St Constantin

This hotel is rated as a 4 star hotel, but really should be a 2/3 star.

Our room was lovely, and overlooked the swim up pool. The housekeeping staff were polite and our room was clean. We only got one keycard and were told if we wanted another one we’d have to pay! We paid for wifi which was dire at best. We paid for a safe, but I know that that is standard nowadays!

The biggest letdown for us was the food - I wasn’t sure about all inclusive and I was right to be! The main restaurant food was lukewarm at times and some of the mains were just not good. A hot dog inside pastry does not make sausage pie! We ate out 4 times in the evenings just to have a decent meal! The staff who were clearing the tables in the restaurant were always polite & friendly.

The all inclusive drinks were not great either! Included in this was wine, a lager or cocktails. All drinks outside of the restaurant were served in cheap plastic cups, which really isn’t great! Maybe during the day beside the pool but not in the evening when you want to relax. The cocktails were a disaster - I think they thought “let’s just pour in lots of alcohol and hope for the best”. They were awful and of course in a tiny plastic cup! The barmaid, who we seemed to get each time never smiled and in fact one night she was so busy ignoring me I had to ask 3 times for a drink. Then, to top it all the all inclusive drinks stopped at 10pm and you had to pay for an awful cocktail. I think the bar staff need some training in people skills and possibly some cocktail making skills! A cocktail shaker is a good start!!!

I believe they really tried with the entertainment, the animation team were so enthusiastic and friendly! We ended up going out in the evenings for a walk or dinner in a restaurant, so only saw the Greek night.

The staff in the little shop are very nice and prices were reasonable.

I didn’t really engage much with the reception staff but it’s disappointing when you are checking out and they don’t even ask if you have enjoyed your stay! I went to reception in our check out day and said I was here to check out and the first thing she did was cut off my wrist band! We did not arrive at this hotel until nearly midnight on our first day, so never used the facilities that day. Unfortunately our flight home was at 22:45 so we had all day at the hotel and we were not allowed to eat there or get drinks. I think that is an awful way to treat your customers. We spoke to other families who had also had to eat out most nights. We were so disappointed. This hotel could be fantastic, but it really is not.

The rooms were nice, but I honestly think some of the staff need more training in customer service.

St Constantin Hotel, Gouves, Crete – Beautiful Rooms, But All-Inclusive Has Real Limitations

✅ Positives The swim-up pool rooms are absolutely stunning—they look great, feel modern, and are kept spotlessly clean and in excellent condition throughout your stay. This is definitely the best feature of the hotel and makes for a really relaxing experience.

⚠️ Things to consider The all-inclusive offering ends sharply at 10:00 PM. After this time, no drinks are covered under the package, and you must pay for everything separately. This felt quite early, especially on warm evenings when you might want a drink later in the night.

Food is another key consideration. If you are a fussy eater, you will likely find this a struggle. The selection is limited, and variety is not great across meals. There is very little choice for those with specific tastes or preferences, so you may end up going hungry or having to eat the same things repeatedly.

Be prepared to bring extra spending money. Even basic items like bottled water are not readily available for free outside meal times, and you’ll need to walk to a local shop to buy them. It’s an extra expense we hadn’t fully accounted for.

The hotel also enforces a very strict “one cup per person” rule. Staff will closely monitor you and explicitly tell you off if you try to fill up bottles or take drinks away from the bar/restaurant area. This feels overly restrictive and makes it hard to stay hydrated while relaxing by the pool or on your balcony.

Checkout day note – Once you have checked out, you can use facilities but only have access to snack bar anything else needs to paid for.

💡 Final thought In all honesty, this hotel works much better as self-catering rather than all-inclusive. With the early cut-off, limited food, strict policies, and limited facility access after checkout, you get far less value from the all-inclusive rate. If you do book, come prepared with cash for essentials, plan your departure day well, and be ready to adapt your eating habits. The swim-up rooms are lovely, but manage your expectations on everything else.

⚠️MISSING BELONGINGS: Avoid this hotel at all costs. This has honestly been one the worst hotel experience we’ve ever had.

The most serious issue happened during our stay in room 2002, where several items of clothing worth approximately €300–400 disappeared from inside our suitcase. These were not clothes left lying around the room or forgotten somewhere—they were packed in our luggage (mostly because the hotel offers ONE hanger per person to store your things). On the third day of our stay we realized we are missing these items.

When we reported this to reception, we expected the hotel to treat such a serious incident with professionalism and concern. Instead, we were met with arrogance and dismissive behaviour. Before any investigation had even taken place, the reception manager repeatedly defended the housekeeping staff, telling us they had worked there for over 20 years and therefore “would never take anything.” Rather than investigating what had happened, she kept insisting that we search our room again, despite us explaining several times that we had already searched everything thoroughly and that the missing clothes had been inside our suitcase. Several times, she was correcting US about our attitude, telling us how to communicate with her. This was laughable and extremely unprofessional.

Instead of taking our complaint seriously, we were made to feel as though we were the ones causing a problem. The attitude was essentially that the hotel could not possibly be responsible and that we must have forgotten to pack the clothes or misplaced them ourselves. There was no empathy, no apology, no reassurance and no effort to investigate what had happened. They kept us telling the only way to resolve this situation is to go the police station directly, during our holiday and at our own expense, and solve it with them. We even called with the police from reception phone, they had rejected our complaints and refused to come to the hotel to investigate this matter. They kept asking if we wanted to sue the hotel, avoided direct responses and refused to say their names.

The staff were also extremely evasive. When we asked to speak directly with the hotel manager, we were told there was no phone number, no email address and no way to contact him ourselves. Apparently the only option was to arrange a meeting through reception. When we asked the reception manager for her name so we could include it in our formal complaint, she flatly refused to tell us. We have never experienced such a lack of transparency or accountability in any hotel.

Unfortunately, the rest of the hotel was just as disappointing. The pools were visibly dirty, with no showers or even foot-rinse stations nearby, and there was never any lifeguard present. The food was genuinely awful—processed or canned, with almost nothing fresh, no fish or seafood. They also struggle to replenish the dishes that were already eaten. The snack bars offered a very poor selection, and the all-inclusive drinks and cocktails were among the worst we’ve ever had, horrible low-quality alcohol. Not even clean water was good. We ended up eating and buying drinks outside the hotel for most of our holiday because the quality inside was so poor.

No beach towels are provided, you even have to pay extra for sunbeds on the beach, and the room amenities are almost non-existent—just one bottle of water on arrival and nothing else replenished. We were even asked to leave breakfast and change our clothes despite wearing light summer dresses over our swimwear which should be absolutely normal in a beach resort. We are glad we didn’t have a problem with cockroaches in the room as some of the other guests staying here.

For the amount of money this hotel charges, there are countless better options. Between the missing belongings, the arrogant and dismissive way we were treated, the poor food and drinks, dirty facilities and terrible customer service, this hotel was a complete disappointment. We would never stay here again and absolutely cannot recommend it.