The Royal Senses Resort & Spa Crete, Curio Collection by Hilton

Joerg Plechinger

Despite a somewhat difficult start, we ended up having a truly wonderful stay. The hotel itself is absolutely high-end, beautifully designed, and offers exceptional service. We especially want to highlight the entire staff and management team: incredibly friendly, attentive, professional, and genuinely solution-oriented. Even though our initial issues were not caused by the hotel itself, the team made a tremendous effort to improve our experience — including upgrading us to the highest room category. We are genuinely grateful for that. The overall quality of the resort, the atmosphere, and the warmth of the staff are simply outstanding. The only thing future guests should know: the hotel is not directly on the beach. That disappointed us a bit at first. However, there is a beautiful beach nearby that we absolutely fell in love with: Spilies Beach. Not exactly a hidden gem anymore, but truly fantastic. Helpful tip for future travelers: if snorkeling or freediving is important to you, definitely visit Spilies Beach. Also, renting a car is highly recommended, as it gives you access to many stunning beaches and bays nearby. In the end, everything turned out beautifully and we left with very good memories. Thank you again to the entire team!

Diego Rodrigo Prieto Calderon

We went there for our honeymoon and both the hotel and its facilities completely exceeded our expectations. Everything felt top quality from the start. The staff were exceptional right from the moment we arrived. We did have a small issue with the room, but they handled it straight away and offered us a change without any hassle at all. Throughout our stay, they were incredibly attentive and really paid attention to every little detail. The breakfast and buffet were varied and high quality, and both the spa and the rest of the hotel facilities were excellent. Overall, it was a perfect experience, and we’ll definitely be coming back.

Nouf T

⭐☆☆☆☆ (1/5) This has been one of the most disappointing hotel experiences we have ever had. What makes this even more frustrating is that we informed the hotel about our booking mistake before we had even checked in. We explained immediately upon arrival that we had accidentally booked the wrong property. We were not asking for a full refund. In fact, out of respect for the hotel, we agreed to stay for two nights even though we already knew this was not the property we intended to book. We only requested a refund for the remaining unused three nights. Booking.com agreed to help and informed us that the only thing required was for the hotel to approve the email request. Despite this simple and reasonable solution, the hotel refused to approve the request. We made several attempts to speak with management and requested to discuss the matter with the General Manager, but no meaningful solution was ever offered. Unfortunately, the problems did not stop there. On our very first night, the shower flooded so badly that water spread throughout the room. We initially assumed it was our mistake and even apologized to the staff. My husband slipped twice because the floor became extremely slippery. A few hours later, the exact same thing happened again while I was showering. Water was overflowing from the shower area and spreading across the room. I had to stop my shower halfway through, covered in soap, because I was worried about the amount of water pouring outside. Reception sent someone to inspect the issue, and we were told maintenance would only come the following day. We were instructed not to use the shower until maintenance arrived and were given towels to place all over the floor to contain the flooding. Imagine paying for one of the highest room categories in the hotel and then being unable to properly use your bathroom. We woke up the next morning to what looked more like an EMERGENCY CLEANUP OPERATION than a luxury hotel room in a premium resort. The attached photos and videos were taken after we had already cleaned up much of the flooding ourselves. The beach experience was equally disappointing and, in our opinion, highly misleading. The beach is not even located at this hotel. Guests must take transportation to the sister hotel in order to access it. The promotional photos create the impression of a beautiful beach destination with crystal-clear turquoise waters, but the reality could not have been more different. The beach was extremely small, overcrowded, shared between two hotels, and mostly covered with rocks and pebbles. Sunbeds were packed tightly together with very little personal space. Even more disappointing was the sea itself. The water appeared dark, greyish, and murky rather than the stunning blue and turquoise colours presented in the hotel’s marketing photos. The reality was nothing like what was advertised. We travelled all the way to Crete for one reason: to enjoy the island’s famous beaches and beautiful sea. That was the entire purpose of our trip. We did not even use the swimming pools or most of the resort facilities because our priority was the beach experience. Instead, we spent our stay dealing with maintenance problems, flooding issues, disappointment, and an unwillingness from management to offer any reasonable solution. As things currently stand, we have made the difficult decision to leave the hotel after only two nights and move elsewhere, despite having paid for a five-night stay in full. Nobody voluntarily walks away from three fully prepaid nights unless the experience has become completely unacceptable. For the price paid, the room category booked, and the expectations created by the hotel’s marketing, this experience fell dramatically below what should be expected from a luxury resort. If your goal is simply to have a room with a sea view, you may find this property acceptable. If you’re looking for a genuine beach holiday, reliable maintenance, and service that matches the price charged, I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Jan Grob

In all transparency, this is not a 5* hotel and it certainly doesn't feel like a curio collection hotel either. Couple of good things first: clean and beautiful rooms, great breakfast selection & solid hotel gym, generally friendly staff at food outlets. but with that, it's basically all - check-in times shouldn't take 25minutes, sun loungers should be kept together neatly and maintained well (0 out of 9 were complete), towels should be available when the pool opens (note as well, you get 2 towels for 2 guests, with a cardsystem?! that's expected in a 3* hotel, not here...), the spa pool not being included in the room rate (?!) and getting harshly told off isn't the vibe either. I can't recall what we paid for, but it for sure isn't worth the 600+$ you pay in peakseason. Especially considered that the beach is only reachable by shuttle and looks like a shut off reused harbor. We are very disappointed, because we were looking to book this hotel for 3 years now - but expectations were not met at all. Unusual, but we won't come back for sure.

Angie Hollingworth

After our recent 2 weeks visit and our first visit for many years to Crete, we where left very disappointed with a few factors of this hotel. We do not normally leave reviews but we feel that it is important after our stay that we do so. The hotel itself is beautiful but there are several areas that let it down and I would not consider these in keeping with a 5 star spa hotel. The buffet service for both breakfast and dinner is fragmented at best and painful to experience. Luke warm food with very limited choice and exceptionally slow drinks service. On most days we have finished our food before the drinks had arrived at the table. We also had the same experience with ordering snacks and drinks arount the pool, there has to be a better way than counting umbrellas to find a customer. Not the best experience in the Spa, booking a treatment which in turn allows us to use the Thalassi Pool which on the day wasn't working. We had to highlight this to the Spa Manager who apartantly wasn't aware. At the poolside bar after receiving the wrong brand of Gin drink, I observed new drink being made with short measure applied. I can only hope this wasn't the case across the whole stay. We also booked a table at the speciality restaurant after receiving a complimentary meal for two voucher from the hotel to then be told after waiting 30 minutes for our order to be taken, that we could only order certain items. Again very poor service. Upon checking out the reception asked if we had a great time and we advised we would pop our concerns in a google review, at no point was she concerned or asked us what our issues where. Check out and take your money. In short, the hotel facilities are very good with your staff being attentive and happy but the process using for ordering drinks etc need to be addressed. Would we stay here again, unfortunatly the answer is No.