Akti Palace

We stayed at Akti Palace mid October for 4 nights. Booked for a bit of luxury but unfortunately does not live up to its 5 stars! Rooms tired, especially the bathrooms. Shower in a very awkward place that covers the floor in water. Towels very tired and need replacing. Food was ok, nothing special. Cocktails pre mixed and not nice at all! Pool area nice but no real view from any part of the hotel which is a shame. Sea was lovely to swim in this time of year and was easy to get to from the hotel. Staff were all very helpful. Hired a scooter from moto rent traffic which is a short walk from hotel. We asked reception to phone for us and they dropped it at the hotel the next day. We would not return to this hotel.

Think very carefully before booking here. The hotel is in the middle of wasteland. The nearest little town is just full of tourist shops and nothing else. Hardly any public transport. The shuttle bus is old and crowded. We couldn’t use the little beach. Very run down, small and crowded. You get no sea views within the complex. The name of “palace” is a joke. I have never seen a more depressing bar or reception area. Think a 2-star Travelodge. I couldn’t sit there and enjoy a drink. A lot of the staff are very grumpy. Maybe the star rating is inflated in order to extract more tourist tax. The drinks are awful. Ready made sugary cocktails and no branded drinks to speak of. They will only make the ready made cocktails for you so if you ask for anything else forget it. Only one type of beer which my husband struggled with. Corners are cut all the time. The bars have limited opening hours, no waiter service and no tables round the pool. Definitely cuts down on the amount people drink! Not enough toilets and they are awful. I couldn’t even lock the door despite trying both cubicles. Rooms are very basic. Again think Travelodge. I have never had such an awkward shower in my life. I sat down and held the shower head the whole time otherwise the bathroom would have been flooded. A lot of noise from the hotel next door. The food is limited, repetitive, very oily and salty. Not hot either. Not enough seating even though it wasn’t super busy at this time. Some nights have been very cold but the entertainment is still held outside so we couldn’t enjoy it because we were freezing. No heaters or anything. Really insecure. Anybody could just walk in. At one point we couldn’t open our room door and we were stuck in the room. Of course the phone wasn’t working and it took a good few days to get it fixed.

What an absolutely fantastic 8n at the Akti Palace hotel on Kos in Greece in mid October. Despite the timing, the hotel(s) were reasonably busy+80% occupancy. For reference, we were a family of four, 9f and 4f travelling from Manchester with one of our party being sensitive to eggs, milk and soya. Clearly we were apprehensive of the buffet style food offering but we need not have worried. Arriving in the hotel at the mention of allergies for one of our girls we were immediately introduced to Captain Aylin. What an absolute star she is. She made us feel right at home communicating what our girl could and couldn't have at the buffet. She spoke to our girls as equals and we were introduced to chef Panormitis who worked with us on making our f4 holiday as normal as possible. Even going as far as working out how to make pancakes and pizza (no eggs, milk or soya). Even the nights we were at the set menu restaurants, Aylin had communicated our dietary complications and chefs and waiters had been well briefed and where necessary had arranged alternative arrangements for our daughter (e.g. the Oriental restaurant). Staff generally were absolutely brilliant. As an example, our eldest daughter misplaced her cuddly octopus in the room one night. She was distraught, thinking she's left it at one of the bars. Several staff had mentioned looking for it the day after before the cleaning staff had found it (likely well hidden under the bed) and placed on the bed to one very happy girl and several staff asking about it in the following day (one of the guests even crochet a replacement for her following a Facebook post). Katy and Asime at the pool bar were absolutely fantastic with our youngest, making her feel welcomed and giving her lots of cuddles. Staff absolutely went above and beyond here. Would 100% recommend to anyone considering a holiday to Kos. Staff who made the holiday were Captain Aylin, Fatma, Katy, Asime, Chef Panormitis. Honourable mentions to all the behind the curtain staff - cooks, cleaners, Angela at reception who were all absolute professionals when we interacted with them. Akti Palace should give these people bonuses! Absolutely key staff.

Nice hotel but not 4star plus as advertised. Staff exceptional friendly. Room dated and tired. Not enough storage, poor lighting, flies in wet room. Matter reported to reception and dealt with. Definitely not branded drinks, cocktails ready mixed and weak, did not expect paper cups around pool for a 4star plus complex should have been plastic reusable cups.Food ok just not hot enough, pool lovely, sunbeds comfortable, still your towel rush to get one. Beach diabolical, not hotels fault, only 2 sunbeds in length sand bags to walk into sea, beach shoes definitely needed even then still slippery and dangerous, just don’t bother! Grounds nicely kept maid service good, towels are very tired thin and frayed. Entertainment not bad held in evening at new beach bar which is not open during the day. No entertainment team during day not that it bothered us but found it unusual, maybe because it’s nearing end of season.Free shuttle bus into Kardemena is good but gets really busy. Would we return no!

Reception staff were very helpful, polite and attentive which turned out to be quite useful as we were at the desk a fair bit. We arrived at our room to find it had not been cleaned properly and definitely was not up to a 5 star standard. The room was very small and the bathroom was run down finding we had no lock on the bathroom door (we then were moved to another room which was a lot nicer but still not convinced it was 5* standard). Half the things in the gym were broken or out of order but generally speaking the gym was very short on equipment. Any equipment that was working was very outdated. The food in the buffet restaurants was lovely and there were a good amount of options for my partner who is a vegetarian which can be rare at an all inclusive buffet. Most of the cocktails came from a premix bottle and tasted overly sweet. The hotel had a nice calm atmosphere with some lovely areas and was not bad value for money. We would have considered it to have been better value for money if it was advertised as a 4* hotel. The fact we could also use the other Akti hotel next door was a very nice touch too and made up for some of the flaws in our hotel. The buffet restaurant at the hotel next door was substantially better and if we had to use the restaurant in our hotel we would have been disappointed. The free shuttle to Kardamena was very appreciated, very frequent and on time and a lovely town with nice shops, bars and restaurants.