Magnolia

We enjoyed our holiday in July as Kefalonia is a lovely island, however we had already decided that we would not be returning to the Magnolia hotel because of the attitude of the family owners, especially the blonde manager called Effie. She vacillates between being syrupy sweet and rude. She ignored us on several occasions and was patronising at other times. The grown up son who was around the bar was false with an affected smile but really had no concern for you. The grandmother hovered like a hawk. The staff who work there were fine, especially the Australian lady who worked at breakfast was lovely, as were the older and younger man who waited at dinner. The Thomas Cook rep, Emma was a great girl. Sorry to hear how she was treated by the family. We hope another company has snapped her up. We stayed on variable board. 7 nights eat in, 7 nights we ate out in Katelios. The evening menu was very restricted for us compared to their al a carte menu. OK for a couple of nights but then the repetition makes you feel like 2nd class citizens. Go and stay in Katelios because the locals are lovely but don’t stay at the Magnolia. The rooms, the pool, the bar there are fine but unfortunately the owners are not.

We stayed at this hotel during the problems with the crash of Thomas Cook. We were disgusted with the behaviour of the owners. The manager knocked on our door on the Monday late at night and were told to go to reception and pay for our stay or get out immediately. We paid the amount demanded as it was late at night and we did not want to be looking for somewhere to stay. We were half board and after paying the money we asked if that included our meals, the reply was that we could have that nights meal on the house but after that we would have to pay. We would not recommend this hotel to anyone. My friend had health problems and we were looking forward to a relaxing holiday and the way we were treated was disgraceful.

Had a great weeks holiday at this fantastic hotel a week before the Thomas Cook crash. The holiday was absolutely brilliant from our arrival till our departure. If you are half board the restaurant menu is limited but what we did order was always very good. We had four days half board and three bed and breakfast which gave us the chance to use the local tavernas which were all excellent. It is disappointing to hear how people were treated following the Thomas Cook crash because prior to that everybody working at the hotel were fantastic. I can only presume that they were one of the hotels who had not received payment of holidays for months prior to Thomas Cooks demise.