Too many rooms, small pool, small restaurant, small reception, small beach area, small and non operational gym-spa-jacussi, few personnel, all together in a squeezed plot of land. The suites are not two separable rooms as advertised. The supposingly separate part of the suite is part of the balcony covered on the top with removable building material and of course with no air condition. No one can stay and sleep in that part of the room in the hot Greek summer with the doors closed and no air condition.
This is definitely a 2-3 star hotel very similar to the other 25-30 hotels operating in the area of Santa Marina. It is a fair offer for room prices from € 80 - 140 per night even in high season.

We booked this so called 5 star hotel for my only two week vacation this year. I must say, unfortunately because this hotel is far away from real 5 start hotel. Perhaps 3+ is more suitable class for this house of noises.

What we wanted to do on vacation? Just relax and sleep late. It was truly impossible in our 1st floor room. Do not take room 101 in any case if possible. Like other reviewer says here: "Since 8:00 in the morning the cleaning staff was moving furniture around making tremendous noise that woke me up and these noises kept from other near rooms for several hours!!! Also bad sound proof in the rooms. "

We really confirm that and add some more perhaps elevator motor or somekind of pool filter system just behind our wall in that room on every half an hour.

If you have been in 5 star hotel, rooms of this hotel are not spacious at all. Normal hotel rooms with normal equipments. Nothing more, except one wall of the room was painted resently and it was still wet behind the paint and paint was slipping down. Also one window was wet between glasses. No insulation at all and quick painting in the spring time. I am definitely allergic to mould and after three days my condition went quite bad but luckily I had my medicin with me and I handled it but it still is not fun.

Showers in the rooms were so narrow that there was quite difficult to bath between wall and fixed glass. Bathtub was about half meter wide and glass was attached straight to it. No ventilation at all in bathroom!

Aircondition is good in the rooms and beds quite ok.

Does this still sound like 5 stars? Absolutely over rated hotel.

I am sorry to say but hotel staff were good and bad. Two of waiters were all the time real nasty but others did their best for guests. Receptionists were very helpful and everything requested taken care immediatelly. Great job from you and great help allways with smile!

Pool is very nice without screaming kids and water toys. No sun bed reservations with towels except, sorry to say, by my own country citizens, Finns. Shame on you!

Food; breakfast is having normal selection of eggs, bacon, potatoes, fruits etc. but it is almost same everyday. We got really bored with it. Service in the morning was quite fast.
Why in the world breakfast is served only to 10AM? One hour longer could sound better when marketing this hotel to adults.

Lunch is really ok in the pool bar. View of the bar is very nice. Hamburgers vere good, pasta was good and size of dish was sure enough even for hungry people.

Dinner; you can pay it in restaurant, 10 euros per person. So, you can calculate now how much travel agency takes profit of them;) Selection good again. I liked it but after all, menu repeated too often. And for food allergic; in Greece you can´t see list of food ingredients anywhere. My milk allergy was really not a problem with this kitchen. Allways ask and they will create something for you. That was the best of this hotel.

Other services; one internet PC working with coins in the warmest corner of the lobby. Not much privacy. And there was wifi and internet in the rooms and it was very expensive. No free internet in Greece. Nowadays that must be included in room price.

Location of this hotel is quite nice; close to the sea and restaurants just on another side of the road. And that road we will remember the rest of our lives. Traffic was going 60 to 80 kmh on that road and it felt like there is not drivers in those cars and bikes at all. At leasat they didn´t had brakes at all. It really was our extreme sport for two weeks! Life-threatning experience! Never seen that kind of disregarding tourists! Do people in Crete want to kill tourists which are providing money for their living on winter?

And as a crown for whole relaxing trip, taxis were on strike whole two weeks.

Anyhow, hotel classification for Santa Marina Plaza is really 3 or 3+. And I travel for work mostly. Far away from e.g. Hilton etc. Not worth of money at all. Aurinkomatkat was our travel agency and this is message for them: nice pictures doesn´t mean high standard hotels.

We had a fantastic stay at Santa Marina Plaza which is a wonderful hotel with great service. We also had dinner and breakfast included in our package.

The service at the restaurant was second-to-none and the waiters at the restaurant really stood out and provided incredible service and help. They also have great sense of humour, and just makes sure you have a great time. My partner is allergic to some foods, and they remembered and made sure that she could eat the stuff they had. They even made some extra stuff for her a couple of times when there wasn't too much she could eat.
So, we were very glad we ate there, because the other 2 times we've been in the Chania area, we have not been particularly satisfied with the food (at various other places). This one was great! Loved the fresh salad!

The rooms were very spacious and large bathroom as well. Very clean and high standard, for being in Crete.
There are not too many sun beds at the pool area, but it wasn't really a problem. The sun beds at the pool area are free of charge, but you have to pay for the sun beds on the beach. You can get clean towels for the sun beds each day as well. You just have to pay a deposit for 10 Euros for each towel, which you get back. No problem there.
The hotel is also rather quiet (which is a good thing). We loved that we could have a nice relaxing and peaceful holiday. The pool also was wonderful and it has the same depth all over, which I quite like.


I really recommend this hotel and would not hesitate to return. And I have already recommended it for some friends.

Santa Marina Plaza hotel was very quiet, only 51 rooms and its location just on the beach was good.
All staff in the hotel were friendly and service was unbelievably good.
We had booked half board, breakfast and dinner and both has wide range of food and variation was sufficient.
We had a Junior Suite no: 318, which has a spacious balcony with own sunbeds and umbrella and also the room was very nice and had a beautiful view to the sea and pool area.
We strongly recommend this hotel, especially for couples.

Best regards

Matti ja Riitta Ojala
Turku
FINLAND