The Stratos Vassilikos Hotel - Athens, Greece 

I stayed in this hotel on a recent business trip to Athens. The hotel was chosen and booked for me by the business I was working for - their usual choice is the Hilton which unfortunately had no availability for the dates I needed. This hotel looks nice from the outside and the reception area and guest bar/breakfast room is very pleasant. The room rate was reasonable and breakfast was included - this was a pretty nice buffet with speedy service and I really liked it. The nearest metro is not very far but you do have to negotiate a busy road with very few safe places to cross to get out onto the main road where the metro station is located. I was just a little disappointed with the room. My room had two single beds instead of a double and, although I was travelling alone, sleeping in a single bed makes me feel like a child again!! The air conditioning unit was unusual and I had to get some help from reception to operate it. It only works when the room keycard is in the control slot so at the end of each day I returned to a hot room - as the temperature outside was reaching high thirties each day I would have liked my room to have been cooler. My bathroom had a bath with the most disappointing shower fitting on the taps which had a pretty useles wall mounted fitting - if I hung the shower on this and then turned the taps on to run the shower, the fitting fell into the bath. This happened at least once whilst showering - this is a little hazardous so be careful!! Alternatively as the pressure through the shower is hopeless it may be faster to run a bath. It's not the greatest start to the day when all you really want is a powerful, hot, fast shower before going to work. I did, however, appreciate the wide selection of complementary toiletries - there were some nice touches that you don't find in other hotels here such as two toothbrushes sealed in plastic covers and a nicely packaged travel shaving kit for male guests. My english hairdryer blew a fuse on the plug socket through the plug convertor and I couldn't then use the socket or the closely located television or the light above the mirror in the bedroom. The hotel temporarily fixed this by running a very old and frayed extension cable from a plug socket on the other side of the room to the TV before getting it fixed properly a day later. This review sounds like there were a lot of complaints but they are all centred around the room - the common areas are bright and pleasant although the dining room in the evening has virtually no diners and so no atmosphere - recommend eating out really. If they could upgrade the room fittings the hotel would be ok but I don't think I would recommend it based on my recent stay.

This hotel is conveniently situated (5-10 minutes walk from Megaro Moussikis Attiko Metro station and under 5 minutes from trams and buses on Vas. Sofias Avenue). My room (non-smoking) was clean, quiet and comfortable. There is free wifi internet access. The staff were reasonably friendly and helpful. The buffet breakfast is good. The hotel restaurant is OK but not great for evening meals.