Mitsis Laguna resort and spa

Positives Stunning hotel with beautiful architecture especially for the bungalow rooms. Our room was in the main building which whilst not as breath-taking was more than adequate for our needs.

Close location to Heraklion Airport whilst a positive for short transport times also a negative - see negatives section.

Food was very good with loads of options but we are both meat eaters so no restrictions for us. Food is available from the main buffet restaurant and there are 5 al a carte restaurants including Cretan Fish, Italian, Asian and the Grill. These are extremely popular and require early booking. Good selection of food in all restaurants but unfortunately we did have a poor experience in one - see negatives section. There is also a crepe and ice cream bar as well as a place to eat on the beach. I doubt anyone would be going hungry.

Plenty of bars to relax with a drink with the poolside bar, all day bar (open until 2am) and the Champagne & Sushi bar. Although beware - all champagne was at additional cost - does defeat the all inclusive label but this is standard now for all hotels. We stayed around the main pool directly outside of the main building but there other pools available including a child pool. The hotel is located directly opposite a sandy/stone beach with sunbeds available. There are no restrictions to sunbeds simply first come first to grab them. If you like a certain location - then it is a case of getting up handy.

In the main staff were polite and helpful and as with all good hotel stays they can make the difference between an average and brilliant review.

Negatives The hotel lies directly below the airport flight path which means there is a constant flow of aircraft going overhead. The noise is not terrible but it is almost constant. My concern was what we were breathing in every day.

The one thing that did spoil our stay was the table service. On face value this sounds like something positive but it simply does not work at this hotel. On several days both in the All Day Bar and Champagne Bar we had to wait 10 mins for our order to be taken. I know for some this is not a big deal but the result was loads of people going up to the bar to get a drink only to be sent back to their table. We left the All Day Bar three times as we got fed up of waiting to be served and went to the Pool Bar - not a pleasant experience.

Don't forget this is a 5 star hotel and not once in our week long stay did a manager stop to ask us how it was going. In fact, there is "little" visibility of any management across the complex.

The app is appalling, it simply did not work for us. We were told we could book the Al A Carte restaurants before arrival which we did. It flashed up "Booking Confirmed" but we did not any formal confirmation. We emailed the hotel asking them to confirm the bookings but received no response. And, lo and behold when we arrived - no bookings on the system. We tried again that evening, exactly the same thing so we ended up going to the person taking the bookings manually. Needless to say the times left available just did not meet our requirements - we don't eat at 6pm - in fact we are still on the sun lounger at this time.

As I mentioned above there are a large number of places to eat at but unfortunately our experience at the Cretan Al A Carte was appalling. We arrived 5 minutes before our scheduled time which was advised and shown to our table on the outside of the restaurant. However, due to whatever reason our table was right on the borderline between the Cretan and Asian restaurants. The result was we were completely ignored by the staff working the at the Cretan. We had no appetisers brought to the table, I had to call staff over to order our food and to order drinks. It was simply dreadful.

My last point relates to the Spa. I must emphasise that the Spa is not owned or run by the hotel but you only book it whilst staying at the hotel so in my opinion it should be mentioned as part of the overall review. We booked a not so cheap couples massage for our last day. We got a card with the day/time to confirm and were asked to pay for it before the day. The day before our treatment we went to pay and were advised our slot had been given to another customer. The reason given was non-payment and they had tried to contact us. How? no messages left in our room, no calls to our room?Total B******T they obviously had another customer paying them more than us.

Overall, it is a beautiful hotel and the staff work extremely hard. We are glad to have experienced the hotel but for us there are too many negatives and this is not a cheap hotel, you simply do not get value for money and we will not be returning to this chain.

I had an absolutely amazing time here. Particularly with the waiting staff at the buffet. Sabrina and Nelsen were amazing, so attentive and caring, I would definitely come back.