Olala Syntagma Apartments

We were having a good stay but it turned into a nightmare. I had booked a 3-night stay for my family via hotels(dot)com for first week of August 2023. When making the booking it was not known that the property has a smart lock system. We had to check-in to Olala online portal, upload document scans, etc. to obtain the code for the doors. This was not a huge issue but a minor inconvenience. Ideally Olala should include this information in their property description on 3rd party booking websites. Upon arriving at the apartment, it was fairly clean and well-equipped and seem good value for the price. Apartment location is also good. Beer, bottle of water, and orange juice in the fridge were nice small touches. This was the good bit. From here onwards, things go terribly downwards. During 2nd day of our stay, we left the apartment at around 3 PM and returned around 9 PM to find that someone had opened our luggage, bedding had been removed, and drawers were open. This was daylight robbery. Luckily we did not have valuables in the apartment, but another family staying above us were not so lucky and were robbed of many valuables on the same day. Even though we did not loose any valuables, as we were staying with small kids, we did not feel safe in the apartment. Also, next day we had to spent most of the day dealing with reporting the incident to the police instead of enjoying our holiday. Now, I would not hold Olala responsible in case it was a one-off incident that they had no control over. However after going through reviews on Google, Booking(dot)com, etc. it seems that this was not an isolated event and this happened before and continues to happen after our negative experience. They clearly have a loophole in their security system. The worst part has been the reaction of Olala customer support and their management. Their response even makes me think that they are running an organised crime racket here. They say this never happened before whilst clearly Google reviews say something else. Their customer support is a bit of a joke. Their local representative in Athens did not bother to contact us. They provide support from Spain only via Whatsapp chat and everytime you initiate a chat, there is a different agent to whom you need to explain previous conversation. Despite the ordeal faced, their management decided not to offer any compensation. In response to one recent negative review they received on booking(dot)com they have responded that some incidents occurred due to guests not locking their door when leaving the apartment. If that's the case, then I would like to ask Olala why on their Guest Guide that was printed and left in the apartment they write 'when leaving the apartment simply shut the door on the way out and pull the door to make sure it is firmly shut'? There is no instructions about locking the door. Have you given wrong instructions on your guest manual by mistake? Or are you giving misleading information on purpose so that you can rob the apartment whilst your guests are away? Olala, you say that police have caught the thieves and they are in custody, and that no employee from Olala was involved. Then when you don't give us information on how the thief went in? You have camera recordings from the corridor after all? Why there are more than 1-2 such cases reported during span of few days? If thieves were caught, why is this continuing? Olala, would like to see your response here.

We were robbed while staying at Olala. We were out from the apartment in the afternoon, and once we got back we saw everything in a big mess, someone entered the apartment (must have known the code because the door was not damaged). Olala claims this is the first time something like this happened and that it was someone from outside. We reported it to the police and when they came we found out apartment above was also robbed. If you care about your safety and your belongings, NEVER stay here!!! Olala didn't do anything to help us deal with this situation. They were very difficult to contact, very slow at responding and didn't cooperate. There are cameras everywhere in the building but they wouldn't tell us who entered the apartment. They didn't offer us any compensation either. There are couple of other reviews with same story, so Olala is clearly lying to everyone that was robbed saying "it is the first time.."