The reviews for this hotel looked good so my husband & I were really surprised & disappointed by the quality of this hotel.

We stayed for 7 nights in early May 2008. The room was supposed to be "non-smoking" but everything stank of fags, even the bedding - not nice! When I got home & unpacked all my clothes reeked of stale cigarette smoke - the sooner the rest of Europe catches up with Eire & the UK the better!!

The hotel is basically a glorified office block. The view from our 6th floor window was of a dilapidated office block opposite.

The "roof garden" was another huge disappointment! I knew the weather would be warm/hot so wanted a hotel with somewhere to relax/sit outside which is the sole reason we chose this hotel!

The roof garden was having work carried out on it - no mention of this when we booked - or even when we booked in! It was locked most of the day. Chairs were piled up, tables dirty & no one serving in the bar.

When we did get in there one pm we were asked to leave as they wanted to clean it, not sure why they didn't do this in the morning? Even though it was 25 degrees the doors were locked so you could only sit inside the huge glass windows & bake instead of sitting outside.

The hotel photos are briiliant - amazing "trick" photography - obviously a very clever person who has managed to make a pretty ropey place look arty & sophisticated!

The downstairs coffee bar does nice cakes & baguettes - the best thing I can say about the place really!

The room was a reasonable size. Be prepared for horrendous noise from about 6am onwards - this city is BUSY! The hotel is right by a main road (as are most hotels in Athens) - there are shutters to keep some noise out but take ear plugs! You can hear pretty much everything in the neighbouring rooms & the people don't care if they're getting up at 5.30am - they just bash around!

The bathroom is minute - and there's no bath!! The shower was v powerful but tiny. Also, if you're bigger than a Uk size 16 I bet you'd get wedged onto the toilet as it's stuck in a tiny recess!

Athens has dodgy plumbing & you're supposed to put your loo paper in the bin rather than flush it, although this hotel makes no mention of this.

The tv has CNN but the reception was poor so approx every 6th & 7th word was ommitted, which was a bit annoying! The bed was twins joined together and as hard as rock!

The biggest disappointment had to be the breakfast - the worst I've had in any hotel throughout the world. Tinned apricots every day were the highlight! A few stale French toasts, some bright pink "plastic" ham & some rubbery cheese. Disgusting "fruit" juice that was basically very cheap squash rather than juice. The mini croissants were fine but not there everyday. Where was the fresh fruit? The dining room is also pretty hideous - really dated, think 1950s office block!

This was such a shame as everywhere else that we ate in Athens was fantastic!

The lift was also pretty annoying - it held 4 people max & you had to wait ages for it to arrive.

There is absolutely no way this hotel should be a 4 star - really only 2/3 star.

The reception staff were excellent & very helpful & the hotel is pretty central - really close to Omonia station - the Athens metro is faultless - so much better than the UK Underground (although much smaller).

I enjoyed the city but would recommend you find another hotel - & definitely one with a pool if you go in the summer months for any length of time.