Domes Zeen, a Luxury Collection Resort, Chania, Crete [Master Thread]
 

Great news; a new LC property will join Marriott this summer.

Hotel's website: https://www.domeszeenchania.com/
Marriott's Website: https://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...n-hotel-crete/

Any idea what category it will be?

Great news! Sadly I’m going to assume this will be 100k per night since they just raised the Domes of Chania to this level which is ridiculous.

60k points per night, and it seems you can book a suite at that rate in September. That being said, I found a BRG very easily and the cash rates werent too bad.

I really enjoyed my 10 days in the adults only Domes in Corfu in 2018 .. Now that I have a 3month old, I'm hoping to love this one too.

A (fully cancellable) trip for September has been booked for something to look forward to.

Eh? Domes of Chania is "just" a regular Cat 8 property.

A Category 8 hotel is 100k during Peak times....which will likely be the entire season IMHO!

I’m booked here in August.

Was booked first at Domes Noruz. No children allowed at this property. However, for 3 nights, it was going to be 180k Bonvoy points

Noticed the new Domes Zeen opening in May. It does allow children (we’re not taking children). 120k for 3 nights.

Properties seem very close to each other on the water. Zeen is a bit closer to town if you choose to walk.

I don't see any dates bookable either later this year or into 2021 ... where are you guys seeing availability?

Nice to see they have Domes-Noruz as adilt-only and Domes-Zeen with kids.

Happy to report back having stayed at the Domes Zeen, a Luxury Collection Resort, Chania hotel for one night in August 2020 (COVID-19 times). The hotel had opened about a week before, having rebranded from a Thomas Cook hotel that was here the year before. Chatting to the staff it appeared that only minimal changes were required, with the pool area being the focus. We had only booked a few days in advance as our holiday was last minute.

We had booked a basic room using cash for around €400 (Tropical Bungalow, Guest room, 1 King, Garden view, Balcony) and used a SNA to get an upgrade to a room with a pool (Tropical Family Pavilion, Guest room, 1 King, Sofa bed, Pool view, Balcony, Private pool). The hotel was at 90% occupancy (mainly Brits, French, Belgians according to the chatty concierge), so this was a nice move and probably made the stay for us (whilst a lot of the rooms have pools, it was nice to get one).

The biggest issue I had with the hotel was finding it, when your satnav points you down a small one-way round (that is actually two way) next to a petrol (gas) station, that is the right way… there are no signposts and we managed to take around 30 minutes trying to find the place (actually 15 minutes to find it, but we ended on a hill looking down on the hotel). Once this was done we had a nice welcome from very pleasant staff. Unfortunately there was a maintenance issue with our room so even though it was around 4pm, we needed to wait an hour for them to resolve. The staff dealt with this very professionally however and persuaded us to go to the pool and enjoy a complementary cocktail, so no real harm done.

Our room (really a third of a villa) was great, with a nice wooden deck area and private pool, we could just about see the sea – but realistically 80% of the rooms will have a view of the rest of the resort. For those focused on privacy of the pools, there isn’t much in any of the rooms from what I could see. The vast majority were overlooked and could be seen by others walking on the path/roads, however they were still very nice seating areas. The room was dark and very concrete focused, but sizeable and with a large comfy bed, plus a sofa bed/seating area. There wasn’t a bath, but a large shower area and bathrobes.

We ate dinner and breakfast at the hotel’s pool-side restaurant. The staff were very helpful and cheery, the food was good quality and served promptly – plus wasn’t too pricey considering it was a resort, for example wine. There is a fine dining restaurant opening in a week or two as well. A lot of people would be on half-board packages, but there was still a good selection of al-la-carte dining available. This was a bit of an issue in the morning however, as the “standard” breakfast was essentially bakery and Greek cold cuts (great), plus your choice of eggs. As we went for the al-la-carte options we had to pay some €25 for two mains, even though our rate included breakfast. Whilst we were warned, we didn’t quite believe, and this is quite different from most other hotels in this price range

Beach was not great, like much of the island, and a little stoney, but private with nicely laid out deck-chairs and planks to keep your feet away from the hot sand/stones. It was looked after till 6pm by staff, we just took a look rather than spending time there, our own private pool was good enough for us.

Whilst we didn’t use it, there was a fenced off children’s area that seemed like a good place to leave your children for a few hours.

There weren’t too many intrusive COVID restrictions in place at the hotel, but there were changes: Less house-keeping; QR codes/mobile phones to view the hotel menus; hotel staff wouldn’t come in your villa or park your car; and our luggage was disinfected before being delivered. This meant we had the amusement of room service wine being opened outside of the door, and that our bags could get in the hotel golf buggy but we couldn’t. I suspect many of these will change over time, as they were inconsistent between different Dome properties.

Overall: Nice staff, pretty unique hotel and very different from a standard Marriott, so very worthwhile staying. Would be happy to return.See the pictures below to bring it to life!

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b188d461e0.jpg
View of the room/deck
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ff1736cead.jpg
Room itself
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4da41a8db8.jpg
View whilst sitting on the deck, note the sea (just about) in the distance
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...aa336eb37d.jpg
Resort view
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...fd4950ef87.jpg
View of the hotel's beach
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...78b50b4b45.jpg
View of the hotel pool/restaurant at night
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8884fac8fc.jpg
View of the resort at night
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9f7657e238.jpg
View of the hotel pool at breakfast
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b18790fc2b.jpg
Included breakfast (cold cuts and bakery items)
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b2943ef780.jpg
Overall view of the resort from near the top

Thanks for the update. How far of a walk to town was it and was the walk safe (not worried about violence just not getting run over)

From their welcome email:
The resort is located only 25 min drive from CHQ, 10 min walk from the marina of Nea Chora and 25 min walk from Chania Old Town. As such our guest can simply walk or cycle to numerous open air bars or restaurants, amusements and antiquities, without the need to use public or other transport. Our guest services team, will always be available to guide our guests with the best nearby options for offsite outdoor activities, chillout open air bars and recommended open air restaurants, if requested.

So not all that close from my perspective, and I don't think it is viable for the average holiday maker to get to the old town unless particularly keen: The walk is presumably along the beach / a dirt road next to it along which people were running, so traffic safe, but perhaps no light in the evening (?not sure, I didn't do it). I drove (more than 15 minutes in the morning due to traffic). There was no shuttle service.

littlevoices ....Thanks for the first stay report!

Echo the comment above, the review is much appreciated, @littlevoices!

You didn't happen to overhear what's going on with Domes Noruz this year, did you? They seem to have moved the opening date for this season several times and now they are no longer selling rooms for this year, so I wonder if they're moving booked guests to Domes Zeen instead.

Sorry not a clue, and I didn't ask. The placemats with QR codes for the restaurants were printed on pieces of paper that included all three currently open Domes hotels (Zeen, Elounda and one in Corfu, Miramare), as such you could speculate that it likely won't open this season, as otherwise there would be mass reprinting. The QR codes / websites were set up to include restaurants that were not yet open in the individual hotels.