Calypso Beach Hotel

The Calypso Beach Hotel, located in Kallithea, Rhodes Island, offers a mixed experience for its guests, blending excellent amenities with a few notable drawbacks. While many guests praise the hotel's comfortable atmosphere, plentiful food, and friendly staff, significant concerns regarding security and room quality have been raised.

👍 The Positives

• Food & Drink: Guests consistently highlight the excellent and plentiful food and drinks. One reviewer stated, "you will never be hungry in this place," praising the variety and quality.
• Staff & Service: The staff generally receives high marks for being friendly, helpful, and providing excellent service. Restaurant and bar staff are particularly noted for their attentiveness, and housekeeping is described as good.
• Facilities & Location: The hotel boasts great facilities, including a good-sized and clean pool. Its location right by a lovely beach is a significant advantage. Air conditioning in the rooms is effective and appreciated, especially during hot weather.
• Cleanliness: The hotel and rooms are frequently described as very clean.
• Renovated Rooms: Some guests have had the pleasure of staying in newly renovated rooms, which significantly enhanced their experience, making it "very pleasant."
• Entertainment: The hotel offers entertainment of a good standard, with activities keeping children entertained.

👎 Areas for Improvement

• Security & Safety: A major concern was raised regarding a lack of security practices. One guest reported that cleaning staff allowed them into their room without any verification of identity or key card usage, suggesting that "anyone could walk off the street into the hotel and be let into the rooms by the cleaning." This highlights a critical safety vulnerability.
• Room Quality & Design:
  • Some rooms are described as "poor old fashion rooms" or "slightly cramped" for more than three people.
  • A specific issue noted was very low ceilings in at least some rooms (around 180 cm in the room and 175 cm in the shower), which could be uncomfortable for taller guests.
• Guest Demographics & Atmosphere: The hotel primarily caters to a German customer basis. This can make it difficult for English-speaking guests, particularly younger ones, to socialize and make friends.
• Smoking Policy: For non-smokers, the widespread allowance of smoking anywhere outside can be "a little annoying," as it means spending evenings "breathing in other people's fag smoke."
• WiFi Connectivity: Guests noted that the WiFi could be better in rooms and outside areas.
• Sunbed Culture: The "towel on the sunbeds early every morning" stereotype is unfortunately accurate here.

Considerations for Travelers

The Calypso Beach Hotel appears to be a good option for those prioritizing plentiful food, a clean environment, excellent service from staff, and direct beach access. The effective air conditioning and good entertainment are also strong points.

However, potential guests should be aware of the significant security concerns mentioned and the possibility of staying in older, potentially cramped rooms with low ceilings. If a predominantly English-speaking environment is important for your holiday experience, or if you are a non-smoker sensitive to ambient smoke, you might want to consider alternative options. Despite these points, some guests have expressed a strong desire to return, highlighting the hotel's overall appeal for certain types of holidays.

While the hotel and facilities are great there are some major issues that make it impossible to enjoy it. The worst issue was the absolute lack of security and safety practices of the staff. In essence anyone could walk off the street into the hotel and be let into the rooms by the cleaning. This literally happened to us. The only "identifier" that the customers have are their room key cards. Me (F-early30s) and a friend (F-late20s) were returning to our room and did not have our key cards out yet. The cleaning ladies were in our room so we decided to wait outside in the hallway. When the cleaners were done they let us into our room without verifying in any way that it was actually our room, or having us use the key cards. This was on our first morning so we had not even met them before this.At least some of the rooms have a very, very low ceilings. Around 180 cm in the room and around 175cm in the shower.

The hotel is very comfortable. I had the occasion to stay in a newly renovated room, so the experience was very pleasant. And let's say it clearly... you will never be hungry in this place :)

Friendly staff, poor old fashion rooms, good house keeping. Wifi could be better in rooms and outside areas.

Rooms slightly cramped if more than three, but very clean and excellent service, mainly a German customer basis which our daughter found difficult to make friends but found some English people eventually so that wasn't too bad. Food and drinks were excellent and lots of it, restaurant staff and bar staff were very helpful and always made sure you were ok and everything was kept clean. Air conditioning in the rooms was a life saver as it was really hot during the day and night.The pool was a good size and kept clean. The beach was lovely too and right off the hotel pool. We don't smoke and you can smoke anywhere outside which can be a little annoying.The entertainment is of a good standard and the children are always kept entertained from what we could see as ours is 13.All in all I had an excellent holiday, excellent service, excellent food, just needed more English people and designated smoking areas and it would be perfect. We will definitely be back xx

Lovely hotel, great food and lovely staff, however there were only 3 English families we could find all holiday, the vast majority are German, nothing wrong with that, only that our 13yo daughter found it hard to find people to chat to and hang out with.And yes the towel on the sunbeds early every morning is a stereotype that's actually very accurate :)Very smokey.... no smoking laws here so we spent the evenings breathing in other people's fag smoke, for some reason 98% of guests smoke?Room is OK, beds very comfy.If we had been told it was a hotel that did not have many uk guests we would have have booked a different hotel.Us English are very lazy with foreign languages lol.