Lindos Royal

My fiancé and I were looking forward to the holiday of a lifetime, but instead we ended up with a nightmare straight out of Fawlty Towers. It honestly got to the point where you couldn’t make it up. We arrived late at night and were taken to “our” room. It was beautiful and at first we were delighted — until we stepped onto the balcony and noticed a very obvious lack of a swim-up pool. We had paid a significant amount extra for this, both as a treat and for health reasons. We walked back up the steep hill to the main hotel to report it, only to be told there were no managers available overnight — which already felt ridiculous. Tired from travelling, we made an appointment to return in the morning. After what turned out to be our one decent night’s sleep, we headed to reception and were met with several other couples already waiting with various complaints. We waited over an hour for our turn. The manager was apologetic and offered us two alternative rooms to choose from. Luckily, I picked the one that faced the sun — but it was sheer luck. Then began the non-stop disasters. We were plagued by mosquitoes and bitten relentlessly. The fridge didn’t work, the outside area was dirty, and the walk down to our section was full of broken tiles, trip hazards, and unfinished, damaged areas. A few days in, our neighbour and I noticed that the pool outside our rooms seemed to be draining. We reported it and it appeared to stop — only to wake up the next morning to find it almost empty. This was on top of mould, filthy tiles, and more damage. I have many photos of all of this. To be fair, the food was decent and the servers were friendly and pleasant. The drinks were a bit grim but bearable. I became too ill to use any of the larger pools, but my partner said they were okay. However, there were many drainage and plumbing issues throughout the hotel, including our shower smelling like a urinal and the apartment opposite us having a sewage leak from upstairs. The problems became a running joke between us and other guests, but the truth is they really did spoil what was meant to be a relaxing break after a very hard few months. The island itself is beautiful and well worth visiting — just not the Royal Lindos. At best, it’s a 3-star hotel, nowhere near the 5-star standard we were promised and expecting. Many areas looked dirty, uncared for, and badly in need of a proper upgrade. Our room and bed were fortunately clean, but I heard horror stories from other guests who weren’t as lucky. I honestly can’t emphasise this enough: expect a 3-star experience and you’ll be fine, but 5-star it absolutely is NOT.

Paid for a certain room type and was placed in another. When I queried it at reception I was told I had been “upgraded”. I think not, we ended up changing rooms twice and stayed in the third room offered only because it had storage space. This hotel is falling apart. Only one electric socket in the room is not five star, electric cables hanging out of the wall is not five star, no plugs in the sink is not five star. Very limited storage space, cupboard doors won’t full open, furniture falling apart, no shampoo in holder, door key card didn’t work, no water in the fridge, WiFi keeps dropping out. I could go on and on and on. This hotel would be hard pressed to deserve even two stars, and I told the manager to her face. She looked me straight in the eyes and said it was five stars. The annoying thing is, because they label it “5 stars” you have to pay five star tourist tax which is €15 per night, so that is an additional €210 to be paid in cash on arrival. Whereas, if it were correctly labelled as a two star hotel it would be an additional €7 per night. Loud BOOM BOOM music plays all day by the poolside and in the restaurants. One night we all went for a themed dinner in one of the restaurants, we couldn’t hear ourselves talking. We asked politely if they could lower the music so we could hear each other, we were ignored. The restaurant food is only ever luke warm, the alcoholic drinks are awful. There were eight of us in our group and we were all in agreement when we said we would never return. The only good thing I can say about this place is that the poolside bar girls at the evening bar were really nice and pleasant. Otherwise I would warn everyone to steer well away from this expensive two star hotel masqurading as a five star hotel.

The resort is lovely. The areas are clean, the rooms are clean. There is a choice of pools and the slides pool is located at the back. Shame they are not at the front but it is only a short walk to them just cannot not be seen from the 3 main pools. The food that on offer was one of the best buffet I have had. The choice of food was really good. The restaurant was very cleanThe snacks were much the same as any resort pizza chips doughnuts. We really enjoyed our stay. Lindos village is a short taxi ride away. Full of shops for gifts of varying price ranges. Plenty of restaurants something for everyone I think. All in all it was a really good holiday. Good holiday for relaxing. The entertainment was ok not great but I suppose it depends on what is expected. All the staff were very hardworking probably not the friendliest but they worked very hard. Some did smile and say hello especially the young man serving tea in the morning. (George?)

Exceptionally poor standard of hotel. Visited as a family of 4 generations. Hotel is not fit for purpose. Hazardous areas throughout the hotel. Leaks in bar areas causing floors to become very slippy, roof fell down in pool bar during stormy weather. Pools dirty, no lifeguards. Food fine but repetitive. Drinks poor stick to beer. Stench of sewerage at pool bar and adjacent to our seaview junior suite. Needs fully refurbished definitely would not recommend not suitable for young children. Left with bug bites , headache due to falling down steps , everyone of us was sick at some point. The staff in restsaurants and bar were nice but had an air of desperation for the season to end and run for the hills. I dont blame them. Not for the faint hearted but if you like a challenge of endurance then this may be the hotel for you !