It was supposed to be the perfect girls’ trip – four sun-soaked days on a Greek island, cocktails by the pool and zero responsibilities.
Instead, a break to Rhodes with my best friend unravelled the moment we arrived at our hotel.
As our taxi pulled up to the Kolymbia Bay Boutique Art Hotel, it was immediately clear we’d been well and truly catfished.
This was not the four-star luxury retreat we’d booked. In fact, I’d have been shocked if it had earned even a single star.
The Instagram-worthy swim-up pools, chic cabanas and stylish parasols we’d seen online were nowhere to be found. In their place were foul-smelling bin bags lining the walkway to the pool, bottles of toxic cleaning chemicals dumped in plain sight, and cigarette butts scattered across the floor – likely discarded by the cleaner we watched smoking while changing the bedsheets.
Together with my best friend, I’d booked the trip through Loveholidays shortly after returning from an incredible birthday holiday in Mallorca.
Normally, I arrange everything myself – flights directly with the airline, then hours scanning Booking.com for a well-reviewed four or five-star hotel at around £200 a night.
After travelling almost every other month throughout 2023 and 2024, I thought I knew how to spot a good deal.
But when I looked at flights to Rhodes, they all arrived or departed at awkward times, meaning we’d lose nearly two of our four days travelling. That’s when we started looking at package deals.
I was sceptical. Package holidays had always felt impersonal to me, with larger, more commercial hotels than the boutique stays I prefer.
But this time, Loveholidays offered a four-day stay at the four-star Kolymbia Bay Boutique Art Hotel, with return flights at a price that beat booking separately.
We checked everything – the hotel’s website, Instagram, tagged guest videos and Tripadvisor reviews all matched the listing.
Despite not booking the holiday on Booking.com, I looked up the hotel on there too – an 8.9 rating from more than 130 reviews, with only minor complaints about room size or breakfast options.
Online, the hotel looked stylish and modern, with swim-up pools, a sleek main pool, and a bar stocked with the usual holiday favourites.
The rooms appeared clean and contemporary, complete with luxury bedding, rain showers, slippers and robes. We booked a Deluxe Garden View room.
But the first red flag appeared while packing.
Somehow, we’d been booked a checked bag each for one flight only. On the return journey, the booking showed just one shared 23kg bag between us.
It made no sense, but we squeezed everything into one case and brushed it off.
That turned out to be the least of our problems.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by a friendly enough staff member, handed over our passports, paid the city tax and were pointed towards the lift.
However, instead of taking us to our floor, the doors opened into the basement kitchen, where a chef had pressed the button to come up.
Behind an embarrassed staff member was a chaotic scene: burnt pastry flakes scattered across the floor, overflowing bin bags, and the same unpleasant smell that lingered in the lobby. Any remaining optimism disappeared.
The room was no better. It looked nothing like the photos.
Everything was run-down and dirty. The door handle was broken. Dust coated almost every surface. Our so-called ‘garden view’ turned out to be the bird-dropping-covered canopy at the front of the hotel.
The bathroom was falling apart and smelled foul. The hairdryer didn’t work, though judging by its age, I wasn’t surprised.
The taps were rusty, and the furniture was mouldy.
As we explored the rest of the hotel, it only got worse.
Foul-smelling bin bags were dotted along the walkway to the pool. Bottles of toxic cleaning chemicals were left bundled together in easy reach. Cigarette butts littered the floor. We even watched housekeeping staff smoking while changing the bedsheets.
We knew immediately we couldn’t stay there.
We called Loveholidays’ on-holiday help team straight away. The woman on the phone sounded reassuring, telling us to photograph everything and send it over as evidence. She said Loveholidays would then request a refund from the hotel, which we could put towards a new stay.
We sent detailed photos and descriptions and informed hotel staff of our decision. They offered to show us two of their ‘best rooms’. They were larger, but no cleaner and no newer. When we declined, staff quickly became hostile.
I tried calling Loveholidays again to confirm our complaint had been received.
Over the next two hours, we repeatedly called without an answer. The longer we waited, the more uncomfortable the atmosphere became – so we decided to take matters into our own hands.
We visited nearby four-star hotels to ask about availability. One – Cook’s Club Kolymbia Rhodes, also listed on Loveholidays – was able to accommodate us across two different rooms for the remaining three nights.
Loveholidays wanted us to stay put until the issue had been ‘resolved’, but we weren’t willing to waste another minute there. Using the room after complaining would have felt like eating an entire meal and then claiming you didn’t like it – so we left.
Once we were safely settled in a clean and genuinely four-star resort, we finally got through to Loveholidays.
This time, the response was shockingly different. The woman on the phone was rude and dismissive, scolding us for leaving before the complaint had been processed – despite having had no contact between now and the first phone call.
We paid for the new hotel ourselves. At that point, we just wanted to salvage what was left of our trip.
We didn’t hear from Loveholidays again until the final day of our holiday. They finally offered us one overnight stay in a hotel on the other side of the island – far too late to be useful, and not worth the upheaval.
Back in the UK, I submitted a formal complaint to Loveholidays’ after-holiday team, complete with photos, call logs, invoices and correspondence. After weeks of chasing, I was told there was nothing they could do.
Eventually, Loveholidays offered a maximum refund of just £62 on a £950 holiday.
They refused to provide a breakdown of hotel versus flight costs, making it impossible to claim for the hotel alone.
Outraged, I raised a claim through my credit card provider and eventually received £400 back in December.
It was nowhere near enough to compensate for the stress, disruption and additional costs of a holiday that was nothing like what we’d been sold.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, Loveholidays said: ‘We’re very sorry Ms Oliphant’s experience at her hotel in Rhodes fell short of our usual high standards.
‘We’re reviewing the hotel listing on our website, and have been in touch with Ms Oliphant to offer our apologies and a full refund of her accommodation costs.’
The Daily Mail has also reached out to the Kolymbia Bay Boutique Art Hotel for comment.
