david55

What a shame that they are hassling you like this.

A good hotel would make it work without making the client feel guilty or stressed. I wonder if it is " end of the season" burnout or you are just dealing with a cantankerous hotel clerk.

banzani

I think It reflects the overall attitude of the reservations department, as I've been dealing with different people.

UA-NYC

As a PSA, my reservation updated such that I was able to apply SNAs ^

Thanks again for your help, and hoping this eases the path for other FTers looking to use their SNAs there in the futre.

wobbly wings

I am giving up using SPG with the family in Europe. The whole thing is such a hassle and the extra charges completely exorbitant. I was looking at the Blue Palace too but after sounding the waters I gave up on them. Their attitude is by no means unique within SPG.

This is one of the major problems with SPG in EMEA.

banzani

It would be an interesting elite benefit. Definitely a good one for me, SPG will take care of children in the same room...

I've reached out to Domes of Elounda which is nearby and also 5* (perhaps not as good but very good still). They are offering me a family suite with private outdoor jacuzzi for eur 250 a night, incl half board for the entire family. It would be the first time in many years I'd actually turn my back on a Starwood property I had planned to stay at.

Thunderroad

Currently posting from the rather slow public terminals at the BP. Have not had a chance to look at Domes, so can't compare the two. But based on our experience mid-way through our stay here at BP, I'd say nothing special about this place or its treatment of SPG members that would weigh in favor of your staying here. Best features seem to be the view and walkable access to nearby restaurants at Plaka, but assume you have at least the former at Domes. Will post more next week after returning home.

EuropeanPete

If you aren't going to a Starwood property are you sure that you really want to stay in Crete at all? It's not the world's most attractive island by any measure and there are plenty of other better destinations in the area.

david55

How much I disagree with this statement.

Eastern Crete, in my mind, is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Whether you stay at a Starwood property or not... the color, light, people, water, food, not to mention the history is pretty special.

jibi

And it seems that many of the beaches on Western Crete are typically rated as some of the most beautiful in the world...

banzani

Flights have been booked a while ago. I am sure Crete has many nice places.

We've stayed over the last years with kids at both Astir and both Navarino properties as well as Grande Bretagne. Never had a problem. I'd checked on SPG and when it said 'kids under 12 stay free' I had thought it would be just that.

@Thunderroad, enjoy your stay. Curious in case you get a glimpse at Domes.

On another note, since yesterday BP does not seem bookable until end October. Is this a system glitch ?

EuropeanPete

It goes to show that it's all a matter of opinion I really didn't get Crete - Despite there being some quiet areas I found it over-developed, the rock itself pretty barren and charmless and the locals too focused on middle of the road tourism to be particularly engaging.

stimpy

Maybe you should try the offseason. August is a terrible time to go IMHO. Everyone is focused on the tourists and it's packed. I'm sure it's tough on the hotel dealing with all the people who want upgrades, etc. I only go in late September and I love the island. And I love this hotel who gave me great Platinum treatment, probably because they could finally breathe once the hordes had left.

And you haven't seen the whole island. That would take years. So it's maybe not wise to judge quickly.

david55

We always go in spring to enjoy the profusion of wild flowers and mild temperatures. Hotel staffs are usually cordial and refreshed as the season hasn't started yet and they are not burnt out.

Go over to TA....they love the DOMES ( for the most part)

Another place to look at is the Minos Beach Art Hotel in Aghios Nikolaos. One of the first bungalow style hotels in the Mediterranean is was bought several years ago by SLH, restored and is getting some good reviews.

I like Aghios Nikolaos and Plaka as a base for exploring Eastern Crete. I am not a fan of Elounda.

Thunderroad

My wife and I recently completed a 5-day award stay at the Blue Palace. It was a decent stay and we certainly had an overall nice 11-day vacation (including our BP time) in Crete. But on balance, I would not recommend this hotel for people seeking privacy, a great beach vacation, great SPG elite treatment or standards one might associate with a hotel bearing the Luxury Collection label. And we were not really wowed by Crete more generally. Of course, I realize that for other folks with other priorities and perspectives the balance could well tip in a more positive direction.

In fairness, this was the first resort vacation we've taken in Europe after extensive travel for work and play at Starwoods and other properties elsewhere on the continent and around the world. So our perspective could well be tainted or even spoiled by better service, rooms, upgrades and physical settings elsewhere.

I guess my bottom line is that for those with the time and inclination to look to other regions in the world or other places in Europe for Starwood or other resort vacations, or simply for non-resort hotel stays, you can do a lot better with your points or money you'd otherwise spend at the BP or possibly Crete in general. For couples in particular, I'd be especially wary of the long summer season when school is out, in that the presence of lots of children (certainly entitled to enjoy their holidays!) can make for a less private, quiet or romantic visit at the BP.

I'd also add that our best meals and most interesting times in Crete were more when we got off the beaten track, visiting the interior areas. We had a nice overnight at a rather basic hotel in the town of Zaros in the middle of the island, for example, and probably the two best meals of our trip there. I certainly don't know the island well enough to offer great advice on visiting there, but I'll speculate that such trips are worth considering in addition to or instead of the more institutional feel of the very large BP.

Having said all this, here are some positive and negative aspects of our visit:

Positives

1. Beautiful views of the nearby island of Spinolanga and the surrounding bay and hillsides, I believe from all rooms.
2. We received an upgrade from the basic room we booked to what I think is the next category up, the (unheated) "private" pool While some aspects of our room fall into the negative category (more on that below), the interior space and its outdoor patio were certainly pleasant enough. (The most basic rooms seemed to have enough space to sit on their patios, but not to lounge on, though I did not check this out specifically.)
3. As others have noted, it's an easy 10-minute walk to nearby Plaka, a very tourist-oriented village with a fair number of shops and seaside restaurants. (Well, there's a short stretch on the walk when you're on the road rather than a paved area, but there is little traffic so it's easy to manage.) I wouldn't rave about those restaurants, but we certainly liked most of our meals and especially the seaside settings. We found the (mostly seafood) menus at the places were mostly very similar, so were glad that on our final night we came across one restaurant (Maria's), which is actually on the road through Plaka and not by the sea and which (unlike the other places) offered a very good roasted lamb dish. (Though I'd add that for Maria's in particular and the other Plaka places more generally, if you're interested in a particular dish on the menu ask whether they actually have it before you settle in.)
4. I can understand why many folks here are not big fans of Elounda, as it's not a particularly charming town and much larger than Plaka. But we had a good 45-minute walk from the BP to there (the majority of it on paved sidewalks, with a few stretches on the shoulder of the road) and pleasant few hours having a beer at one of its many seaside restaurants, a good gyro (for a change of pace) at a place on the main drag, and strolling along the water, where a number of restaurants are located. (Strolling along the road running through town was not so great.) Then again, we like to walk.
5. For that matter, we also took good morning walks in the opposite direction from Elounda, along a broad dirt path past Plaka that gradually goes up the hillside.
6. The boat visit to nearby Spinolanga was interesting...it's more so if you read up on the island a bit beforehand, as the site itself offers very little information about its history.

Negatives

1. As others have noted, the "private" pools are anything but that. If people are lounging in them, you easily can have lots of folks staring into your patio or even your room. And some are situated that folks walking along the pathways beyond the pools can do the same.
2. While that lack of privacy was an occasional issue for us when neighbors were in their pools, for the most part people don't appear to use the pools because they are too cold for lounging in. In some ways, then, the privacy issue is not as great as it might seem given that the pools are more decorative than functional (except perhaps for those that are more user-friendly by virtue of being heated). But it still can be a problem. I guess what I'm saying about the very misleading term "private pools" is that it offers more marketing and aesthetic value for the resort than it does utility for the guests.
3. Another little unfortunate feature of the rooms is that the bathrooms are not all that private. You have slats that can't be closed on the wide sliding bathroom doors.
4. The staff was a very mixed bag. While checking on a routine matter at the front desk, we had the pleasure of meeting a very nice, helpful woman who was the front office manager. And some staff members were fine. But some other staff were not so nice. For instance, of the many we met or were served by at breakfast, I can count one fellow (named Cristos) who smiled at all. And the hotel taxi service we booked to take our son to the airport sent the most disgruntled driver (technically not a hotel staff member, I know) I have ever encountered. I don't think we're particularly demanding of hotel personnel when we travel, but a bit of friendliness is appreciated. In fact, there were times I wondered whether we even were in Greece, which in my previous experience has wonderfully friendly folks. I'm tempted to say perhaps that's the trade-off one gets in staying at a large hotel, but I know from many other properties and countries that is not the case.
5. I'm purely speculating here, perhaps unfairly, but I can't help but wonder whether some staff indifference or even tension starts at the top. I'll certainly give the General Manager credit for hosting a (45-minute) reception for guests. But he and his staff remained in a corner, almost as though he was directing them not to engage with guests. And in chatting with him, I got the impression that he was going through the formalities - I would have singled out that waiter Cristos for praise, but it seemed that the GM was not interested in such guest feedback. I realize that such events can be a hassle for hotel managers, but in attending a few at other hotels I've never encountered such a stand-offish approach. Kind of the Inhospitable School of Hospitality.
6. Spotty internet service. It was usually decently fast in our room, but we had to keep signing on again every time we wanted to use it...and occasionally we could not sign on at all. The two terminals outside the breakfast area tended to be on the slow side.
7. This is more a matter of individual taste, but we didn't find the pebble "beach" too inviting. Not really what I'd even call a beach. And the palapas that shade the lounge chairs there are rather small and fixed in place, so look to do a lot of shifting of those chairs if you value shade.
8. Since we like to walk, we often made our way up and down the hillside from our room without the much-criticized funicular. So we didn't have a problem with it, though we did see folks trapped in it once for a few minutes when the doors would not function. Our peeve regarding getting up and down the hotel's hill was that the directions were not well marked - that is, a lack of good signage. It actually was more funny than frustrating, but still made getting up and down a bit of a challenge. Anyone who remembers the old rock mockumentary film Spinal Tap might recall a scene in which the band repeatedly gets lost trying to find its way to the stage from the bowels of their dressing room in the concert hall. Navigating up and down the BP was a bit like that.
9. I can't complain about the fact that as a Platinum I was "only" upgraded to the so-called private pool room, since I believe you should not expect any upgrade in booking a stay. Still, I'd advise that folks booking a room in anticipation of an upgrade even off-season should drop that anticipation. Even in mid-September, in checking the hotel website I saw that better rooms and suites for possible upgrades were not available.
10. I would think that during the summer the resort would have a lot more kids than when we were there in mid-September, which could in turn affect how quiet, private or romantic a place it would be for couples.
11. Getting action on phone requests for service such as making up the room was usually ok, but more exceptions to this rule than I'd expect from a quality hotel.
12. As others have noted, no provisions for complimentary coffee-making in the rooms is a hassle and a let-down...especially to a coffee addict such as myself!
13. Like others, we arrived at the hotel to find no one outside to help with our bags. Not a big problem, as we travel light. I suspect that, as with a few other aspects of the hotel, this is due to a bit of penny-pinching, such that there are simply not enough personnel available to handle this task.

As for Crete more generally...

I came away from our visit with similar feelings. We had a good trip, overall. But I just didn't find the island as a whole as friendly as other places in Greece or many other countries. As for the island's attractiveness, I guess the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are some spectacular (though occasionally challenging) mountain and coastal drives (though not the drive from the Heraklion airport to the BP), but overall the barren, rocky landscape was not our cup of tea. Visitors also should be aware (as we were beforehand) that the island does not offer the classic Greek whitewashed buildings and scenes that one might sometimes associate with Greek tourism and other Greek islands.

While I definitely can see how Crete's landscape and other features could appeal to others more than it did to us, I will beg to differ with this statement. One of the most beautiful beaches is supposed to be Elafonisi, for instance, with its supposedly white or pink beaches that seemed to be light brown to us. It's indeed an interesting scene in terms of the wide, calm patches of water to wade in and the wind surfers one can view. But it's also quite crowded (even late afternoon), as were the several other beaches we visited.

I know that we didn't get around the whole island, but I'd still wonder how Crete's beaches can stand up to many of the beautiful white, sandy and/or uncrowded ones in many other parts of the world, including in parts of the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Hawaii, North America, Africa, etc.

Sorry, banzani, I didn't get to pass by there again after your note. But my comments notwithstanding, I hope you have a great time!

Completely agree that avoiding the busiest season is good in many places, and I guess that the spring in particular can offer prettier scenes. And again, I admit that even with bopping around various parts of the island, I should not pass final judgement quickly based on just one visit. I just offer our impressions with the caveat that, like many here, we're just visiting the island once.

I'm less sympathetic to the argument that hotel staff will be better and less hassled in the narrow patches of time when the weather is nice but when lots of tourists are not on the island. I've just been to too many hotels and destinations where people are nice year-round.

david55

Thunderroad....I cannot find fault with any of your comments. Well thought and honest, I understand totally your perspective.

I spent a year of my childhood in eastern Crete (1971) so my passion and perhaps a bit of blindness to it's faults are in my blood. I'm not sure I would go to Crete for a "resort" vacation without the great interest in history and archaeology that I have. I can spend hours on the rocky hillsides of a Minoan site.

Thanks again for your trip report and comments. I enjoyed reading them a lot and felt transported back.

P.S. you certainly don't go to Crete for the beaches although parts of the coastline ( especially southern Crete) are breathtaking