Sunweb and hotel Avra Imperial at Crete
We (three adults) just returned from our vacation in Crete on July 24th, staying at the five-star Avra Imperial Hotel, which we booked through Sunweb.
Sunweb's website described the hotel as having 65 rooms with absolutely no indication that it was specifically a family resort. In reality, the hotel was five times larger (328 rooms), and 70-80% of the guests were families with children aged 0-14. This made it impossible to enjoy a relaxing vacation. Throughout the day, there were various children's activities like circus acts and mini-magic shows. The buffet area was noisy, with children running around, food on the floor, and toys at the tables. This would have been acceptable if we had known beforehand.
Additionally, we did not receive the room we had ordered and paid for (a suite with a pool view and two bathrooms) as described on Sunweb's homepage. The hotel didn’t even have that type of room! So the hotel really tried to support us, but difficult when they didn't even had this kind of room.
Although the lovely wellness area was supposed to be child-free for those under 13, hotel staff did not enforce this, so children were everywhere, even in the "relaxation" area.
Moreover, wild cats were running around the hotel, on the terraces while people were dining, and we even saw them in the kitchen of the a la carte restaurants by the pool....which was really gross.
Another issue was that by 8 AM, 80-90% of the sun chairs were occupied with towels, and by 9:30, only 10% were actually occupied by people. This should not happen at a five-star hotel. The sun chairs were also extremely uncomfortable; they looked fine but were terrible to sit or lay on for more than 30 minutes as the cross braces could be felt through the surface.
Regarding the five-star rating, the hotel needs significant improvements. Our room (17310) was quite worn, with issues such as malfunctioning bathroom fixtures (the toilet flush buttons didn’t work well, and there was almost no water from the tap) and an air conditioning system that had a mind of its own. Every morning around 5:30, we were woken up by a croaking rooster from a nearby yard, which continued for up to two hours.
On the positive side, the food was excellent, of great quality, the sun was shining all the time and the hotel staff were supportive, friendly and really tried to help.
Despite this, we will never return to this quite expensive hotel and will avoid using Sunweb in the future if possible. If they can't even describe the hotel right, will that be the same next time? Who knows....
Note: Interestingly, I never received a questionnaire to leave a review on Sunweb's website, so I had to use Trustpilot instead.
17 July 2024
Unprompted review