Carpe Diem Santorini

We booked a 4 night break away for our 10 year anniversary to Santorini Greece after picking that as our ideal destination to celebrate such a special occasion. We booked with Expedia a packaged holiday at Carpe Diem Santorini and did extensive research in to all their suits and identified a particular suite we wanted and even altered our dates of travel to select this specific suite. We landed at 9pm and got to the hotel about 10pm where we were kindly welcomed with drinks and someone to show us to our room. As we were walking to the room we noticed this was not the suite we booked and asked the staff member what has happened with our original booked room. He said he had no idea and would find out for us but unfortunately the hotel was fully booked and no rooms weee available. The reason we booked the Astra suite was because of the privacy, we knew it was not the best and most expensive suite in the hotel but the one we selected was perfect for us and our wants. We were then told that we had been upgraded to another suite which in the hotels opinion was the best but in our opinion it was not private has it had a walkway right outside so anyone who walked past could see in. This is why we selected the less expensive and more private suite right at the end of the hotel. We kindly said we had not been notified of the upgrade at any point before and if this was expaokend we would have kindly declined and stuck with our original booking. To not offer an alternative suite and give our original one to someone else was a big disappointment. There was nothing we could do and we stayed in the suite they provided for the night with the hope of sorting and resolving this the following day as it was very late and there was no manager at the hotel to speak with directly. The following day we went to see the assistant manager and explained our disappointment and request the original suite we booked. What they class as an upgrade might not be the same for everyone and privacy was the upmost importance to us and the suite they offered was not. We were met with the response there is no manager to talk to and they do not know when they will be in the hotel. There was no manager present at the hotel during our 4 night stay even though we requested this multiple times. We were frustrated as anyone could imagine and did make our frustration known. Later that day the assistant manager approached us and said there is another suite available upstairs similar to our original one we booked so we decided to take it even though it was a downgrade from our original booking but had the privacy we required and booked the holiday for. We considered this to be satisfactory and to try and enjoy our time here and accept the room. We moved our stuff and manages to settle in the room by unpacking our suitcase. Later that day we received an email from the reservations team who accused us of creating a commotion by threatening there staff and guests (we had no interaction with other guests and only spoke to 2 staff members who we apologised to as we knew it was not them personally but they totally understood our frustration). They also accused us of blackmail as we said we would leave a bad review if we didn’t get the original room we booked but we thought reviews are a freedom of speech and the only way to voice our frustration as no manager would speak to us and the reservations team only accept emails ( even though we were on holiday with limited access to our email). They proceeded to threaten to kick us out of the hotel and report us to the police if we did not remove the review. We contacted Expedia who assured us it is well within our right to leave a review and we explained everything that happened. We knew we showed no aggression towards the staff and definitely did not do any of the things they accused us of. We thought nothing of it and would sort it when we return to the UK. Later that evening at 10:30 pm when we returned from a lovely meal outside the hotel we were met with an email sent at 8pm asking us to remove the review by 9pm if they will remove us from the hotel. This was crazy and again contacted Expedia for help. We even contacted the British embassy and tried to seek legal advise however as it was 11/12 at night nothing was available to us. They continued to harass us by calling our room every 10 minutes for an hour until we answered and then told us as we did not remove the review they have decided to remove us from the hotel and asked us to leave by 11pm. By this point my wife was in absolute tears and feared we would be on the streets in a foreign country with no where to stay. We had to remove the review out of fear and was physically scared for our wellbeing which we told to hotel staff who was unaware of what the reservations team had been saying or doing. They also treated us with legal action if we do not remove the review. From 11pm until 1am we were scared and unsure of what would happen and if they will kick us out for the false claims they have made and for leaving negative review. They wanted us to send them an email apologising for blackmailing them and theatening their staff and guest which were all untrue. As we knew none of this had happened we stuck to our guns and asked them to call the police and if we could actually call the police ourselves. The police was not called on our behalf but after the hotel spoke to them they decided there is no reason for them to attend as nothing has actually happened and it’s a civil matter. We have travelled many time to many top hotels around the workd and as we paid over £2000 for this one we were completely shocked for the service we received. To top it all off the air con was not working fully and the heated pool was not working at all as advertised but as they claimed we were threatening their staff so we tried our upmost to avoid any conversations with staff encase they claim more lies and as we are in a foreign country we were scared for our selves and decided we wanted to deal with this in the comfort of the UK and where we can speak to Expedia in more depth to understand our situation as the hotel had already written to Expedia with the false claims. The threats we received and the false allegations against us made the holiday the worst in our history and we are still unsure if leaving a review after we took down the first would lead to legal action and possible criminal proceeding as the claims they were making. The worst part is the staff at the hotel (all 3 of them) were not scared of us and actually was very polite but as they had no authority to decide or say anything they always told us to email the reservation team directly. When we got back to UK we immediately contacted Expedia who we was updating while we were out there as they had no luck contacting staff at hotel while we were there. Expedia refunded us 50% of the trip as gesture of goodwill after they recorded all our evidence and experience. We also contacted Rip off Britain and have an open investigation with them who are planning to air our experience in the show in 2025.

The most amazing place, amazing view, amazingly attentive staff and the best holiday! From start to finish our holiday was spectacular. Breakfast was served from the terrace with a 270 view of the island. Food and wine were delivered to our pool terrace and our housekeeper looked after our room immaculately.