally worked properly on our last night. -Faulty room safe. - Safe didn’t work on arrival. - Took 2 days and 3 separate requests before it was replaced. - Received replacement safe with instructions in a different language, after getting it translated and sorted it then failed after setting my code, It then wouldn't re-open. - Reported the issue another three times and was repeatedly told an engineer would attend each time and never did. They said they have another 10 or so in the hotel not working. - No repair was ever carried out, meaning I had nowhere secure to store passports, bank cards or cash for the rest of the holiday. -Telephone didn’t work on arrival. -Eventually repaired later that evening, but it was another maintenance issue that should have been resolved before we checked in. Drinking Water Issues. - Ran out of bottled water and asked reception for another bottle. Was told housekeeping would deliver one.Returned to the room - no water. Called reception again and received the same promise. Waited around 1½ hours, still nothing. Called again and was given the same assurance. Nearly 4 hours later, still no water. Then I returned to reception, I was finally informed that: * Only the first bottle is complimentary. * Guests are expected to refill bottles at the water fountain or buy more from the hotel shop. Had this been explained from the beginning, it would have saved multiple trips and phone calls. Even after being told this, a staff member still promised a complimentary bottle within 10-15 minutes and even asked permission to enter the room while we were out. When we returned around 90 minutes to 2 hours later, there was still no water, so we ended up buying our own from the hotel shop as the water from the fountains isn’t right. It’s weirdly thick and sweet. The cost wasn’t the issue - it was the repeated misinformation that was frustrating. Food Quality: The food was one of the biggest disappointments. - Meals were consistently cold or only lukewarm. - Most meals were simply not enjoyable and most of the food does not look appetising. - Very limited variety throughout the stay. - Shortly after we had eat breakfast on the first morning while we was still sat in the buffet, I became unwell and had to rush back to the room to vomit. While I can’t say for certain what caused it, it certainly wasn’t a great start to the holiday. Some examples of what food was like: - Beans were watery so you could see through the sauce and could see that all the beans had sunk to the bottom. - Bolognese sauce was swimming in some sort of oil on most nights. - Had pittas out one night so expected a variety of meats to go with it. But no… only chicken wings. - Didn’t touch really any of the meat in the other days, all looked scabby and not right. - Bacon and Sausages at breakfast are processed hot dog meat. Cleanliness & General Condition: The hotel’s cleanliness was far below expectations and what any hotel should be like! Around the hotel… - Swimming pool contained excessive numbers of wasps, moths and other insects that were rarely cleared away. And i know bugs are to be expected in the poo but not to the extent that was in this pool. Everytime you moved there was a bug that you had to push away from you. - Big Ants were always present in several areas due to uncleaned dried sugary drink spillages. - Floors had dried drink stains/ sticky residue and dirt that not once in my 7 day stay did i see get cleaned. Room: - Stained towels. - Curtains weren’t properly attached. - Brown stains on the bed. - Mould in the bathroom. - Multiple hairs on the TV remote. - One day our room wasn’t cleaned at all. Pool Area - Sun loungers were heavily stained and visibly dirty. They were that bad that everybody i have shown my photos to have said they are distgusting. Public Toilets The toilets near reception and the only toilets available apart from your room toilets were in a poor state. - Cubicle doors didn’t lock. - Broken toilet seat. - Mirrors covered in water marks and other brown stains. - No paper hand towels so had to use hand dryer which was extremely hot and very slow. - Toilet roll dispenser in 1 cubicle was completely broken and the other cubicle only worked intermittently. Restaurant & Bars: - Drinking glasses in the buffet restaurant appeared dirty and covered in water marks. - Outdoor dining tables weren’t cleaned properly. We ate at a table with visible bird poo still on it. - The cutlery and napkins laid out in the tables were dirty sometimes. Staff Attitude While some staff were polite, others were not. One member of the bar staff threw her hands up in frustration while my girlfriend was deciding what to order, despite there being no queue behind us. It was unprofessional and made us feel unwelcome. Overall Some of these issues might have been minor to some. However, experiencing all of them during one holiday - combined with repeated failures to resolve problems despite reporting them multiple times - had quite the negative impact on our stay. We paid just short of £2000 for this holiday after i saved for a long time to take my girlfriend on holiday, and unfortunately it fell well below my expectations. I CANNOT recommend this hotel based on our experience and hope to god the management at this hotel address these issues so future guests do not have the same experience.

Lovely hotel in a beautiful location. The room was clean, comfortable and fairly basic, but it had everything we needed. The view from the balcony was fantastic, with the hills on one side and the sea on the other. The food was good. As it's a smaller hotel, there isn't a huge amount of choice, but there was always something enjoyable to eat, including fresh salads, lovely feta cheese, pasta dishes, tasty potato wedges, different meats and traditional Greek dishes. The drinks were fine overall. The beer was good, and while the soft drinks weren't branded options like Coke or Pepsi, we managed perfectly well. The cocktails were enjoyable, and the bar staff worked incredibly hard, so we were never left waiting long for service. The local area is lovely, with great restaurants, beach bars and a very authentic Greek feel. It feels much less commercialised than some resorts, which we really appreciated. A special mention goes to Georgio, the manager, who works tirelessly to ensure guests are happy. If you have any issues, it's definitely worth speaking to him as he will do his best to resolve them. He was always checking that guests were enjoying their stay and couldn't have been more helpful. Overall, I would describe this as a very good 3-star-plus hotel. Having stayed here, I'm honestly not sure what some of the negative reviews are complaining about. We had a lovely holiday and would happily return.

Before you read, a caveat - this ACTUALLY happened to us… on our holiday … booked for my birthday! To summarise, despite having a confirmed booking, we were turned away on arrival and told the hotel was overbooked and could not accommodate us. Being turned away from a hotel you have paid for, in a foreign country, with no proper resolution is unacceptable. Now, into the detail: We arrived at midnight, and we were initially greeted by the assistant manager, who was very polite and reassuring, telling us he would help us and be available throughout our stay. He then directed us to the reception, where we were told that there was no space available for us and that we had to leave the hotel. This was due to ‘50% of rooms being out of use’. This was completely unacceptable, especially after being misleadingly reassured moments earlier by the manager. We also booked in February, months in advance. How they could turn us away given the notice of our booking is absurd. We were not the only ones affected – multiple guests were turned away at the same time, and we later found that several people at the alternative hotel we were sent to had also been relocated from Golden Mare. This clearly indicates a pattern of overbooking. We attempted to contact the hotel multiple times afterwards to discuss compensation or escalation. Each time, we were told that the “booking manager” was not available. When we asked to escalate further, we were told that no manager was present at all – every. single. day. Apparently only a front desk staff member and a bar staff member were available. This lack of accountability is shocking. We received no apology, no compensation, and no follow-up communication from the hotel. As I mentioned, being turned away from a hotel you have paid for, in a foreign country, with no proper resolution is unacceptable. The way this situation was handled was unprofessional and, frankly, immoral. I would strongly advise others to avoid this hotel due to the risk of overbooking and the complete lack of customer care … unless you want your own Golden NIGHTmare! NB: we are actually looking back at this laughing, now wer are back in the UK, due to the absolute ridiculous nature of what has happened to us. We’re glad it happened, because why anyone would want to stay at a hotel like that, with complete lack of care for customers, is beyond me.

Absolutely horrendous!!! Wouldn’t recommend at all, disgusting rooms, vile food made so many guests violently sick and service is just as bad!!! DO NOT BOOK