Malia Holidays Hotel

Great location . Need a major update

This hotel would have gotten a great review if not for the terrible manager Alex from New York, in my whole life I have never encountered a ruder person who is supposed to be helpful to hotel guests.

Firstly myself and 3 other girls I was staying with were walking through the corridor at 6pm and laughing though not outrageously loud especially considering that most of the guests were a young crowd based on the hotel being in the Malia strip. The manager came around the corner half naked and shouted extortionately loudly at us came extremely close and swore at us calling us “f*** stupid” other names and insulted our intelligence, belittling us and making us feel unsafe.

From that point it seemed like he was out to get us, he put us on prohibition and said we were one incident away from being kicked out which was shocking as all we had done was laugh. From that point he continuously made rude comments towards us and about other guests commenting on girls short skirts in degrading ways and being racist towards Romanian people and made us feel unsafe.

This was not an isolated experience other guests woke up with him over their bed in the morning demanding ID documents despite the fact they had been there all week. We were terrified we would find him in our room one day especially considering the fact we were vulnerable young girls and often slept in states of undress. Overall he created an extremely unsafe environment and I would recommend managment taking a serious look at his employment and would recommend he goes to anger management as I felt unsafe with him in the hotel.

My second visit to this hotel this year, I always enjoy my holiday here (see previous reviews). I have to write this review due to the new super-fast wifi that has been installed. This enabled me to stream films and live football games on my device within the hotel- this is especially handy should the weather turn bad which occasionally happens, or if I just needed to stay out of the sun in a nice cool air-conditioned room sometimes after a tiring previous night- will hopefully be returning next year to see other familier faces that also return here every year.

This hotel is located in the heart of Malia, all shops and restaurants are close. The pool area is well maintained, filled with fruit trees and enough sunbeds for everyone. Pool bar offers nice food and drinks, ice cream, coffee etc. Friendly service. Overall there is a cosy feeling almost throughout the family owned hotel. Breakfast waiters were the only two persons at the hotel who did not seem to enjoy their job. No smile, no good morning and very slow filling of the empty dishes. The owner showed up some mornings and then all dishes became full quickly.

Rooms are small and they have seen their best days, but silent and powerful air conditioning makes up for a lot! I need my bedroom to be cool and you could adjust this just as you please. Separate beds were unfortunately very uncomfortable and shower corner so small that the bathroom floor got completely wet during shower. Very good and cold fridge is a big plus.
Pool hours 10-18 seemed a little short.
Parking can be very difficult as there are no parking spaces for hotel guests.
We had half board and could choose between lunch or dinner. We chose lunch and we enjoyed it. A lot of food so you wont be hungry, fixed menu. Tasty greek food. Usually salad and soup, main course and dessert.
Overall a warm and welcoming feeling from arrival till the end. Despite the little negatives we would be happy to back.

Tv doesn’t work
Only cleaned the room 2 times in 7 days
Left no ash tray for smokers
Outdated rooms
Can’t take ur own drinks to pool
Breakfast was cold and poor selection every morning, cold eggs beans and sausage.

The only positives:

Staff was okay
Short walk to strip

The Malia Holidays hotel is fine for your basic needs. It's more like a relaxing hotel, in the mid of the party street, The Strip. The room we were assigned had A/C and a small fridge, that can carry a good amount of water bottles.. much needed this year.. we hit 38°c several days. Luckily there is a supermarket across the street. You can grab a 12x pack of 0,5l for €1,60.

Room: The beds were like spring floors, and the pillows were hard and uncomfortable. I have never slept so bad in my life, in a hotel. The bathroom was rather challenging, because the shower niche was litterally designed for todlers. And when you shower you flood the entire bathroom, no matter how you shower. On the balcony there is a drying rack, chairs and a table.

Pool area: The pool is a must-have during the hot summer days. Problem is that the pool is almost as warm as the outside temperature, and I'm sure it doesn't get cleaned daily. There is a hint of chloride, but not sufficient for the amount of people that take a dip on daily basis, so, be mindful. Take a cold shower behind the bar if you need to cool down as an alternative. The bar serves delicious Gyros, milkshakes, drinks etc. shame it already closes at 18:00.

Food: I bought a half-pension, meaning breakfast and dinner for this hotel. We quickly figured out that none of these were an attractive option. The scrambled eggs for breakfast were as stale as the background music, the meat for dinner was as dry as the overall atmosphere, and you could see one plate have a different serving one day, and the day after, the other came back - double as dry as before. Luckily the sweet stuff and cereal was great. There is a bakery next to the church, go there instead if you want a breakfast that satisfies. You can pay €15 for the buffet. Don't. Just don't. The crappiest tavern on the street sells better food, for half the price in one serving.

Staff: Some of the staff are welcoming and smiling. Then there is the older generation that look at you like you're daft for each question asked. The people at the pool bar seem most "sane". Shame that they disappear after 18:00.

Experience: I traveled with my 14 y/o son, 20/7 until 27/7- 2023, and, well, we're pretty chill when it comes to a lot of things. The room was alright, the facilities were okay. We accepted things as just being good. But, the final judgement to Malia Holidays, which really stood out, was the "restaurant" buffet "food". That was an absolute no-go. It shouldn't even be thrown out to the stray animals on the streets.

Overall: I've never visited Malia before. But, it's very clear. I'm never going there again. If you're traveling as a family / single parent with kid(s), or with an older crew, and just want to do the pool-thing for a week, save some money, this hotel will fulfill your needs.

If you're out for party-party, look elsewhere.

I really wanted to like it. I will try to give a balanced view. Its family run rather than a big chain, and I wanted to support that concept. However, the lady at check in was so rude. So unwelcoming it really was a very bad first impression. I don't recall a hello/ welcome, rather a demand for an email to be printed so they got paid. I appreciate that they needed this, but there is a way to ask.. perhaps with a smile and hello first. Rooms are okay, I can't count the times I and other family members walked into the bedposts at the bottom of the beds. Shower floods the entire bathroom. The beds are really lumpy. Positives the fridge was fab, it was clean and the aircon worked well. Location was fantastic. We had a room slightly overlooking the pool. It was quiet with the strip and beautiful old town a few minutes walk away. Large supermarket opposite sold everything you could ever need on holiday. The pool, such a disappointment that it closes so early, 6pm. The weather was still in the 30s by 6pm, could of stayed there later. It was not only that it closed at 6pm, at 5:45 the prep started. The looks from the staff the locking of gates and the staff standing with their bags ready to go. As soon as that clock struck 6pm you were ushered out like sheep ! Not a very relaxing experience. Positive is there is a luggage room. The food was strange, fried onions at breakfast. We payed for the evening meal. Wish we hadn't, meals on the strip are offered around the same price. The food was never warm. Eggs were cold. The staff hovered a lot moving things and made you feel like you were being monitored regarding how much food you were taking. Again, it's not a relaxing experience. The Greek salad was the saving grace.

Currently staying at the hotel, really disappointed at paying for half board as the food is terrible, they serve the weirdest concoctions of food and never have any bacon for breakfast - we are having to spend extra money to actually get decent food. The wait staff are lovely and do their best but there are a lot of problems in that area that need worked on, the grey haired lady who seems to be a manager does very little to help and can regularly be seen doing nothing and sitting on people's loungers and chatting. She unfortunately was very cheeky to me on my 1st morning because I brought a drink with me when i was laying by the pool, I am currently partially disabled and can't get up and down to the bar to buy drinks. There are a group of ladies who seem to get off with a lot more than the rest of us. This hotel could be a goldmine if the food issue was sorted and decent management was employed.

Great hotel, even greater staff. The pool bartender is a ray of sunlight. Makes you feel welcome and cares about you. The bartender in lobby is a great guy, with his beautiful sister that occassionaly sings in the bar. The breakfast staff is friendly and works hard to give you good service. Highly recommend this hotel! Can't wait to come back.

A beautiful hotel, very nice and clean room, breakfast and dinner with a great choice of food, different each day, a large swimming pool in the middle of a fruit garden, with a bar serving food and various drinks, umbrellas, beds and towels free of charge, a lot of shops and restaurants near the hotel. Bus station for access to the airport and other towns at 100 meters from the hotel. Beach at 10 minutes walk from the hotel. Very good prices and last but not least very friendly staff welcoming you with a smile, always ready to help you.

Hard to give it just the three stars because we did enjoy the holiday but it felt like the hotel was run more like a detention centre with very strict rules which could really be slimmed down to people who are respectful. Perhaps it’s the experience of running a hotel on a vibrant, young populated strip (where drinking and partying is rampant) and it’s hard to determine the good from the bad.

The saving Grace for the entire holiday/hotel experience was a lady at poolside called Aimilia, she is the life and soul of the pool side and really takes care of everyone there, we don’t have a bad word to say about her! I hope the hotel realise what they have with Aimilia 👍🏻.

Stayed here as a family of 5, we are in our early 40s and kids (18 and 19) we had 3 rooms which are very clean, all have air con (no extra charge) dated but I suppose that’s the look they are going for, cleaners were in every day.

we had an issue with the drain on the first day in one of the rooms, we reported to reception and they gave us another room straight away for the night, the new room was better so we asked to stay in the new room and they let us, much bigger balcony.

Shower curtain didn’t go right to the bottom of the tray like others mentioned but wasn’t really a problem as there is a shower mat to soak up the water.

Pool area very nice, always clean and a decent size pool compared to other hotels, the lady who works during the day on the pool bar, Ameilia (I think) was very friendly and always stopped to speak always, happy to help, my wife forgot her sun cream one day and Amelia gave her some, true credit to the hotel.

Although breakfast was included we never tried it as we liked to have a lie in after a late ish night on the strip.

We never ate in the restaurant as we like to eat out so cannot comment on the food, although we did eat at the pool bar a couple of times and the food was ok, nothing special but what can you expect.

We were getting to the pool anywhere from 11am - 2pm each day and always got 5 sun loungers no problem ( so no rushing around early to get a lounger)

Location wise is perfect, right at the top of the strip, 2 minutes to a taxi rank, Irish bar across the road and a lovely bar next door serving food until late, there are 2 supermarkets straight across the street and a place to hire quads across the road as well 50€ for 3 days, we hired these and had a look around the island (best 50€ spent)

On our last day the taxi we had booked failed to turn up and because their was 5 of us it was hard to try and get another taxi bus, we spoke to reception and told them what happened and they rang around a few places and got us a taxi minibus to take us to the airport.

If your looking for somewhere, cheap with a good pool and friendly helpful staff and more importantly clean this is definitely a hotel worth staying at. Ignore the negative reviews, yes the rooms are a bit dated but we weren’t on holiday to sit in the room

If your looking for 5* with plush furnishings this is not for you.

But all in all this place served us well and we would definitely stay here again when we next come to Malia

This hotel is actually on the strip but not next to all the loud bars and clubs which was ideally for us, 5 minutes down the strip you are at the clubs and lively bars, so when you’ve had enough, 5 minutes walk back to the hotel for a good nights sleep away from all the noise, hotel was quiet on a night time as well, no parties or anything like that.

This is a honest review of our stay… now what you waiting for… get it booked, you’ll not regret it.

This was the first and last time I will ever stay here! A real disappointment! Do not waste your time and money staying here, I’m not simply a disgruntled customer this is genuinely like fawlty towers and something from out of the 1940’s. The breakfast if you could call it that is was a shambles paid extra for it and only ate it once spent my mornings in the venue next door. The staff… Soula the desk clerk has no manners whatsoever and doesn’t know how to speak to people her interpersonal skills are non-existent and made my experience even worse. The showers are a joke and water spills out every where. Please do not I repeat please do not waste your time and money here!!!

The hotel is in a perfect location at the centre of Malia next to the public bus stop which is very convenient moving to and from the airport and the port of Heraklion. It is very clean with a very friendly staff and the food and breakfast served is excellent in terms of variety and quality. Strongly recommended!

This lovey family run hotel saved our holiday... We were let down by a poor hotel in Malia and needed to find alternative. I found this on Booking .com and called to see if they could help, they could and was so helpful and to our delight we had fantastic rooms poolside and on the garden such a lifting relief from our initial start. This is a family run hotel kept to a very high standard in all aspects and the family managing were so friendly and welcoming. This is a lovely haven, great service, with probably one of the cleanest pools we have used, there were no crazy guests either everyone seemed respectful. there was no rush for sun loungers and a great service by Emily from the pool bar.
Overall the hotel was a very pleasant stay close to bar street and also Malia old town yet when you are inside the grounds it escapes everything.
Thank you so much for accommodating our family but above all just being lovely people and hosts and we recommend and hope to see you again some day.

Paul Mason & Family

Sehr familiär geführtes Hotel, sehr nette Besitzerin. Für eine Woche Aufenthalt ausreichend. Die Nähe zur Partymeile war kein Problem, wir konnten trotzdem gut schlafen. Das Bad ist leider sehr klein und in einem schlechten Zustand. Man muss erst die Tür schließen, um sich im Bad bewegen zu können. Das schlimmste war die Dusche - eng - Vorhang klebt am Körper und alles ist überschwemmt.
Frühstück ok, aber nicht sehr abwechslungsreich.

Вернулись вчера с Крита. Проживали в этом отеле 11 дней. Честно говоря в таком безобразном отеле были впервые. Планировали только ночевать, т.к. брали машину на весь период. Но и это оказалось проблематично. В так называемом душе я так и не приспособилась, чтобы можно было нормально помыться. Чтобы пройти к унитазу, надо проделать очень сложные манипуляции. В так называемой ванной комнате постоянно была на полу вода, которой по определению некуда уходить. К концу отдыха мы поняли, что чешемся от постельного белья, то ли стирпют его неизвестно чем, то от качество белья отвратительное. Описала самое ужасное, с остальным ещё можно как то мириться ( завтрак, уборка, местоположение) Отель находится в самом эпицентре всех тусовок, которые затихают только на пару часов в сутках. Вообщем из хороших впечатлений об отеле остались только фото, просмотренные на сайте при выборе отеля.

Tout était parfait, excepté le fait que la climatisation soit payante et de plus excessivement chère.