Domes Aulus Elounda

“A wonderful stay”

We had a brilliant time at Domes. The staff and concierge were extremely friendly and helpful. The room we stayed in had a stunning view of Spinalonga and was modernly furnished. Our only slightly negative comment about the room was the shower as the water would go everywhere as there was no slid... more

We had a brilliant time at Domes. The staff and concierge were extremely friendly and helpful. The room we stayed in had a stunning view of Spinalonga and was modernly furnished. Our only slightly negative comment about the room was the shower as the water would go everywhere as there was no sliding door. The entertainment each night was brilliant; we loved the traditional cretan dancing and DJ night. The breakfast buffet had a wide selection from pastries and yoghurt/fruit to bacon and cooked meats/eggs. We only had lunch and dinner at the buffet once but were also impressed with the variety and freshness of the ingredients. We ate at all the restaurants in the hotel and were really impressed. Our favourite was the amphitheater restaurant as they served both traditional greek and Italian classics. The hotel was in an ideal location, a 5 minute drive from both Plaka and Elounda. We opted to spend the day at the private beach just on the other side of the road and only struggled to secure beach loungers once. It was a lovely beach and the grab to go snacks and cocktails were great. We had an absolutely wonderful time and would recommend to anyone!

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“Not what we expected”

Broken doors, outside loos that don’t lock, dirty lower pool, initial shortage of parasols, very small rooms, limited clothing storage if you’re there for more than a week. Cool selection is open to everyone so don’t pay the extra. Most days we saw many non cool selection guests in the restauran... more

Broken doors, outside loos that don’t lock, dirty lower pool, initial shortage of parasols, very small rooms, limited clothing storage if you’re there for more than a week. Cool selection is open to everyone so don’t pay the extra. Most days we saw many non cool selection guests in the restaurant and pool!! No waiter service at pool, no turndown service. The staff however are superb, very friendly and polite. All in all pretty average 3.5 star at best

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“Hilton hotel that does not deliver 5 star!”

I travelled with my best friend who I go away with often and we enjoy going to 5-star hotels all over the world. The Domes Aulus Elounda Curio Hotel is part of the Hilton chain so I expected a high standard as would be normal for a chain of this renown. When we arrived, I have to say it is in one... more

I travelled with my best friend who I go away with often and we enjoy going to 5-star hotels all over the world. The Domes Aulus Elounda Curio Hotel is part of the Hilton chain so I expected a high standard as would be normal for a chain of this renown. When we arrived, I have to say it is in one of the most beautiful settings in Crete or indeed Greece and the views were amazing. We were asked to have dinner as the buffet was about to close then taken to our rooms after a short welcome meeting from a member of reception staff. Our room although had a sea view which we were not expecting was on the small side and the bathroom was tiny. You had to be very nimble to be able to bend round the toilet to get into the walk-in shower and once the shower was on the rest of the bathroom was soaked. Half a meter more space would have made such a difference. The bed was very comfortable and the room was cleaned every day and towels replaced. If you are expecting 5- star do not go to this hotel, - There is no waiter service for drinks at the bar, at all, you queue for a drink and if someone wants a cocktail there will be a queue, there is only 1 member of staff on at each bar that we saw, and they work very hard but there are not enough of them. Panos in the main bar worked really hard and was always polite and smiling even when he had a massive queue! - There are no cooking stations in the restaurant, no fresh omelettes, poached eggs etc and when we asked we were told you could ask for one but there was never a chef there to ask! - There was nowhere to leave your cases, only in the stairwell by the lift, totally unsecure and on leaving our room we were told that someone would collect our cases, only to find someone had collected them and taken one of them to another room somewhere else on the complex! Reception had no idea where it was…. Appalling for a supposed 5-star hotel! - We had asked for a late checkout but were told it was not available but we could use the facilities in the spa… at 1150 (we were due to check out at 12) we had a call from reception asking if we wanted to have lunch in the restaurant at the Cool Living part of the hotel, but as we wanted to stay in the sun a bit longer we declined, they then offered us to stay in the room longer if we went to lunch, which seemed a little strange as we had already been told we could not stay in the room…. There appeared to be little communication between reception and managers and total confusion over whether we could stay longer in the room or not, and considering our cases were then lost this was not really surprising! - At the spa there was no toilet, only one shower and no hairdryers, this is hardly a courtesy room. - The manager did offer to pay for a taxi to take us to the airport but as we had already booked and paid for this it seemed to be too little too late. We were told by a manager that they ticked all the boxes for a 5-star hotel which may be the case in Greek standards but a Hilton hotel by its very reputation should strive to go beyond just ticking a box and be better than any others, this sadly was not the case here. I understand there is a world-wide shortage of staff, but the concept advertised on Instagram is not showing the rest of the hotel as it really is. It is misleading and falls well short of a 5-star standard hotel.

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