Skiathos Palace Hotel

This was my 5th time visiting Skiathos Island, but have never stayed at this hotel. Everything, from reception staff to the pool area and my room were fantastic! Wide variety of food of excellent quality, especially the breakfast buffet. Beautiful pool area with mesmerizing views, overlooking koukounaries bay. You could either take the shuttle bus or the regular bus. The hotel is 20 minutes away from Skiathos town. Thank you all! See you again!

I booked this hotel for myself, my partner and my 7 month year old daughter for a week long holiday whilst we would also be looking for wedding destinations/accommodation for our big day in 2021. I booked the hotel pretty much based on the many 5* reviews it received on trip advisor. The reviews seemed to be overwhelming positive and so I was very confident it would be a great place to stay. When we arrived we were shown to a room which looked nothing like the fresh modern, comfortable one on the photos on the site we booked on or on the hotel website. The room was very dated, smelt damp and had damp patches on certain parts of the wall and mould all around the bath. We had been travelling all day and wanted to enjoy the holiday so the last thing I wanted to do was start complaining but we just weren’t prepared to stay there. At reception the staff are all pleasant and said they could try and move our rooms but alarm bells were now ringing that a room as poor as the one we had walked into could be associated with a 5* hotel. Finally we entered our second room which had a more modern bathroom (without the mould) Shower not very good, poor pressure and takes a while to warm up ,still nothing like what we expected. 2x uncomfortable single beds pushed together, very dull decor-again nothing like the photos. I returned to reception again willing to pay for a upgraded room which they told me Friday would be the earliest they would have ‘better’ rooms available (it was Wednesday at this point). So we got settled and started the holiday. We went to The hotel bar area on the roof terrace to have some food and a drink. The food was ok but we made the huge error of ordering a Hendricks Gin which we were charged €15. The local gin is more €7. The pool bar staff appeared to be very abrupt, maybe I just was unlucky to catch someone on a bad day. I also thought it unprofessional for pool bar staff to be sat at the bar smoking, especially when I walk up to buy drinks accompanied with my 7month year old child. The pool area is absolutely stunning, the views are amazing from sun loungers which unlike many hotels always are available no matter what time of day you go to find one. The pool is a good size, the water temperature is pretty cold but refreshing for a dip away from the heat. Being so cool though we bought a baby blow up paddling pool to put next to our sun lounger which we planned to put a few inches of water in and let the sun warm it up for our daughter to enjoy. My only problem would be to put a couple of buckets of pool water in the paddling pool. I made the mistake of going over to the pool bar to ask if I could possibly borrow a bucket of some sort. They immediately said “no” and I’d have to speak with the restaurant instead-not “I’m sorry we can’t help you but I will go and ask someone for you”, just “no” and a point in the direction of an empty restaurant with no idea who to ask. So then I thought I’d ask the member of staff who seemed like she looked after the pool area , again “NO”. So it was pretty obvious if I was going to get water in this pool I was going to have to do it without any help from the hotel. Food at the hotel was quite nice, the lovely lady who makes the omelettes in the mornings so nice and friendly and her omelettes are always delicious. The restaurant have machines which have orange juice/apple juice etc....although it’s not fresh juice, it’s a sugary cordial juice drink!? I was baffled that it’s a sugary drink made up with water and not just simply ‘fresh orange’...5*? Anyway back to the room saga, Friday came and we went to view the ‘upgraded room with a sea view’ long story short we walked in it and walked back out, it was similar to the original damp mouldy room we walked in but this one had a ‘sea view’... if you call a sea view a french door that opens up to a few bushes and trees and if you look at the right spot in between them you will see a bit of the sea.... so I went back to reception ready to pay for the next ‘upgrade’ just to get us in a room that slightly resembled the modern comfortable rooms we expected. We were told there were no other rooms available but we could come to reception everyday to ask if there had been any cancellations...not “we will contact you if anything comes available” no I’m meant to go down every morning and ask if there was any change to the situation... not great service. Evening meals are ok slightly repetitive but food always to a decent standard. Staff at evening if busy, you would possibly be ignored or have to go to them to be served for drinks, if the restaurant was quiet they would be better but a lot would stand around chatting amongst themselves. The hotel once you are past reception is dark and in need of modernising. Overall I’m gutted about the hotel experience, I really can not understand all the good reviews when our experience was so different. On our last day we got speaking to another 2 couples who had exactly the same experience as we had, and commented how some staff had been rude to them. The hotel is up a large hill (I knew this from previous reviews) but I didn’t expect it to be so poorly lit at night making it dangerous to walk up and down if you went out. There is also no lift, why they wouldn’t consider getting one installed I don’t know, anyone with mobility problems will have real problems getting about. This hotel in my opinion is a 3* and I think relies massively on the amazing views at the pool area/restaurant to claim to be “prestigious”. I will not be returning and I think they need to seriously consider updating parts of the hotel.