Oku Hotel Kos

We visited last week for a week of R&R before we hit the UK winter. Overall we enjoyed but for those of you used to true 5 star luxury, it’s not quite that, despite what others may tell you. The communications from the team ahead of arrival was excellent. No issues there. The arrival was easy we hired our own car (good job we did, more on that later!) and the hotel is an easy 15/20 mins drive from the airport and easy to find although most apps still refer to the property by its old name Casa Cook. The welcome was underwhelming. We were led to a big open space with no redeeming features and encouraged to settle the outstanding bill for the stay. We were given lemonade and a ‘lavender scented’ towel although this was not really apparent (I thought this was poor at this price point, come on Oku you can do better than that!). The chap that checked us in was friendly but it felt like he was just going through the motions. It’s felt a bit disingenuous if I’m honest. We had a booked a shared swim up room, it was lovely no problems here and everything in the room was as you’d expect. Room servicing was great and items made up and changed daily. The cleaning lady was delightful & constantly checking everything was ok. The safe was a pain to operate though & it came with no instructions but that was rectified when I asked someone to attend to show us how to figure that out. Breakfast was as you’d expect I guess and buffet style although as I’ve mentioned above it wasn’t really true 5 star. Some parts were brilliant such as the huge table of nuts seeds and cereals but then the hot elements lacked basic things such as any starch or potato elements. Maybe just personal preference. A watch out here is you are offered a menu to order a la carte items but half of the offerings are chargeable even though breakfast is included. Again I thought this wasn’t reflective of a hotel offering at this price point. We paid the best part of £500 a night. Hot drinks took a while at busy breakfast times as there was just one machine with one operative in the bar area. The service staff were all a delight and couldn’t do enough - warm welcomes and friendly. That said the same lady served us every morning and I ordered the same drink each day. Each day however she asked me to remind her of the order. Likewise my partner ordered an omelette made to order two days running with certain ingredients, both times it arrived with the wrong items in it. No big deal but irritating nonetheless. It’s not difficult and the order was typed into a tablet! Go figure. The watch out for us was the location of the hotel which is very isolated - you’re pretty stuck without transport and it’s well known that taxis are a pain to come by in Kos. Be super aware of this as there’s literally nothing within walking distance apart from some very specific mlow end resorts a couple of miles away if you walk along the beach. The Marmari town was grim ! A surprise for us was the very inflated prices of food and beverage within the hotel - think London prices and some, it’s crazily expensive, most starter and snack dishes in region of €20/30 and main courses €40/50. With wine you won’t see much change from €200 which is crazy. This is Kos, not Santorini or Mayfair. We heard many people mention pricing in conversation but sadly most had no choice due to location. and no other options nearby that were easily accessible. Similarly drinks and snacks by the pool are stupidly overpriced and an example was being charged €6 euros for a bottle of water. That’s just stupid and unnecessary. Poolside service was great when it was good, but some days it was hard to get anyone’s attention, other days they asked you constantly. Some days you got complimentary nibbles with cocktails other days nothing was offered. Drinks were never served with a napkin or drip mats so as cool drinks had condensation on them in the heat, that dripped onto your clothes as you drunk, no stirrers ever in drinks to mix, but instead low end paper straws! It felt like the team could do with some service training on what premium customers might expect to see at this type of establishment. They try hard but there’s a lot of room for improvement. The thing that stood out for me was there never seemed to be any management presence so you never felt reassured that someone had things under control. I had no idea who the GM was, we never saw them the whole week, if they were present they certainly didn’t identify themselves nor interact with any of the guests that we saw. Maybe why standards were inconsistent at times. On the day before departure, I had felt quite unwell and had enquired as to whether it was possible to hold onto the room for a couple of hours but was told that they couldn’t tell me the evening before and that the team would reach out the next morning to advise. Of course nobody reached out which infuriated me and when I enquired again I got the stock response of “ it’s not possible”. Not one person thought to ask if everything was ok nor were we engaged with at any point, only to say use the spa facilities by WhatsApp message. And, constant reminders about check out and settling our account. It just felt as if they were just being difficult because they could be, and if I’m honest we left feeling a little miffed. I had asked for the GMs contact details, I’m still waiting! The message was read but ignored. The brand looked glossy and impressive from afar but it lacks good leadership certainly in this resort in my opinion! The location and high hidden costs are serious watch outs! Be aware! One last thing to note is there’s a huge construction project in the adjacent hotel property, it’s very visible and we did hear some noise at varying times of the day. Luckily our room wasn’t that close to the fence but certainly one to watch. Everything taken into account, we enjoyed the week but probably wouldn’t return nor recommend, sadly. I’d be interested to try the Ibiza Oku to see how it compares. We felt we might have better invested in somewhere like Ikos Aria which sits on a far superior part of the island the beach there was spectacular.

Amazing hotel! Great food, great staff and great surroundings. I was here with Temple Yoga and it was absolutly wonderful.

Top quality adult retreat - super service, great wines and food especially the breakfast/brunch is extraordinary The beach is privat and clean with a nice bar