Casa Cook Samos

Case cook is a Beautiful hotel,spotless clean and looks wonderful. It’s a very quiet resort and if you want to turn off completely,this is a great place to come. Unfortunately there are two drawbacks,which I feel you have to consider when booking. First is the food which is cold,it sounds such a silly thing but at best it’s warm at breakfast and evening meal, lunch is always hot and is the safe option,definitely don’t go half board. It’s all cooked well but I can’t fathom after years working in hospitality why they have such a problem ,it’s such a shame because the hotel loses it atmosphere because everyone goes out to the port,which is beautiful. The second thing to consider coming in early or late season when colder is that there is very little seating undercover and the restaurant is not big enough if raining to accommodate everyone inside,bar is mainly outside so no where to go except your room.

I am writing this review not simply to describe our stay, but to warn other travelers about what happened when we experienced a serious medical emergency while staying at Casa Cook Samos. If you have the misfortune of becoming seriously ill or having an accident during your stay, do not expect the level of care or support you would reasonably expect from a five-star hotel (or any hotel really). In our experience, once something went wrong, we were essentially left to fend for ourselves. I became severely ill with what turned out to be food poisoning (salmonella) and had to be hospitalized for two days. Despite knowing that I had been taken to hospital, the hotel never checked in on me. They never checked in on my mother either. We had to ask for virtually every single thing we needed, at a time when we were frightened, exhausted and in an extremely vulnerable situation. On my last hospitalization day, while I was still in hospital, my mother also started feeling unwell. She was alone in the hotel room and in distress, while I was completely powerless from the hospital. I called reception and asked if someone could please go and check on her. The reaction made it seem as though I was asking for something completely unreasonable. No one went to check on her they just called and basically asked if she wanted a taxi to the hospital as well. I find this truly astonishing. A guest is potentially seriously ill, alone in a hotel room, while her daughter is hospitalized — and checking on her was apparently not considered something the hotel should do. I would expect even a very basic hotel to show more human concern in that situation. From a five-star hotel, I would expect considerably more. The situation was made even more difficult by the fact that being hospitalized on Samos was an extremely distressing experience in itself. The hospital environment was deeply horrifying and not something I would wish on anyone. They had better conditions in hospitals in Sarajevo during the 90’s war - which I know from my own experience. Unfortunately, this is the only medical facility on Samos. I have since learned that the health care system in Greece in general, and the islands in particular, is near collapse, which of course is absolutely tragic. When you are in a foreign country, seriously ill and dealing with a situation like this, you need to know that the place where you are staying will at least provide some basic support and human care. We did not experience that here. The hotel did help us arrange a taxi to get me to the hospital. However, because it was Saturday, apparently there was no hotel transportation available, and beyond helping with that taxi, we had to ask for practically every bit of assistance ourselves. This is the main thing I want future travelers to take away from this review: if something serious happens to you at Casa Cook Samos, based on our experience, you will be very much on your own. Most of the time things work out well, but I would strongly recommend making sure you have your own arrangements and support in place rather than assuming that the hotel will step in and help you. I do want to make one distinction clear: the restaurant and housekeeping staff were absolute angels. They were kind, warm, helpful and genuinely seemed like wonderful people. My criticism is specifically directed at the reception staff we had to deal with during this crisis. Unfortunately, they were the people we needed help from most, and their lack of initiative, empathy and willingness to assist was deeply disappointing. We did have some lovely days at Casa Cook before I became ill, and the hotel itself is beautiful. But ultimately, you really see the quality of a hotel when something goes wrong. For us, that was the moment Casa Cook Samos failed us when we needed basic care and support the most. We also had a cockroach in our room on our last day, which I guess was a the icing on the cake to end those last few nightmare days. In summary, I cannot recommend this hotel to travelers. While it’s beautiful surroundings and gorgeous location, I can’t in good conscience recommend it to to anyone who wants to feel confident that they will be looked after if something unexpected or serious happens during their stay. Especially consider carefully if you are an elderly person or someone with existing health concerns.

Where do I start?! As soon as we stepped off the coach we were looked after from beginning to end! Our cases were brought into reception, where we were greeted with a complimentary, very refreshing drink - thank you. We completed the check in process on the iPad brought to us on the sofa, and our cases were taken to our room and we were given a friendly run- down of the facilities as we were shown where our room was. Lovely little touch in the room - a little welcome postcard. Oh and love that the keycards are made of wood! Room and balcony were clean, spacious, air con kept it cool, bed and pillows were so comfy, excellent shower and toiletries, and a good range of teas and coffees were available. The whole hotel and grounds were like being in a sauna, instantly relaxing, calm, and peaceful - just what we needed. Plenty of places to sit and read our books, lots of sun loungers with umbrellas for shade when needed, and all right by the sea - just love hearing the sound of the waves! Food was excellent for range, value, and portion sizes. Drinks choices were extensive, and again, excellently made and excellent value. However, the staff were absolutely out of this world!! Literally nothing was too much trouble, and they were always friendly and polite, from the housekeeping lady, to the kitchen, bar and restaurant staff, to guest services - they are all a credit to Casa Cook, and I cannot thank them enough for making our stay so fantastic! Thank you all so very much. Oh and thank you all for working so hard to dry everywhere after the sudden, extremely heavy thunderstorm! Not an easy task when guests were getting breakfast, but managed with kindness and speed. Thank you all, efcharisto!! Jeanette and Barry.

The hotel is located directly next to the Airport if you don’t mind hearing the planes flying over that’s fine. It didn’t bother us. The location is right on the sea front if you have a beach room we would recommend room 111 - lovely outlook onto the beach. Lovely decor in the room and good air conditioning. The rooms are nice and quiet. The surrounding area is very run down with lots of scruffy looking properties and nothing much to look at. The walk into Pythagoria is about 30 minutes or there is a large car park about half way there if you don’t want to walk the whole way. The town has a few restaurants all selling the same dishes. The roads and curbs are a bit treacherous so take care when walking. The staff in the hotel are lovely and friendly. The room is kept nice and clean and towels are changed every day. The shower is tricky to work out and the door to the shower takes some getting used to. I had a lovely treatment in the spa from Rebecca. Lovely products used and felt well looked after. Overall it’s difficult to rate the hotel alone as the island itself was disappointing and that influenced the rating given. The weather was also awful for October. The hotel is more ‘apartments’ than a hotel. The rooms with swim up pools so not look worth the money. If you are staying here pick a beach room. We didn’t go in the sea as it was too cold. The pools aren’t very enticing as they have been designed to be more aesthetically pleasing than inviting. The breakfast was okay. Lots of choice of breads, cakes, some cooked food which was never warm enough. You could choose omelettes or fried eggs cooked to order for no extra charge. Staff refill your glasses with water and orange juice which was welcomed.

Beautiful hotel, rooms are gorgeous, modern and made for relaxation. We had a swim up pool which caught about 3-4 hours of sun a day. Will be hit and miss if you get one with full sun or barely any sun at all so we would be disappointed with any less sun than we got which some of the rooms looked like they were. Pool is beautiful but not heated so definitely very cold during end of Sept/oct time. Would expect it to be heated really. Staff we really good in all areas, always friendly and saying hello. A lot of the staff are younger and super professional, great service from reception, bar, housekeeping, resto and beach staff. Drinks are a little pricey but we knew that before we went. Main criticisms are only 4 free pods of coffee in the room then you have to pay per pod if you want more. This is unheard of in any hotel from my experience let alone a 5 star hotel. You can just buy at the shop round the corner which we used for bottled water and other bits and bobs. The breakfast could be better, no toast available, just baguettes etc but no normal bread that you can toast. Hot food like scrambled eggs, beans etc were always cold despite being in kept in warm pans. This is pretty poor, cold food that should be hot isn't good enough and far too many sweet items like cakes and dounughts rather than actual normal breakfast items. Lunch/dinner portions are extremely generous and lots of choice but again the food temperature was often lukewarm or nearing cold on some of the meals we had, should be upping hot throughout. Beach is lovely, can press buzzer for service of drinks/food and staff always came quickly. In general the hotel is lovely, not loads to do but I think the simplicity is the intention and would consider staying at a Casa Cook hotel again. The smell throughout the hotel is gorgeous, really nice cocktail and coffee options, bed so big and comfortable. Town is a 30 min walk away and well worth a visit. Really enjoyed our stay, perfect place to recharge.