The hotel lived up to the standard we expected. A central location, all the facilities listed, clean, comfortable adult environment, very quiet and peaceful.

We had a relaxing, quality stay. The food was first class, such a huge variety of choice, and delicious.

There was some evening entertainment, a piano bar and a greek night, not our scene, we went out on the town!

Very impressive, the Grand Hotel was certainly grand.
Room spotless and spacious, maids very good and friendly.

Pools very clean and well looked after, plenty of beds, and also grass area for bathing away from the noise of the main pool.

Most of staff friendly, especially waiter in dining room looked after us very well.

Two speciality restaurants were very good food and staff.

Check in was a bit long early morning when you are tired but not a major problem, and could not find out until last day if we could keep our room on, but we did manage to at a cost but worth it when you have late night flights booked.

Staff at reception not as friendly or efficient as they could be, but ok.

Drink prices very high, they would take more money if they reduced the prices a little as the bars were empty, people just do not want to pay the high prices when you can walk along the street to a bar.

We booked the Grand Hotel in Rhodes as a place to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary with our family. I e-mailed the hotel 2 days before we set off to check about taxis from the airport. I mentioned our celebration and the hope that everything would go smoothly for our special holiday. After sending six e-mails I eventually received a reply back about the taxis.

As for everything going smoothly this means nothing to the staff at the Grand Hotel. We arrived at the hotel on Sunday morning at 7:00am having been delayed for about an hour and a half. At the reception desk we were first of all questioned about our booking and given the impression that they did not expect us. Then we were informed that indeed they had got our details but the rooms that we had booked were not ready. We were told that there had been a problem with a flight and some guests had had to stay on in our rooms. What?.... Our rooms would be ready in an hour.

It was time for breakfast so we were directed to the dining room or told we could wait in the reception areas or.... we could go to a hotel down the street to wait for our room to be ready. We were not happy but having been travelling for 15 hours we accepted the offer of the hotel where we could freshen up and have breakfast. We were now told that our rooms would be ready at 10:00am, ie 3 hours later. We were offered a lift and as we went off to the other hotel too tired to query too much what was going on we found the idea of a "broken plane" ludicrous and if there had been a problem why weren't those guests directed to the other hotel, after all they were in rooms that we had paid for.

We are pretty easy going so we went off leaving our luggage at the Grand and had breakfast at The Mediterranean Hotel.

We requested a lift back at 10:15am, we had our two sons and daughter with us who were desperate to strip off into swimwear and get into the pool.

Back we went after a 30 min wait at about 10:45 am.
Guess what? Our rooms were not ready. My husband spoke to the stony faced reception staff who accused us of coming back too early and said that we had been told to wait until the other guests checked out at 12noon. Hang on we've paid for those rooms and were were told 10:00am. After virtually accusing my husband of lying in front of a packed reception, many of whom were having the same problem as ouselves I asked to see the manager. He could not have been less concerned. He just huffed and puffed, shrugged his shoulders and admitted the rooms were double booked. I suggested that his was not was expected from a 5 star hotel and he shrugged his shoulders again. Eventually at just before 12 we were allocated 1 room for the five of us. At least we could get changed and go to the pool, although we knew now that we had no chance of sunbeds. This was not the start to the holiday that I had wanted.

Our other room was eventually ready for us at 3:00pm on Sunday 1st August, we had booked both romms from Saturday 31st July. To compensate us for this horrendous start to the holiday we were offered a bottle of wine, or a bottle of local beer, or a soft drink each with the first 3 evening meals that we had. We tried to point out that we were a day short of what we had paid for and could we keep our rooms until 2:00 am on our day of departure. They offered us a late checkout until 6:00pm (but we paid for 7 nights at this hotel not 6). After much disagreement we managed to get until 9:00pm on the day of departure. The manager thinking he was giving us the world......

Okay lets get on and enjoy the holiday lets not dwell on the very poor start. I know the hotel could not help this but to add insult to injury one of the bottles of Mitsis wine that they offerd us contained a spider complete with egg sack that plopped into my glass . YUK!

The rest of the holiday went well. The hotel is clean. The rooms are nice and quite spacious.The restaurant staff are efficient and friendly, the maids are also good and friendly.

Don't go here if you want a beach holiday. The location is on a very stony beach with very vicious waves. One of the guests in the hotel was thrown over by a wave and dislocated his shoulder, definitey not suitable for children or anyone not into extreme sports.

The pool areas are clean and we didn't have too much trouble with sunbeds, there are garden areas that are nice to sunbath in.

We had taken tennis equipment but it was not easy to get on the courts. They are out of use for most of the afternoon as the noise disturbs guests at other hotels. Also some very greedy guests then book them out for 3 hours at time.

Time to check out, We got a phone call asking us which of the rooms we wanted to keep until 6:00pm. hang on we were promised both rooms until 9:00pm. Another trip to the manager. Luckily we had got this in writing on the back of our room cards so again after another altercation the manager relented. So if you have problems like we did get any promises in writing. I don't think we were on our own with the problems as you could hear guests talking about it at the poolside.

We did have good time overall and met some very nice people. The guests are from all areas of the world and it is nice to holiday in a multicultaral atmosphere with everyone getting on so well. But I don't think this hotel operates like a 5 star hotel and the management and reception team don't seem bothered about its reputation at all.

I arrived at the La Vita hotel in Rhodes on the 29th of august 2004 after having lots of problems prior to the holiday ( not due to the hotel).
Me and my partner were stopping half board at the la vita and were previously informed that breakfast would be served in the la vita hotel and evening meal would be served in the 5* hotel called the grand,we were origianlly very pleased with these arrangements.
Me and my partner went straight to breakfast to find a great lack of choice for breakfast,we mainly found bread,this we thought to be awful for a 4* hotel,never the less we thought nothing of this and hoped evening meal would be much better,that evening we went across to the grand only to be turned away because my partner did not have trousers on...we were not informed by anyone that there was a dress code,this left us angry and very dissapointed.
We ended up having to eat out every night of the holiday using all of our spendinhg money.

The cleanliness of the hotel was generally good with maids cleaning every other day.

The location of our hotel we found to be quite good, close to all shops and restaurants which we needed after being turned away from our half board basis.

Hotel staff at the La vita were not rude but not very helpful in the way of not telling us all information about the grand.

Cleanliness - Hotel was clean most of the time and maid service was ok

Hotel Food - Buffet style breakfast and dinner. Nothing actually wrong with the food except for it being buffet style and therefore generally cold. The hotel would benefit, in my opinion, from offering local food and cuisine to guests and not trying to please every other European and Eastern palate. It was all well cooked but who honestly wants to eat cold tinned mixed veg on holiday as an accompaniment to anything? (Was intended to be hot, incidentally)

The restaurant is hideously under staffed and, quite often, our drinks order was not taken for over half an hour after we sat down. Drinks then take up to another half hour to arrive. Also, the restaurant was at capacity every time we visited it meaning very long queuing times to get a meal from the bufet. Also staff are incredibly miserable and have no idea how to provide good service.

The Chinese and Italian restaurants (roped off areas!) are better with waiter service and reasonable menus although choice is limited.
The Italian restaurant is, again, hideoulsy under-staffed with a ninety minute wait between starter and main courses on two occasions. When the main course arrived it was cold and virtually cremated!

Advice - stick with B&B!

Hotel Location - Handy for local bars and restaurants - try and look a bit further afield to avoid the typical British, padded wicker seated places!

Hotel Staff - Generally unhelpful and unfriendly. Ladies on reception (except one) were usually too busy enjoying their conversations between themselves to bother with guests. THEY lost our room key and it took them two days to replace it. They actually accused us of lying to them and that we had lost it.
The bar staff are ok - bar expensive and service doea not warrant the 5 star prices

Generally we found the staff disinterested and bored with no idea about standards of service etc expected from a 5 star hotel.

Entertainment - thankfully limited - pianist in bar

We would not visit this hotel again. It really should be marketed as a three star hotel with inflated prices and poor service.

Had a 2 week stay at this hotel 30/6 - 14/7/04. The food was excellent wioth a vast rtange to choose from. I defy anyone not to find something diferent to eat every day there is so much choice. From bacon & eggs to fresh fruit, bread, pastries, cakes, cereals, crepes, omelettes and thats just for breakfast. Dinner was just as good with mixed grilled meats on offer every night along with the greek favorite Gyros cooked fresh each night. One evening I counted 36 different salads, and 20 different desserts but this is normal. There is also the choice of Italian & Chinese Restaurantpre-bookable 2 days in advance at NO EXTRA CHARGE. They were both excel;lent quality but I preferred the chinese as the Italian was too filling (5 courses).
HOTEL CLEANLINESS

The hotel was spotless.

HOTEL LOCATION

Very good location. We had a top floor room overlooking the front pool and sea. It is set back from the road far enough for the traffic noise not to bother you. Although having said that the windows are double glazed.
Bars restaurants etc are just around the corner and The Old town which is quite stunning is just 20 minutes walk away.

HOTEL STAFF

Very friendly especially Michaela at the restaurant door and Chris one of the waiters who kept us topped up with coffee each morning to get us moving.


ENTERTAINMENT

Non existent except for a Traditonal Greek Night once a week which was supposed to be good but the down side being you had to drink the hotels drinks which were very, very expensive. For me a Jack Daniels and Lemonade was 7 euros. There was also a resident singer in the piano bar each night who was very good but not my cup of tea.

I would not hesitate to book this hotel again when I come back to Rhodes.