Club Zante Plaza

Lovely hotel, great location, amazing friendly staff, lovely food and good selection of cocktails and drinks. Would definitely return to this hotel

Having read some of the negative reviews, we were not sure about booking this hotel until I read a review from a guest who stated he was pleasantly surprised by the place, considering he had taken an eight year old grandchild. So we though we would give it a try. What a big mistake that was. LOCATION. The location is absolutely brilliant. Everything is on the doorstep. Five minute stroll to the beach. Not too much noise from he strip. ACCOMMODATION. Could do with more space for clothes etc. Had to leave some clothes in suitcases, which we had to leave on the third bed as there was nowhere else to store them. Maid service every day, but very haphazard. Replenishment does not appear to be a priority. Maids insisted on pulling beds towards the patio doors, resulting in a very narrow gap to get through, causing me to twice hit my leg on the sharpe corner of the bed, which should be protected by a foam or rubber covering. Bathroom has a rainwater shower. When we first used it the water went in every direction possible. It was replaced upon request, but made little difference because there is no partition between the shower and toilet, therefore everything gets saturated. STAFF. It goes without saying that all staff are very friendly and can't do enough for you. FACILITIES. Not a lot to shout home about here. One karaoke night, and one Greek night. Neither of these are advertised, so you get informed by others. There are no daytime activities. The pool area is badly maintained, and the pool was not seen to be cleaned all week. The floor of the pool is very slippery and the water is very cold. There is no easy access to the pool for people with limited mobility. Pool area is not monitored very well. I found a shard of glass under my sunbed. The area is not controlled or policed, and guests were taking glass bottles of beer to their sunbeds. The sunbeds are of a very poor quality, one bed collapsing under my weight, and I only weigh 84KG. Other beds had loose bolts making them rickety and showing poor maintenance. Pool patio area not hosed down and attracted lots of wasps to the spilt drinks. SAFETY MEASURES. Safety does not appear to be on the agenda here, with trip hazards around the complex, the sharp bed edges and shower water going everywhere resulting in slippery surfaces. FOOD RESTAURANT. The restaurant area is very small with tables and chairs very close together. There is an additional overflow room for dining. The buffet area is small with everything crammed together. Salads are plentiful, but cooked food can be a bit hit and miss. Replenishment of popular items is slow. The minimum recommended temperature of cooked food served in hotels in Greece is 60 degrees celcius. I would be very surprised if the majority of the food I ate at the hotel was any more than 40 degrees celcius. This could be attributed to three factors. 1) Cold Plates. No plate warming facilities. 2) Guests leaving the lids of the food containers open. 3) A female member of the kitchen/waiting staff continually lifting the lids and leaving them open. No probing for temperature checks was seen to be done. BAR. Drinks quality is very poor. The beer (Cretan) is very bitter and acidic. This could be the reason why guests were buying bottles of beer in the supermarket and taking them around the pool. The spirits are so weak that all you can taste is the mixer, and these are normally flat because they are from large bottles that have been open for a long time. STAR RATING. Zante Plaza rate them selves as 3*. We booked through Jet2 who also give a 3* rating. Personally I would not give it more than 2* and that is being generous because of the staff. I have stayed in the Exottica in Kalamaki which is run by the same group. They rate it as 4* and Jet2 rate it as 3*. I have to say the the Exottica feels like 5* luxury compared to Club Zante Plaza, which in my opinion would be more suited to Room Only or Bed and Breakfast. It has been said in other reviews, that the people who give this place 5* reviews must have a very low standard of living. Before anybody from mangement replies to me stating that I did not make anybody aware of my unhappiness of the experience, I didn't do so because I did not want any bad feelings between myself and the staff.