While I do not expect sterling service and good quality rooms, the concerige supervisor had an extremely unhelpful attitude and was either prejudiced against Asians or women in general. Before our arrival, we had emailed to the hotel about cutting short our stay at the hotel due to flight changes. However upon our check-in, we were informed that the hotel did not receive our notice and the supervisor was adamant in charging us according to our original booking, which was ridiculous since we were not going to stay throughout. He refused to do offer alternatives/solutions and was rude and unreasonable.

In addition, the room we had were in bad condition. The hangers were out of shape. The toilet was old and the windows were dirty. In a nutshell, it was not exactly satisfactory.

The location was not too bad though and was easily accessible near the train station. However, it's not the genteel neighbourhood, if one is looking for one. It's somewhat a cross between a commercial and business district, with not much crowd at night and one should try not to wonder around at night as well.

I initially booked the Stalis Hotel, but on arrival (after walking past several drug users openly injecting themselves on the doorsteps all the way to the Stalis and even on the doorstep next to the reception) we were advised that we couldn’t stay at this hotel due to problems with the airconditioning. But we weren’t to worry as the hotel we were moving to was their sister hotel and was much “more expensive hotel of Athens and special luxury”. The man on reception advised us that we could be rest assured that it was better and he actually worked on that reception most of the time so he would see us later and many times over our stay.. needless to say we never saw him again ! Although we did see on numerous occasions whilst passing through reception other re-allocated travellers from the Stalis for varying different reasons !!

However, despite the fact that there was a very large number of ‘ladies of the night’ all around the corner on which the Hotel is based, both day and night, I preferred this than running the gauntlet of the drug aspect on the original hotel booked.

With regards to the Hotel Parnon, I think that we got what we paid for even if it is considered as ‘expensive and luxury’. The interior is very dated, despite the fact that their Hotel webpage and also Booking.com state that the rooms have been renovated/refurbished. The decor has possibly not been attended to for many years, the floral bedding (complete with cigarette burns) was very old fashioned. Our bed both tilted horizontally and vertically which took some adjusting too, but to be honest after all the sightseeing etc, pretty much think we could have slept on anything. My biggest gripe is the smell of smoke in the rooms (both ours and our travelling friends).. Even though my other half smokes, he always sits outside on balconies whilst I shut the door completely but evidently not many other previous occupants do the same thing. Many cigarette burns could be found on all the furniture, carpets, etc. Additionally the net curtains could have done with a good ‘white-wash’ to remove both the yellow tinge and cigarette smoke, as could the main curtains.

The room was compact but bearable for the time spent in it. It wasn’t the cleanest of rooms we’ve been in but we didn’t expect the Ritz in terms of standards. It was clean overall and the en-suite although again in need of a ‘tidy-up’ was acceptable. Considering the cost was only 40 EUR per room per night including breakfast (which was continental and a little bit on the poor side), I guess complaints should be kept to a minimum but if you read the webpages and saw what you would be expecting to get and then saw what you got, you would be one very unhappy traveller. Fortunately we didn’t have the luxury of seeing or reviewing the Parnon before staying there, if we had have done then disappointment in terms of standards would have been first and foremost.

I wouldn’t believe the references to the reception staff being helpful with info etc, as on every occasion we needed reception we were met with a little disgruntled snort about the fact that they were having to leave the hotel bar to serve us to collect our keys at reception. The staff did both jobs.. bar and front desk.. Additionally I asked a couple of questions about the area to be told both times to ask the lady in the morning, but to be honest never ever saw a lady in the mornings or any other time come to that. We found more info and help from a very friendly waiter in the restaurant in the little sidewalk on the left just above the hotel !!! Advising us of routes shut on metro, places to go etc.

On a plus side, I can say that in terms of location for the price, this was perfect. If you look at one of the Athens city maps, it looks a horrendously long way to the sites such as the Acropolis etc, but it wasn’t!! We decided on the first night to start what we though was going to be a long walk up 3e Septembre St, across Ormonia square (big roundabout) and straight down the street incorporating shops, the market, some cafes, etc., we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the square with access to the Athens Flea Market, the Plaka area (highly recommend for evening meals) and Hadrian’s Library right there in approximately 20 minutes and at no cost of transport.

A nice little walk, obviously as with all cities care must be taken with belongings whilst walking about, but we saw nothing that concerned us and took all the usual precautions with bags, money, cameras, phones etc. Ormonia Sq (yes a little scary late at night but no worse than any UK city cenre) is a key station on the Metro (multiple connections/lines) which we used a couple of times and were warned by platform security guards to watch our belongings particularly on the trains, but even whilst returning from our U2 concert very late at night, didn’t feel particularly vulnerable at all.

We did the usual sightseeing, and would suggest doing some of them early morning particularly in high season for both the heat, sun and the other volumes of tourists. One place not highly publicised for visiting which we felt should be, was the old Olympic Stadium (or as labelled on the maps the Pathenon Stadium) not far from the Acropolis, 3 EUR each to get in but you got a audio tour and was very interesting, again consider the heat with all the marble to reflect the sun.

On the whole a pleasant stay, no real problems and yes would recommend stay here but obviously be aware 3 star allocation was probably a few years ago. But time spent at the Hotel is minimal so could be lived with.

A nicely kept mid-range hotel for those who'd rather spend their money on activities other than hotel room, yet want a minimum of comfort and convenience. For 50 Euro a night you get a nice, clean, smallish(but hey, this is Europe...) room with a comfortable bed, clean sheet, air conditioning works, hot water, helpful staff, fast wifi connection and a well furnished bar in the lobby. It's a 3 minutes walk from the Omonoia metro station, and 2 minutes to a self-laundry and dry cleaning place. No parking, but I've never had problems finding parking on the adjoining Chalkokondyli street.
While there are prostitute on the corner of Tritis Semptembriou, they are part of the Athenian landscape, they are friendly and non-threatening and won't bother you once they know you're not buying.

Everything you can expect from a 3 star hotel and a little extra. I had a small but excellent room: very good bed, good little bathroom (shower, no tub), very good air conditioning; sheets and towels were changed every day.
The hotel does not have a restaurant (there are plenty of decent places in the neighbourhood), but a nice [coffee] bar with terrace with very reasonable prices (open all night). A decent breakfast is served in a separate room.
Very nice and helpful staff who will go to great lengths to make you comfortable - this is definitely a reason to return to this hotel.

NB: you may have read that Omonia is a bad area with lots of drug addicts and prostitutes. I think it is fair to say that the neighbourhood has its fair share of these phenomena, but in Athens, that does not mean you won't be safe - if you don't bother people, they won't bother you. Also, there are a lot of police on the streets, and the short walk from the subway station to the hotel is definitely not a dangerous one.