The charm of a Venetian building in a quiet part of the old town of Chania sounded very attractive to me but in reality, my stay at Hotel Casa Delfino in Chania was a very noisy affair, with hotel guests checking out at 4 AM to catch their early flights out. The noise would go on until 05:00.

The hotel management does not ask guests to be considerate and many guests are too absorbed with catching their flight to avoid slamming drawers and doors, bouncing rolling suitcases over the stairs, talking in front of doors and screeching their chairs over the marble floors. Water from their showers will run in pipes that pass through your room, etc.

Quite a few rooms look out directly on a pedestrian street that remains busy until way past midnight. I was told to keep my door to the outside as well as windows locked at all times due to the risk of breakins and theft by gypsies.

I suggested to the owner of the hotel that it would be a good idea to have a sign on the inside of the doors to the rooms, asking guests to try to be quiet when they check out, but Casa Delfino's owner, Margarita, did not like that idea because it would interfere with the esthetics of the rooms. I then suggested that staff would remind guests, the day before a nightly checkout, not to slam doors and drawers, not to talk on the stairs etc. She just stared at me, expressionless. I asked her: "Do you have the strength of character to run a hotel?" "No I do not", she replied. "What about your husband" (she had told me she was pregnant). "He does not get involved, he has no share of the hotel".