Orion Star

My sister and I had been looking forward to visiting Crete and this hotel for a long time. Prior to our arrival, we sent an email requesting a room with the best possible view. However, we never received a reply. When we were not satisfied with the balcony and its view, we went down to the reception to ask if another room was available. The male receptionist was extremely rude and condescending — completely unnecessary, considering our polite approach and his role in customer service. It felt like he simply wanted to be difficult. In the end, we were not allowed to change rooms, without really understanding the reason why, as it was never properly explained. This significantly affected our impression of the hotel and put a damper on our experience. We will not be returning.

Ok rooms, clean. Good view from the balcony. Nice pool area with a little poolbar for drinks and snacks. Easy and cheap breakfast at the poolbar. Close to the beach, minimarket and supermarket. About 30 min walk to platanias. Bus by the main road, cheap and easy.

Orion Star consists of two parts, Orion Star and Orion Relax. You receive no information at check-in about which of these you will be assigned a room in, and there is no signage on site. The pool area is nice. If you are assigned a room that you are satisfied with, this place could be fine. But if you are unhappy with something, you have a big problem, as I have never experienced such poor customer service before. If you book a room with a balcony at this hotel, you may end up with a ground-floor terrace, as we did. We had booked a balcony, which of course should not be at ground level. When we booked, there was only one room category described as having a balcony; all other rooms were described as having a balcony/some at ground level (by definition, a balcony is not at ground level, otherwise, it is called a ground-floor terrace). Well, this is where the problems really begin. The person at the hotel reception was not at all interested in helping. In his eyes, we had been assigned a room with a balcony, and if we had anything more to say about it, we had to take it up with the travel agency, end of story. When a representative from Ving spoke to him, he was brusque and somewhat rude to her and insisted that it was not his problem. Don’t say you weren’t warned if you still choose to come here and unfortunately have a complaint. Our room was 101 and was right next to the neighboring hotel's generator, which made noise like a large diesel tractor, often starting at four in the morning! If you still take the chance and book here, cross your fingers that you don’t get apartment 101 and that you don’t have to complain to the reception about anything. I would not recommend anyone to stay here.

We loved our stay. The room was fantastic. We were down at room number 5. The facilities were great and the staff at the pool bar we very friendly and helpful. Our room was cleaned and looked after to such a fantastic standard. We will defintly be back.