One after the other, big Greek hotels are getting ready to open, with most of them expected to start taking in customers on July 1st.

The large hotel groups are having to make choices about which of their hotels to open, given the large drop in demand due to the pandemic.

Among the big seasonal hotels, the Sani/Ikos group announced last week that three of its hotels will open on July 1st; on the same day, the Daskalantonakis group announced the opening of ten more hotels, on top of the seven it had announced earlier.

Among the large resorts, Costa Navarino and Four Seasons Astir Palace stand out for their early opening. Costa Navarino will open its two hotels on June 19, while Astir’s Nafsika unit and the bungalows will open a week earlier, on Friday, June 12. Astir’s other big hotel, Arion, will open depending on demand.

Both resorts, and others, decided on an earlier opening, as soon as Germany, the largest tourist market for Greece, decided to loosen restrictions on traveling abroad.

The Sani/Ikos group will open Sani Asterias, Porto Sani and Ikos Olivia on the Halkidiki Peninsula on July 1.

Grecotel will gradually open, from June 15 to July 15, ten hotels in Crete, Corfu, Halkidiki, Athens and Alexandroupoli: Amirandes, Creta Palace, Caramel, Meli Palace, Margo Bay, Daphnila Bay, Gelina Resort, Vouliagmeni Suites, Astir and Egnatia. It has also announced the opening of Cape Sounio, Μandola Rosa, Olympia Riviera, Oasis, Casa Marron, Filoxenia και Mykonos Blu.

The Mitsis Group will open the Athens Airport Sofitel on July 1st, and its resorts sometime after that. The hotels Aldemar and Attikos Helios will also open July 1st. On the same date, many of the remaining year-round hotels will open; others opened on June 1, the first day they were allowed.

In the Athens center, the Grande Bretagne and King George are considering reopening early in July. The Athens Plaza had already been allowed to operate during the lockdown. The Athens Hilton is also expected to open early July, as are the Grand Hyatt on Syngrou Avenue and New Hotel on Filellinon Street, while Intercontinental Athenaeum’s management is considering reopening in mid July.

Among other Athens area hotels, Divani Apollon Palace in the seaside suburb of Kavouri opened a week ago and Electra Hotel Athens on Friday; Electra Metropolis will open Wednesday and Electra Palace is slated to open at the end of June.

On the island of Spetses, Poseidoniοn Grand Hotel opens on June 17th.

This article was first published by ekathimerini.com