First off: this is a pretty good hotel, most guests will surely enjoy their stay. The rooms are well-appointed and many have great rooms, the pool is nice, service is friendly and professional.
But for five stars and a Small Leading Hotel of the World, there are a few things that weren't quite right:
Communication ahead of my trip was a bit rough. Ms. Alexaki misunderstood a few things in my emails and twice ignored my question about a private airport transfer with the hotel's shuttle - so I booked my own... missed revenue for the hotel.
Selection at breakfast was adequate rather than impressive, but I appreciate there are space constraints. Several foods, both at breakfast and dinner, were just barely warm anymore, which shouldn't happen given the small quantities and low number of guests that is being cooked for. Unfortunately no cloth napkins, which is a must for five stars. While the breakfast/restaurant area played piano music, pop/electro has played at the pool - since the two are so close to one another, you would always hear both, which was irritating.
In the room, all provided pillows were too soft for my taste. The mattress, however, was great for my back. The curtain in my room was damaged, the sideboard had water damage, and one outside wall on the terrace was stained (see images).
The bathroom sports thick but rather scratchy and yellowed towels, and the modern, rectangular wash basin has almost no slope to its drain, so water, and everything that swims in it, rather dries than drains. There is a slight unpleasant, funky smell in the shower, probably coming from the drain/plumbing. For a Greek island, it was a pleasant surprise that you are allowed to flush toilet paper in the toilet.
Housekeeping was okay, just once a used band-aid, which I forgot on the terrace, wasn't picked up, and the phone should be dusted off more frequently (see image). Unfortunately the housekeeping team got to my room only in the afternoon, around 2pm, which on occasion clashed with getting an early afternoon break from the heat. With only 49 rooms to handle, you'd think they'd be done by mid-day. The rooms only have a do-not-disturb signal, but no please-make-up-my-room-with-priority signal.
Loungers at the pool, while good quality, had no good setting for backrest angle to read in. It's either bolt-upright, or reclined quite far.
The small gym is located in a room with no natural light under the pool. Some cardio machines are very basic and don't function correctly, the free weights only go up to 15kg. There is AC, a TV, free towels and water, which is good.
I did not make use of the hotel shuttle to Mykonos Town as the timings make no sense; it should be 5pm (to town) and 9pm return, that's more than enough time for roaming, shopping and dinner, and it avoids the afternoon heat.
A few things the hotel can't be blamed for but that might still irritate picky guests:
- there is some construction noise ca. 300 meters away from the hotel, but only during the day
- there is a very noisy generator running somewhere in the area, could even be on the other side of the bay, but it's a bit annoying when sitting on the terrace/balcony in the evenings, disrupting the calm atmosphere that people come to this quiet area of the island for
- the tap water as well as the water in the pool is desalinated sea water, and it still tastes quite salty
If this all sounds like nit-picking - it certainly is. None of the above really stands in the way of spending a relaxing vacation at Archipelagos, away from the hustle and bustle of Mykonos town and the party beaches in the south-west. But they still shouldn't occur at a five-star SLH costing over €200 a night.
GB