Labranda Marine Aquapark Resort

I very rarely leave reviews, but unfortunately our experience here has been disappointing enough that I feel I need to share it. For a hotel advertised as 4-star and marketed as an all-inclusive family resort, I honestly don’t feel it meets that standard.

We arrived around midnight on Monday night after travelling all day, with three young children, four suitcases and hand luggage. We had to wait a while to check in with three very tired children, and then we had to ask if there was a golf buggy available to take us to our room. Only after asking did reception arrange for someone to help us. After such a long journey with three young children and all our luggage, I would have expected this kind of assistance to be offered without us having to ask.

When we finally reached our room, there was no bottled water available and we weren’t offered any at reception either. With all the bars closed at that time, this meant we had no water for the children after travelling all day. This is something I would expect an all-inclusive 4-star hotel to consider, particularly for families arriving late at night.

Unfortunately, the general service has also been disappointing. The staff don’t seem particularly friendly or welcoming. At other hotels we have stayed at, staff would greet you as you walked past, smile and interact with the children. Here, we have barely been spoken to during our stay. The exception is the lady working at the ice cream place, who has been genuinely lovely and friendly.

The ice cream shop itself is not included in the all-inclusive package. Although the prices are reasonably priced, when you have three children wanting ice cream every day, the cost quickly adds up when you have already paid for an all-inclusive holiday. There also don’t appear to be any ice lollies available at the hotel, which is another disappointment when travelling with children.

Food

The food at dinner is also a big disappointment, particularly when travelling with young or fussy children. There isn’t much variety that appeals to children, and a lot of the food has been bland and dry. Nuggets have only been available once during our stay, and when they were served they were completely dry and freezing cold, so my children wouldn’t eat them.

The snack bar food is okay, but it is essentially the same every day — pizza, salad, some type of meat and chips. With three children, they have become very bored of the limited choice. For an all-inclusive family hotel, I would expect a better selection of simple, child-friendly food throughout the day.

Kids’ facilities and entertainment

I’m also unsure whether the kids’ club is currently operating or whether the opening times have changed, as on several occasions when I have gone to take the children, it has been closed. As a result, my children haven’t really had much to do other than use the pool and slides.

My 3-year-old has found the pool particularly cold at times, and on occasions her lips have actually turned blue due to the cold water and strong winds.

The children have enjoyed the slides and pool, which is one of the positives, but in the evenings there isn’t much to do. The entertainment isn’t particularly good. They have a kids’ disco which lasts around half an hour, and the children did enjoy that, but afterwards we were generally back in our room by around 8:30pm.

Because of the hotel’s location, there isn’t really anything outside the hotel to go and do either without paying for taxis. A taxi into Kos is around €30 each way, so approximately €60 for a family of five for a return trip. At that cost, it doesn’t feel particularly worthwhile and, in hindsight, hiring a car would probably have been a better option.

Cleanliness and hygiene

Cleanliness and hygiene are probably my biggest concerns.

Our room has been cleaned daily, but the surfaces haven’t really been wiped properly and the bed sheets have had stains on them. Around the hotel, there often seems to be very little cleaning taking place during the day. We have seen cups, plates, cigarette ends and rubbish wrappers left around the grounds, and the floors can become extremely sticky from spilled drinks.

The drinks machines are particularly concerning. The dispensing nozzles have a significant build-up of visible residue and grime. I have taken photos of this because, with children using these machines, I find it extremely unhygienic and it has made me uncomfortable allowing my children to use them. Two of my children have also already had an upset stomach and diarrhoea during the holiday, although obviously I cannot say what caused this.

The photos I’ve taken also show rubbish, used cups and other items being left around the pool and grounds, as well as damaged/broken items left on the grass. There are also areas around the hotel that clearly need better general maintenance.

The incident today around the pool was the final straw for me. There was faeces on the poolside, along the route people were using to get in and out of the pool. Children were walking through the area without necessarily realising it was there. There was nobody around to notify, so I had to walk to reception myself to report it.

I was told housekeeping would deal with it. Around 10 minutes later, a member of staff arrived with a mop. I showed her exactly where it was, but only a very small area was cleaned and there was still some remaining afterwards. I found this extremely unhygienic and concerning, particularly around a swimming pool where children are constantly walking barefoot.

The steps leading up to our room have also had rubbish on them since we arrived and don’t appear to be cleaned regularly.

There are also broken lights and exposed wires around parts of the grounds, which I don’t think is acceptable in a family resort, particularly when young children are running around.

Other points

The cocktails included in the all-inclusive package are also disappointing. The cocktails you have to pay extra for are noticeably better, which is frustrating when you’ve already paid for an all-inclusive package.

The shop downstairs is very small and extremely expensive. I paid €35 for two floats and a bucket, which I found excessive.

The beach is also very small and, in our opinion, not particularly nice, with the sand not being what we expected.

Overall

There have been some positives — my children have really enjoyed the slides and pool, and the lady working at the ice cream shop has been lovely. However, these positives unfortunately don’t outweigh the issues we’ve experienced.

For us, the combination of the cleanliness and hygiene concerns, limited and repetitive food, lack of child-friendly options, poor drinks machine hygiene, limited children’s entertainment, cold pool, lack of atmosphere in the evenings, poor general maintenance and the overall level of service has made this a disappointing holiday.

I genuinely don’t feel this hotel meets the standard I would expect from a 4-star all-inclusive family resort. We have stayed in other hotels where the difference in cleanliness, service, food, entertainment and overall attention to guests has been very noticeable.

I very rarely leave a negative review, but with three young children, hygiene and family facilities are particularly important to us. Unfortunately, based on our experience here, we would not choose to stay at this hotel again and I would not consider it to be a 4-star experience.

I booked this holiday two weeks before flying.

All inclusive isn’t really! Would be easier for them to tell what is included than isn’t! Ice cream around the pool area you pay for and milkshakes, sweet waffles etc, popcorn on evening you pay for, packets of crisps and boxes of nuts from the bar you pay for. The cocktails are not nice the only one that wasn’t too sweet or tasted like syrup cough medicine was the gin fizz. I paid for the nicer cocktails a few times but they range from €4.50-€8. They still come in plastic glasses, if I’m paying for a cocktail at a 4*hotel I expect a proper glass! The beer was ok, the wine very sweet I made it into wine spritzer to be able to drink it.

The food is ok. I’ve had better all inclusive in lower star hotels. Chinese night i didn’t see much Chinese food other than prawn crackers. ! Food was repetitive and hot boring. Themed nights didn’t seem really themed. The ala carte restaurant experience was poor. Same type of food served it would be better to have a themed restaurant like Italian or Chinese etc. ours was cold. The view from the roof top is amazing.

The rooms are ok, air con good. We had a superior room garden view, we could still see the sea which was lovely. Rooms are small, we were one adult and two children 15&9. Not a lot of storage space. Bathroom is small and no storage space to leave shampoos etc. round the bathroom sink wasn’t cleaned during our stay. The shower floods the floor. There is a hair dryer and attachments in the room and tea and coffee facilities. Hairdryer is good a powerful one with different settings.

Safe is €10 deposit and is a key on a key ring, upgrading to digital safes would be a better security option.

Tourist tax was €70 euros for a week for me and two kids, you can pay that in cash or card

There is a local bus that goes into Kos town approx €2 per person one way. If you plan on getting the last bus back be at the stop early as it is busy and we just about got on!

Kids are allowed inflatables in pools, the pools are big so can cope with the amount. The animation team work hard. The evening entertainments needs some work, the kids were more entertained running around the complex playing with their friends. Greek night on Monday night was boring. The restaurant food was boring, no beef stifado, gyros, kleftiko Greek classics!

Pool areas clean and tidy. There were Broken parasols, they are static can’t move or tilt them. SunBeds not comfy, adult only pool has comfy beds and not busy, we’ve all paid similar prices but have substandard beds and brollies! Kids loved the wave pool and slides.

Would I come back, no. I got this holiday at a good price as I booked two weeks before flying, would I have paid £4k - £5 for a week, no I wouldn’t there are better all inclusive hotels in Greece for the same money.

⭐ Would not return — definitely NOT a 4-star hotel

Unfortunately, what should have been a lovely 9-night family holiday has been completely ruined by the standard of this hotel. I genuinely do not understand how this place is classed as a 4-star hotel, because based on our experience, I simply cannot see where the 4 stars come from.

The cleanliness is one of the biggest issues. The hotel is dirty and clearly not being maintained to anything close to an acceptable standard. Our room has certainly not felt properly cleaned during our stay, and despite being here for 9 nights, our bed sheets have not been changed once. Nine nights! I find that completely unacceptable for any hotel, never mind one advertised as 4-star.

The general cleanliness around the hotel also leaves a lot to be desired. When you’re paying a significant amount of money for an all-inclusive family holiday, you expect the basics to be done properly — clean rooms, fresh bedding and decent housekeeping. Unfortunately, that has not been our experience whatsoever.

Then there is the food — and honestly, I don’t know how else to describe it other than inedible. We have stayed all-inclusive before and completely understand that not every meal will suit everyone’s taste, but this is on another level. The food is repetitive, bland and often either cold or overcooked, and there have been very few things that we’ve actually wanted to eat.

We’ve ended up having to find other things to eat because we simply couldn’t face what was being served. When you’re staying all-inclusive, one of the main things you’re paying for is the food, so having to look elsewhere for something edible is incredibly disappointing.

And unfortunately, the staff attitude has made the experience even worse. We have encountered some lovely members of staff, but the attitude from others — particularly some of the reception staff — has been absolutely shocking.

The reception staff have been incredibly rude, dismissive and unhelpful. You shouldn’t feel like you’re an inconvenience for asking a perfectly reasonable question when you’ve paid to stay at the hotel. There is a huge difference between staff being busy and staff simply having no interest in helping guests.

We have tried to just get on with things because we’re here on holiday with our children and didn’t want to spend the entire trip complaining. But after 9 nights of poor cleanliness, unchanged bedding, awful food and rude customer service, it has become impossible to ignore.

Most importantly, I genuinely do not believe this hotel deserves a 4-star rating based on our experience. Perhaps we have just been extremely unlucky, but when you add everything together — the cleanliness, housekeeping, food and attitude of staff — it falls a long way short of what I would expect from a 4-star property.

For the amount of money a family holiday here costs, I expect the basics: a clean room, fresh bedding, edible food and staff who treat guests with basic courtesy and respect. Those really aren’t unreasonable expectations.

Sadly, this hotel has fallen massively short on all of them.

We absolutely would not return, and I would strongly recommend anyone considering booking to look carefully at the more critical reviews before making a decision. Our experience has been incredibly disappointing, and this is certainly not the standard I would expect from a 4-star all-inclusive hotel.

9 nights here has been more than enough — definitely not somewhere we would choose to stay again.