Ailouros Summer Hotel

The guesthouse was beautifully decorated, well-maintained and super clean. I was even picked up from the port (free of charge) and there was a small carafe of Raki as a welcome greeting in the room. The room had a view towards the hills and the sea and was equipped with fridge, kettle, free coffee/tea, aircon, hairdryer, free water and very hot shower. I really enjoyed staying at this welcoming accomodation!

The local taxi driver picked me up at the port, since - as I was informed later - the hotel van wasn't ready yet. First the taxi driver gave me a room, which wasn't prepared yet, so with the help of the room maid Polyxeni I got another room (they don't have numbers or names). The room on the ground floor had a good size and looked quite pleasant, like the whole hotel structure on the edge of Schinoussa village. There was a private terrace with a table and armchairs. From here one had a view of the distant sea in the direction of the harbor. There was a double bed with a good mattress, as I found out after the first night. It had bed lamps on both sides. In the wardrobe there were just three plastic cloth hangers, so I asked the room maid for more. It had tea and coffee making facilities, but a 'briki' was missing to boil the water on the small gas stove. Helpful Polyxeni brought me one after I told her. Since in the third week of May the nights were surprisingly cool, I was looking for a blanket, but there were none in the room. Again Polyxeni had it arranged as of the second night. WiFi didn't work on arrival day. They first had to fix it I was told. It really looked as if I were the first customer of the year. At least in the fridge was a bottle of water and also a small bottle of free 'raki' was offered. Maybe with the idea: get drunk and don't complain. The shower in the bathroom worked well, but in the washbasin the plug couldn't be used, and when I took it out, it had all the filth with long hairs on it from the whole last season. Polyxeni told me that they were still waiting for the plumber to check everything for the new season. Apparently they were also waiting for the painter, since it had cans with paint and brushes outside the rooms. Except for the room maid a couple of hours in the morning, there was nobody else at the hotel. There is no reception and also no facility for breakfast - at least for this time of the year. For the village center one has to go through an outer gate, where in front of it there was plenty of ****, which was cleaned only after my third day, with the arrival of owner Manos. I had to use a flashlight, when coming back at night from the dinner at a local tavern, since it was all dark around the hotel. With a considerable price reduction all could have been accepted. Instead I was charged by *********** EUR 190 (189.36) for 3 nights, deducted from my credit card 16 days in advance. When checking *********** on arrival I saw that for the same dates I would have had to pay now only EUR 108! When I told Manos the owner about it, he said that everything administrative and financial regarding this hotel gets handled by an agency in Naxos (Mrs Joanna). When I sent her a message about it, she told me that it were '***********' behind it all. This is definitely an unfair and absurd pricing policy.

Schinoussa is a little gem of an island, still as unspoilt as it was 20 years ago. The hotel stands on the outskirts of town and looks down on the port area, a beautiful view. It's a friendly, unpretentious hotel and Aphrodite (yep, that really is her name!) is the perfect host.