Aegean Hotel, Mykonos: the wrong room, and what happened next

We landed on a Friday evening. No grand holiday plan this time, just a spontaneous long weekend with a friend. I'd picked the hotel mostly for its location: close enough to Mykonos Town that we wouldn't depend on taxis at night, but a little outside the very centre. Aegean sits exactly there, above the harbour, with the town a walk away and quiet waiting when you come back.

Because we were arriving late, the hotel told us in advance that the night guard would hand over the room. The airport transfer was waiting, everything worked, and we went straight to the hotel.

Then we opened the door.

We had booked a twin room with a terrace. What we got looked more like a small apartment: two separate bedrooms, three beds in total, and a small balcony. Mathematically speaking: more space, more beds, less terrace.

And, for good measure, an exercise bike and a set of dumbbells.

For a moment I wondered whether the hotel was gently suggesting I go easy on the food and do some exercise instead. They couldn't have known who they were dealing with.

The bike stayed a bike, and I turned to more important matters: the capsule coffee machine, the tea, and everything else you need so that the first coffee of the day doesn't require a walk into town. For me, that is not a small detail.

It was late, though, and the last thing I wanted to do on my first night on Mykonos was file a complaint. We agreed it could wait until morning, dropped our bags, changed and went into town.

The next morning is the reason I remember Aegean so fondly.

Sofia, the hotel manager, came by. We explained what had happened, and I braced for the usual: checking the reservation, some back-and-forth, a polite "we'll see what we can do".

None of that. Sofia knew immediately where things had gone wrong. She apologised, explained that we'd been handed the wrong room by mistake, and simply started fixing it.

By 11:00 we had the room we'd booked. It was exactly what I'd wanted: a terrace, a beautiful view over the harbour, a place to sit in the morning or evening and not solve anything for a while. Mykonos below you, the sea in front of you, and the noise of town far enough away that you don't have to listen to it all night. Coffee machine and tea here too, so morning civilisation was saved.

But it didn't end there.

By way of apology, Sofia offered us a free late checkout. And not by an hour or two. We were due to leave the room at 11:00 on Monday; our flight wasn't until late in the evening. The hotel let us keep the room until 20:30 and then arranged our transfer to the airport.

No extra charge.

A detail, maybe. For me, a huge difference. The last day on the island suddenly didn't mean packing in the morning, handing back the key and spending nine hours working out where to leave the bags, where to change after the beach and how to kill time before the flight. We had a proper breakfast, rode the scooters a little more, came back, lay by the pool, showered, packed without hurry and left for the airport in the evening.

That's the difference between a hotel you sleep in and a hotel you'd go back to.

Aegean suited me in atmosphere, too. It isn't trying to be grand at any cost. It's calm, pleasant and, for Mykonos, very well placed: you can walk into town for Little Venice, a drink or dinner without thinking about a car, and you're far enough from the busiest part to come back to some peace.

The pool was a big plus. Not because it's the biggest I've seen, but because it fit the character of this trip: lie down on a sunbed, get some sun, be in no hurry. And when the wind blows on Mykonos, it's very easy to believe the sun isn't that strong.

It is. I checked personally.

And no, I still didn't get on the exercise bike.

What stayed with me most, though, was the people. A hotel can have the view, the pool, the terrace, the coffee machine and the perfect location, but you often only find out how good the service really is when something goes wrong. Here, something went wrong on the very first evening, and the way Sofia handled it the next day was, to my mind, exemplary. No excuses, no pushing the problem back onto the guest, no feeling that you're being a nuisance. Just: admit the mistake, put it right, and then do a little extra.

Ironically, if we'd been given the right room that first night, I probably wouldn't be writing a separate piece about this hotel at all.

Aegean wasn't a luxury villa like my first stay on Mykonos back in June, and I didn't want it to be. This time I needed a good location, a pleasant room, a view, a pool, somewhere I could walk back to from town at night, coffee within reach and staff I could rely on.

I got all of it. Even the exercise bike I never asked for.

And one more lesson on top: you don't recognise a good hotel by the fact that nothing ever goes wrong there. You recognise it by what it does when something does.

If I come back to Mykonos looking for the same kind of stay, I won't have to think long about where to start. With Sofia and her team.

And this time, if I find dumbbells in the room again, I'll know not to take it personally.