Очень противоречивые чувства вызывает этот отель. This hotel is very controversial.

Visiting time: from 17 to 24 May 2019.
Age of tourists: 50+.
Tour operator Sunmar. Air carrier "Ural Airlines", A331, charter.
While memories are fresh, I want to share my impressions of the trip.
Who should not go to the Fereniki Hotel:
1. If you evaluate the hotel according to the pictures that are posted on the tour operator's website and on the hotel page in booking, and believe what you see.
2. If you have paid for a 3-star room, you know how 3-star rooms should look like, and you naively think that this is exactly the number that awaits you.
3. If you are an intellectual and believe that the meeting party is in every possible way interested in meeting your expectations.
4. If you are going to a WARM sea and hope to spend most of your time in the water.
5. If you want to see a well-groomed beach at the location of your hotel.
6. If you are unable or unwilling to take your own vehicle to travel around the island.
Who can go to the Fereniki Hotel:
one.

If you like to eat a lot, often and tasty, quality, fresh Greek food.
2. If you are a lover to drink alcohol in unlimited quantities.
3. If you are very limited in funds or have children.
4. If you are in advanced years and are not scrupulous about accommodation, and the main thing for you is healthy food.
Accommodation is the main problem of the hotel. Pictures of rooms that are posted on the Internet may be in this hotel. But these are buildings leased to Poland on a long-term basis, where the Poles are placed. These rooms are quite consistent with 3 stars. There is also a building on a long-term lease from Germany, where, probably, the rooms certainly correspond to 3 stars. Tourists who are not related to the European Union are placed in rooms that cannot have any stars at all. Because a working toilet is not yet an indicator of stardom. Although the impression is that the host side thinks this way in relation to tourists from the Russian Federation.
A full bus of tourists was brought at 10 am. The hotel knew that 50 people were going to them. And promised accommodation after 14-30. Even though the season was just starting and the hotel was half empty. The calculation is simple: people exhausted by a night flight, many flying with a transfer in Moscow, after sitting on their suitcases for three hours in the so-called hotel lobby, will turn a blind eye to the discrepancy between the rooms and their expectations, losing a full day of such a short vacation. Some of those who arrived with us were able to stay in the room only at half past five in the evening. Many, not satisfied with the quality of the rooms, looked at 3-4 rooms before deciding to move in. On the beach, I met a married couple who were not satisfied with any of the options that the reception staff provided them with, they were offered to pay 200 euros for 12 days in addition to the amount already paid to stay in rooms that are similar to what is shown on the site. And they moved to the Mare boutique hotel.

It turns out that these hotels have one owner. We were offered a room in the oldest building, number 9 - the end of a three-story old building. The room was slightly larger than two single beds pushed together but had two single beds pushed together. There was a closet, but to open its doors, you had to sit on the bed - there was not enough space to open the doors. There was also a mirror with a pedestal and a pouffe, a bare light bulb screwed into what used to be a sconce on the wall, in the corridor there was a bench for a suitcase. An ancient ethno-style curtain on the balcony door, the door was also the only source of light in the room. In the bathroom hung a cabinet with a bathroom mirror, with completely rusty hinges, one door was torn off, the cabinet was at least 50 years old, judging by the style. Like the curtain on the balcony door.
The unusually cold spring in Crete, the air temperature is almost the same as in Moscow, the rains - all this requires either blankets or the need to warm each other with the body. At night, we put two single blankets together, tried to move in to keep warm - it was not there: the mattresses of the single beds did not allow this either. To top it off, in the morning it turned out that there was nothing to hang a shower head on in the shower room, and in order to wash your hair, you need a second person to hold the watering can. And since the area of ​ ​ ​ ​ the bathroom is minimal, it is impossible to stand nearby in clothes and hold a watering can without getting wet through. So a completely idyllic picture arises: two naked people stand close in a cramped room and pour each other, fortunately, with warm water from the shower. The picture is quite romantic, especially if you are 20 years old. One thing is not clear: why did we have to pay for this idyll as for a 3-star room?
And the hotel took us 1.5 euros per day of tourist tax as for 3 stars! Frankly, we tried to get another number in the evening. Having read in the reviews that there is a new building with rooms from 700, and that there are normal rooms, we went to talk to the reception about relocation. We were given the key to the room just 700 - this is the first floor, a room with a window and a door along one wall, and the room is divided into two rooms, where the second room has no windows at all, and already from it - a bathroom. Probably, this room was supposed to be a utility room for tools and the like. But how not to make money on tourists! They made a number out of it. The smell of mold was such that the husband, having weak bronchi, coughed and coughed for some more time, even going out into the fresh air. So we stayed overnight in the first room. In the morning we came to the reception and found that the girl to whom we were directed avoided meeting our eyes in every possible way.
Again, as intellectuals, we decided to wait for the tour operator's guide, fortunately, he was supposed to appear any minute. Michael, who appeared soon after, promised to resettle us. With him, a girl with a Greek name starting with “D” began to talk quite friendly and offered us as many as 4 (! ) Keys for viewing at once. It seems to be trying to extinguish the conflict, right? Three rooms were on the first floor, where water flows from the street all winter, since the floor in these rooms is lower than the sidewalk behind the wall of the building. And the fourth room, although it was on the second floor, was also affected by a fungus, the smell of mold hit your nose as soon as you open the door. We chose one of the rooms on the first floor, it was somehow inconvenient already, after all, they gave us 4 rooms to choose from! There was a double mattress, we asked for an extra blanket. And there was a refrigerator. And you don't even have to sit on the bed to open the closet doors. And even in the shower there was a hook in the wall to hang a watering can. And, do not believe it!

- shower curtain And the toilet is not next to the shower. We decided that we would survive a week. I must say that during the resettlement we were given a paper to sign, that we are changing number 9 to a number such and such, and that we renounce any claims against the hotel. And blah blah blah in the same vein, the text on the whole A4 page. Before going to bed, it became a discovery for us that the bed was damp. It turned out that the entire mattress was damp. Probably, no one takes mattresses from the first floor to the upper floors for the winter, the first floors are in the water, the mattresses absorb moisture, and tourists are accommodated in these rooms. Which dry the mattresses with their bodies. In the morning, all the clothes thrown into the closet were also damp. And the next morning, my husband and I showed symptoms of chronic diseases: I have ovaries, lower back and cystitis, my husband has joint pain and cough. Already almost furious, we went to the reception. All the same girl who moved us the day before heard the phrase “The mattress is wet! and offered another key.
This time it was number 415, the end of the building with a window to the sea. The room has a mini-kitchen with a refrigerator and a stove, the corner, however, is 50 years old, metal doors, the entire frame is rusted down, but who is already paying attention to this? After all, the third day out of a full seven has gone! Spacious bathroom, watering can again nowhere to hang. But this is not an obstacle at all for rest! Spacious room, as old as the kitchenette, but with remnants of its former splendor: marble countertops on the bedside tables and ladies' nook. I really liked the window frames and the balcony door, painted in dark green. It is a pity if during the reconstruction this style of the 50s will be completely destroyed. No one has laid hands on this number for a couple of decades either: on the bathroom door hangs under the torn, hanging lumps, plastic, a yellowed sheet of A4 paper, on which the rules of conduct in the room are written in German. Once upon a time, the Germans settled here ...But a very long time ago.
Now they have a new fashionable building with a glass elevator along the outer wall in the style: concrete-glass. The room also had surprises, this is in addition to the fact that you have to wash together. The key to the safe was lost. Passports, and what was not needed on vacation, we put in a cell in the reception room, we were given the key to the cell. And there was one more surprise in this room, but we found out about it when we got ready to sleep. For now, we were almost happy. Going to bed, my husband sat down not very neatly on the bed, the sides of the bed parted slightly, the boards that hold the mattress jumped off, and I, having already dozed off, fell on the floor with the mattress. What I shouted out at the same time, I will not repeat here, but it is not difficult to guess. This situation repeated itself that evening again, and a couple of times the other day. And then we learned to sit on the bed easily, like a bird on a branch. But was that already a problem? We did not even begin to inform the reception about this feature of the room.
My husband and I are surprised by the attitude of the staff to the accommodation. We discussed it. Firstly, giving us a choice of 4 rooms the day before, the girl from the reception knew very well that other tourists had already refused these rooms, perhaps on the same day, due to dampness. Spring is late, the dampness on the first floors is terrible, and not even on the first, if the room is not warmed up well by the sun. Why did she offer them to us? Did you see that people are not scandalous? But after all, the rooms were not half occupied on the upper floors, and yet they are dry. Do they take pleasure in being humiliated? Like, you paid little money, you get bestial treatment, right? But given that these numbers do not correspond to any stars at all, then we have already paid money, as it were, not very small, for a barn in the spirit of the private sector of Anapa. Did the young girl have her own decision to treat tourists from the Russian Federation like cattle? Or is it from her employer?

By the way, the girl pretends not to understand Russian. But my husband was a witness to an extremely unpleasant scene, which I cannot but tell. On the day when the husband found out the fate of the key to the safe in the room, an elderly man arrived at the hotel. They brought him in the morning. And check-in, as I said, after 14. Grandfather in RUSSIAN asks the brunette from the reception: “Tell me, where to leave things? ". She waves her hand without raising her head and says in ENGLISH: "There. " Grandfather looks around, thinking that there is some kind of room, does not see anything, and asks again: “Excuse me, I didn’t understand where you can leave things? ". And the girl again speaks in ENGLISH: "I told you, there. " Grandpa looks around again in confusion, not understanding what they are saying to him. Then my husband could not stand it and said: "You are being told to leave things where they are now. " Grandfather was delighted, fussed, they say, thank you, but are you a translator?
For the first time in many years, there is snow on the peaks. And these streams and rivers are fed by glaciers from the mountains. Therefore, the water in the sea in this place is icy. And in general, in this village the air temperature is 2-3 degrees colder than in the same Rethymnon nearby. We left for the airport at 5 am, the air temperature was +15. The bus drove 15 minutes to Rethymno, the temperature rose to +18. Showed a thermometer inside the bus. Either because it was the beginning of the season, which was also late, or for another reason, but the beach in the Fereniki hotel area is not level. As the sea washed away the sand during the winter, so these gullies are still standing. Near the beaches of other hotels are aligned and well maintained. But, truth, sunbeds in the hotel are free. Internet in the hotel is paid. But there is a free cafe near the beach "Bella Inflia". Just ask the cafe staff for the password. I was told that this cafe is also the owners of this hotel.
From positive.
From my point of view, the food in the restaurant-dining room (buffet principle) is very up to the mark. This is a nice part of the memory of the trip. A gray-haired pleasant gentleman checks everything personally before each opening of the restaurant, then opens the doors, says “Welcome” and something like that, it costs all 2.5 hours while the tourists eat, sees who comes, how they set the tables, how they clean dirty dishes, greets acquaintances, does not go anywhere until the restaurant closes. Iron discipline, as in the army, among his subordinates, the restaurant works like clockwork. I saw a situation when two men came to the table that had just been vacated, put their backpacks on and one went for food. The table was without dirty dishes, but not yet covered with cutlery. The director of the restaurant came up, asked something, gave a hand signal to his employees, and immediately two young people jumped up and put napkins on the table, and on top of them forks and knives.

The waiters scurry between the tables, as soon as they see a free plate, they come up, ask permission to pick it up and take it away, they didn’t see any dirty dishes. All the crockery is new, with a chip, I saw only one cup for the whole time. The first days I saw not very well washed dishes, but by the end of the week, it seems, new dishwashers were installed, or the arrangement of the plates was changed into the machine, the plates became clean. No queues to get in, no lack of food or fruit. It happens that during lunch or dinner, trays with sweets are changed for something completely new, you can periodically go into the dining room and see new dishes that you did not see at the beginning of lunch. This is not to say that nothing is being done to improve the operation of the restaurant. Perhaps they are still delivering equipment, the season has just begun.
The day before our departure, a new second grill was installed and connected, and on the last day two chefs worked on two grills: one for meat, the second for vegetables, fried zucchini and eggplant. During our stay, tureens and dessert plates were added to just large plates, some lamps were placed near the grill in the distribution room, but they did not work yet. By the end of our stay, pepper and salt shakers were put on the tables. Once we saw how a respectable lady with car keys walked around the hall during lunch, looked around, then went somewhere with the director of the restaurant, then she came with a plate of food and sat down to try. We decided that it was the hostess who came with the inspection. The food is all fresh. The first couple of days I was afraid to eat something that was not from the grill, having read reviews about poisoning in this hotel. I don’t know how it was last season, but I soon grew bolder and began to eat both whipped cream and cold salads.
So the bought enterofuril was not useful. The food, from my point of view, is much higher than a 3-star hotel, the variety is such that even if you take what you like by a tablespoon, it is difficult not to overeat. Everything is very tasty, well, except for the soups, perhaps. Soups are not the strong point of the Greeks. Although it is not yet the season, there have always been red and green apples, oranges, grapefruits. A lot of sweets, at least three types of meat, stew in the oven and grill. Pork, chicken, lamb. Various vegetables in cold and hot form. Various cold starters and salads. Orange and grapefruit juices, excellent Greek feta, hard cheeses and sausages. Well, a bar with unlimited alcohol and fizzy drinks. Here I am not an expert, but people drank brandy in glasses, no one limited them in anything. But, fortunately, I didn’t see bestial behavior either, maybe I just didn’t get it.
The restaurant, of course, rests on this tanned gray-haired gentleman, remove him - and this enterprise can be closed. I met people who go to this hotel not for the first time, it also has an attractive aspect. Or you need to understand how to behave upon arrival, from the first minutes.

The rooms were cleaned every day. Change of beds every 3 days. The cleaning staff, as we have seen - the Greeks - young men and women. Cleaned not like in a 5-star hotel, but I have already told about the stars, here I have no complaints.
Before the trip, I read about theft in the rooms. I got scared. For many years of trips to Greece, I have already got used to the fact that in Greece you can throw valuable things at random, anywhere, without closing anything. Bought a lock for a bag. And then, once on the spot, I realized one thing: the first floors are behind the trees, the territory is large, there are many buildings, no one knows their tourists by sight. Someone is always coming and going.
The first floors behind the trees are securely hidden, the windows to the bathroom are large and, as a rule, they are left open. A lot of rabble of all sorts comes there from the vast expanses of our state. And if the cleaners dug into things, it would immediately be revealed, because it is clear who took the key. And besides, the room is always cleaned by TWO people at the same time. People hold on to their jobs. Even if, theoretically, some kind of kleptomaniac gets into the state, it will immediately show up. But if you leave the window in the bathroom open and go to the beach, and someone just walks by with bad intentions, then you can get in. You have to be careful, I didn’t see any cameras on the territory. We didn’t miss anything, the third floor and the last room on the terrace excluded a random person from getting into the room, and the Greeks themselves as a nation once again did not disappoint me.
There were also pleasant acquaintances.

Young Natasha from the reception, who has Ukrainian ancestors on one line, and great-grandfather Spiridon on the other, although she could not help with accommodation, she tried to help in any way she could. When we were not brought a blanket to the room, and the night was approaching, she gave hers to the reception. She was just nice and kind. She helped those who asked her to check in for the flight. The guide of the tour operator Mikhail, born in Moldova, Bulgarian, for all the years of our trips to Greece - the most adequate and honest guide. Apparently, just a decent person. We did not buy a single excursion from him, but we received honest answers to all the questions that interested us. And, of course, the director of the restaurant, I don’t know his name, this hotel is based on him. Remove it - and this enterprise can be safely closed, because there will be lawsuits.
And a few words about Ural Airlines. Even Pobeda does not have such nightmarish aircraft.
They stuffed the seats with such a density that a man of 180 height is forced to turn his legs to the passage with his knees, they do not fit. The chairs are extremely uncomfortable. So sit there for 4 hours. The thermal insulation in the cabin is disgusting: the air in the area of ​ ​ u200bu200bthe wings is like in an oven, and it is cool at the beginning of the cabin and the tail. People from wing to tail were seated in such a way that even non-reclining seats in the last row were occupied. Places up to the 15th row were almost not occupied. Seats near emergency exits were also forbidden to occupy. The stewardess said that they are paid. Babies sitting on the wing, overheated, yelled. I don't understand the policy of this airline. But I swore to fly them.
Will I visit this hotel again? Never. Even with the excellent cuisine. I don’t want to feel on vacation like at the front - to win back with a fight what I paid for with money.
If a hotel thinks it's not being paid enough, let it build a reputation and get paid more.