STORY OF ALIANTHOS HOTEL

DISCOVER THE STORY OF THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY HOTEL IN PLAKIAS, CRETE
The story of Alianthos Garden Hotel goes back to 1970 when Manolis Vardakis envisioned creating a traditional hotel in Plakias, Crete, that would cater to its guests as if they were family. Since then, Alianthos has been a place dedicated to providing you with excellent services and priceless holiday memories. The Vardakis family decided to invest in facilities and amenities that always put the guests in the centre of attention.

The hotel’s staff commits to speaking your language, taking care of your diet, and of course, boosting your mood and appetite for life by keeping the quality standards and values consistently high. At the same time, the hotel’s design and services are constantly taken care of, so that Alianthos Garden Hotel is a modern space and a hotel that feels like home!

DISCOVER THE STORY OF THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY HOTEL IN PLAKIAS, CRETE
IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A HOMEY AMBIENCE IN PLAKIAS, CRETE
Alianthos Garden Hotel aims to inspire you and welcome you in a warm homey atmosphere: to offer you hope and confidence to move forward and create memories of a lifetime. Alianthos Hotel promotes the idea of change and life improvement exactly like nature does - as the sea and flowers change and flourish through times, so does your mood while staying at the hotel! The family’s vision is to embrace you with a sense of friendliness in a cosy ambience.

The secret of the hotel’s success is that the guests have never been treated as “guests”, but instead as partners, as friends, and as people who enjoy quality services with genuine trust and care. As a result, the hotel’s friends kept multiplying year after year. The facilities are relentlessly revamped, and the staff is constantly available to offer you a unique holiday in Plakias, Crete, in this way honouring the long family tradition.

EXPERIENCE ALIANTHOS GARDEN FAMILY HOTEL IN PLAKIAS, CRETE THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS CREATORS
Now sit back, relax, and let the family members narrate their story and help you dive deeper into the hotel’s origins and transformation through times.

Our father’s story, a pioneer of the time

The foundations of Alianthos Garden Hotel were set by our father, with the help of our mother, his brother, and our aunt. Our parents were very poor and lived in Mirthios. Our father has always been a “breadwinner” and felt the need to take care of his family. He rented some land from an old lady and cultivated it by himself. He built greenhouses by the sea and grew vegetables. He also bought a boat to provide the family with fresh fish.

The use of greenhouses was a new method at the time, and our father was praised and rewarded for it. After planting successful large crops of vegetables and securing access to fresh fish, he used the money to build a taverna and offered these fish and vegetables to his friends, who later became clients. The taverna became a meeting point as well as the place that hosted celebrations and wedding ceremonies.

EXPERIENCE ALIANTHOS GARDEN FAMILY HOTEL IN PLAKIAS, CRETE THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS CREATORS
THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST TOURISTS AND THE HOTEL’S TRANSFORMATION
It was around this time that the first tourists arrived in Plakias, Crete. In the beginning, they had no place to stay as there were no resorts around the area, so they used to stay in tents. Our father instantly felt the need to host them. He used to say, “they came all this way, to admire the beauty of Crete, and we will let them stay in tents?”. So, he decided to start building the first rooms and prepared the ground for the soon to be the famous family hotel in Plakias, Crete.

The first building he made was above the taverna. It consisted of traditional rooms which could be rented only by “foreigners” and Athenians. He built everything literally with his own hands and the image of him doing it is still very vivid in our minds. Despite the disputes with the rest of the family over his unrealistic idea, he never gave up and proceeded with his plan. Over the years and as the demand kept growing, he built a second building, and then a third.

A TEAM EFFORT AND A VISION BINDS THE FAMILY TOGETHER
Our mother and our aunt worked hard at the taverna, cooking authentic, traditional meals, supporting our father’s vision. He had proven to be a true leader. Whenever he had an idea, he just did it, without being stopped by any obstacles or other people’s objections.

We, the three children - a brother and two sisters - grew up in the hotel and always had our parents as our role models. We decided to follow our father’s path and we all shared the same dream: we wanted to create a hotel that would proudly continue his legacy.

MEET OUR FAMILY AND FIND OUT HOW GUARANTEEING MEMORABLE HOLIDAYS TO PLAKIAS BECAME OUR MAIN PRIORITY
In Greece, family is everything. When you visit our hotel you see our father enjoying his Greek coffee at his favourite spot, watching all the guests, smiling at them, and supporting us all the way. We keep dreaming and making plans for the future. At the same time, we are fully aware of the place’s history, so we feel so proud to see it progressing and being appreciated as it should be. Our goal is to offer you a fantastic holiday experience and welcome you to a family hotel in Plakias, Crete like no other.

We help you recharge your batteries, rejuvenate, and create memories that motivate you throughout the difficult times. All the people of Alianthos Garden prioritise human contact. Communicating with each one of our guests as a separate entity is the essence of our way of thinking - our philosophy. We are truly interested when we ask, “How are you today?”, “How was your day?” “Is there anything you need?”. We deeply care!

MEET THE TEAM OFALIANTHOS GARDEN FAMILY HOTEL IN PLAKIAS CRETE

Join a family that will make your holidays in Crete special

Welcome to Alianthos Garden Hotel, a place designed to offer you high-quality services, always oriented to your needs, with sincere care, in a friendly and family-oriented environment. Every member of our hotel in Plakias, Crete, is proud to belong to a constantly thriving team.

We grow every year and are always looking for exceptional professionals who would be proud to become valuable team members. We have come a long way and make every effort to build an award-winning team of people who excel in professionalism, dedication, and team spirit.

Discover the shared values that guide the team of Alianthos Garden Hotel in Plakias, Crete

The values of our staff are designed to fulfill our mission and guide our every function to provide you with top-quality services, making you feel truly at home. We continually invest in our people, train them and build strong bonds as a team.

We all work personally as fully accountable professionals, and, at the same time, we all work together as part of a team sharing common values. We are proud of the awards we have won over the years, but we are even prouder of our employees, whom we train and highlight their skills, hard work, and achievements.

Experience authentic Cretan hospitality

Our staff works hard, and each aims to improve ourselves every day. We are part of a culture based on hospitality, the Cretan culture. We comply with the highest quality and stay true to our core values: open communication, responsibility, results-oriented workflow, and people-oriented behavior.

We all know the name of the people who stay in the 96 rooms of Alianthos Garden Hotel because we want to create a bond of genuine care. We always do our best to maintain a pleasant environment even in difficult and stressful times.

Your pleasant accommodation is at the heart of our team’s operations

It is the reviews of our customers that always make us smile. We look forward to reading them every year because this is the reward for our hard and demanding daily work. Read a few words from our key professionals and get a first-hand glimpse of our staff's way of thinking and the sense of true team spirit that we share.

THE VALUES OF ALIANTHOS GARDEN HOTEL THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS FOUNDER

Meet our family and learn how your pleasant stay became the main priority and driving force of our hotel in Plakias Crete

Discover the core values that, with a focus on people and authentic communication, prompted the founder of Alianthos Garden Hotel, Manolis Vardakis, to start a business aiming to accommodate travellers from all over the world and make them feel at home. Read the story of our hotel through his eyes and get a glimpse of how important our people are to us.

Our history goes back to the 1960s

For all these years, the hotel has given us life

In Greece, the fighting spirit of the Greeks stands out. We can always survive the most significant changes and make things go even better! So we, too, have struggled and gone through all kinds of difficulties but kept our Greek spirit intact. We held high the flag of our dreams and made this hotel a reality, of which we are now very proud.

I have never been afraid of working and trying out myself

The period from 1960 to 1970 was not good in our area, so people were forced to seek work elsewhere, with their families, or individually. Many doors opened abroad, especially in Germany. I have been concerned about work since I was in my twenties, as one year was worse than the next, and there was only poverty surrounding us and the general area.

I decided to stay in the region and try to create whatever I could, little by little. I also had a great deal of confidence in my hands, and I was never afraid of working. I never despaired.

My good luck brought me to the area of Plakias

In 1966, a large project was put into the area, the Kourtaliotis Irrigation, which brought water here and developed the area. The Agricultural Service of Rethymnon encouraged us to start new crops, and I was one of the first to start it with my brother. I rented two acres of land, as the soil was suitable. So this is how we rented a villager’s land, Irene’s, the land where the hotel now stands.

We built the greenhouse and sowed our land, first with tomatoes and cucumbers. It went very well from the beginning, in 1968, and for the next six years. Since then, I thought about buying this land and saving the rent, but Mrs Irene wouldn't sell it. “Just a little bit at a time,” she said, “to have something to live on.”

The hardships that made us stronger

Little by little, with the income from the greenhouse, we started to buy the land, and at the same time, we got a small building permit. We created a tiny taverna-restaurant and a few rooms; then, I got a boat to fish so that my family and customers could eat fresh fish.

With a lot of hard work by 1974, we had poured the first concrete until we were caught up in the draft, and my brother and I were taken as soldiers. The conscription ruined us because the sale of vegetables stopped. About 20 tons of fruit and vegetables were destroyed, and many bills in the banks were left unpaid.

A vision is born

Ιn August 1974, our vision was to open the tavern, even if it had to be with borrowed tables and kitchenware. The summer season ended on September 15, but we stayed open with very little to work with throughout the winter. We didn't give up, we persevered, and with the bit of money our two families made together, nine people in total, we survived.

A bad year in agriculture and a mediocre year in tourism followed. With patience and hope for the future, we created this hotel. It took sacrifices from us and other Plakias residents, who also contributed significantly.

The secret to our success

We never saw our customers as an “exploitation opportunity,” but as partners, friends, and human beings who needed to enjoy their holidays in Plakias, with services offered with trust and a true heart. So the hotel’s friends multiplied year after year. Every day, we greet our old customers who occasionally come by to relieve that feeling of the first hospitality in Plakias.

"I have passed on these people-centred values of Alianthos Garden Hotel to my children and grandchildren, and thank God everything is going very well."