Matamy Beach Apartments Review

Overall Rating

Nice weather!!

Hello,

My partner and I have just returned from an 11 night stay in Crete, Stalis. We booked the flights and accommodation separately as I had found these really nice looking apartments, called the Matamy Beach Apartments in Stalis, which had some good feedback. I wanted the holiday to be perfect for my partner and I as it was our first together.
We were flying out on the 2nd Sep 05 at 21:55, due to arrive in Heraklion at 3:55 am, we were booked in for the 3rd-13th Sep. We had confirmation of our booking from a woman called Maria at the Matamy Beach apartments, through email, that they had successfully taken 100 euros deposit from my account. They wanted the remainder of the money, which for 11 night stay was the other 250 euros, paid when we arrived there. Because we were arriving in the early hours of the morning, we phoned the Matamy to find out if we could check into our room at such an early time, or were we to wait until our room became free. A man picked up the phone a called Costas, he was the manager. I said that we have booked a room and then asked what we should do when we arrive. He turned around and said"No, no, no booking from people in the UK!" my heart sank as we supposed to be flying in 9 hours time. I thought there must be a mistake, but no he was adamant that no booking had been made. He then said he will phone head office to see what had happened. He confirmed that he found our deposit and was "apparently" sorry.
He continued on to say that we could stay in his apartments for 2 nights then we were to be moved to another 2 apartments in the "Latania apts" which was conveniently across the beach road form the Matamy. He alleged that the apts were the same star as they were and that he wouldn't just put us anywhere! My partner was not very pleased to say the least, we were due to fly out to a foreign country and not know where we would end up staying, and this was not the way it was planned. In the end we decided to go, only to get to the airport to find our flight had been delayed an hour. We finally boarded and was taxing, we could relax. How we were so wrong. There was something wrong with the plane so we had to go back. 2 hours later after not telling us a thing we set off again only to find out the problem hadn't been fixed.....we had to get off and wait for another plane to become free!!! 9 hours later we took off. WHAT A NIGHTMARE start. I was completely gutted to how it all started off.
We arrived extremely tired and weren't in the mood to argue, he wasn't apologetic at all, never said sorry once. We stayed in a family room for 2 nights, it was a lovely room, nothing wrong with the apts which gutted me even more to know we weren't staying there. We went to check out the Latania apts across the road. The pool and bar area was nice, we got to the room looked through the window and it looked ok on first glance, we were too tired to really look in it as it was occupied by someone at the time. We asked the lady manager how much it was a night to stay, she said "don't worry about it, Costas will sort it out!". A couple days later and we left the Matamy and were put in a Latania family room for 1 night before we moved yet again to the smaller room for the next 7 days. By this point we were put off our holiday. The handles on the apts doors would come off when u opened them, the bath look old and grubby as was the shower head, the worst was the bed......I have never ever slept in anything so uncomfortable it seemed they hadn't changed it from the 1960's, no springs just lumps and bumps. We didn't want anymore hassle so we put up with it. It had a grubby kitchen where all the utensils were dirty and it didn't have a TV. Costas said that these apts were the same star rating as his...HA...how can it be if these apts didn't have what his apts had in them. We had been ripped off, we paid him the 250 euros at the start plus the 100 euros deposit. It seems like an elaborate ploy to get people to pay the prices of staying in the Matamy when really they know they will send you to stay in the Latania. Costas, funnily enough, was always popping over to the Latania, that's when my partner and I thought something is going on here!!
It felt awful, for the whole of the holiday we had felt ripped off and wondered had it happened before? On the last day I checked the room for anything we might have left. Whilst doing so I found what to be confirmation of flight times and accommodation, it was not ours. I looked and it read that 2 people by the name of Anderson where supposed to be staying at the Matamy, I also found receipts for tickets given to the pair. It seemed that the local representative of city travel, situated underneath the Matamy, which looked to be their rep, had given them free tickets to a Cretan night and a water park as compensation of them having to move from the Matamy to the Latania in the room that we had stayed in! This is what I believe.

I just wanted to warn people about this as it made my first holiday with my partner a much stressed one. I wanted to know if this has happened to anyone else. My partner and I had nothing to fall back on as we arranged the holiday on our own and was not a package holiday. Defiantly be wary about this place as they not only seem to bump people who book directly through them, but also people who have booked through companies (package deals).
This may not be the case, but it certainly looks that way.

Thanks for your time.