SAVUS Boutique Hotel
SAVUS Boutique Hotel is a 17-room hotel near the coast in Rethymno, built in what was the large house of a local family, a 5 to 10 minute walk from the beach and from most of the town’s restaurants. SAVUS scores 9.5 on Booking.com across 492 reviews and 4.7 on Tripadvisor across 18. The Booking.com record is the one to read, and the thing guests write about most is breakfast.
Crete Locals has no commercial relationship with this hotel. We earn a commission if you book through the availability links on this page, at no cost to you and with no effect on what we write; both ratings were read on the date in the table.
Hotel information
| Hotel | SAVUS Boutique Hotel |
|---|---|
| Address | Sofokli Venizelou 4 |
| Type | Adult only · Air conditioning |
| Style | Small modern hotel near the coast in Rethymno, in what was a local family's large house |
| Signature | A different creative egg dish cooked each morning rather than a fixed buffet |
| Keys | 17 rooms, simply decorated and well executed |
| Parking | A large, easy car park directly across the road, which solves Rethymno's usual problem |
| On foot | Beach 5 to 10 minutes, along with most of the town's restaurants and shops |
| Evidence | 9.5 on Booking.com across 492 reviews; only 18 on Tripadvisor |
| Ranking | 94th of 158 in Rethymno, driven entirely by that low review volume |
| Airports | Chania (CHQ) about 60 km west, Heraklion (HER) about 80 km east |
| Booking.com rating | 9.5/10 (492 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.7/5 (18 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.6/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 25, 2026.
Location
SAVUS Boutique Hotel is located at Sofokli Venizelou 4, in Rethymno Town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who SAVUS suits, and who should skip it
SAVUS suits couples who want a small, modern hotel in Rethymno with parking solved and the old town walkable. It suits guests who take breakfast seriously. Families needing space, and anyone wanting a resort with a pool complex and evening entertainment, should book along the coast instead.
Advantages
- 9.5 on Booking.com across 492 reviews, a strong sample for 17 rooms
- Breakfast with a different creative egg dish prepared each morning
- A large, easy car park directly across the road, which solves Rethymno’s usual problem
- Beach a 5 to 10 minute walk, along with most of the town’s restaurants and shops
- Clean and modern throughout, with rooms simply but well decorated
- Staff described as the thing that makes the hotel
Disadvantages
- Only 18 Tripadvisor reviews, so that rating carries almost no weight
- 94th of 158 hotels in Rethymno, a rank driven entirely by low review volume
- Rooms are simply decorated, which some guests will read as plain
- 17 rooms means limited availability in summer
- No resort facilities, no children’s programme and little for teenagers
- The beach is a walk rather than at the door
The rooms: 17 keys, simple and modern
SAVUS has 17 rooms in a building the hotel describes as the large house of the family behind it, next to Rethymno’s long sandy beachline. Guests call the hotel very clean and modern and the rooms simply decorated but nicely done, which is an accurate expectation to set: this is a well-executed small hotel rather than a design statement.
The practical advantage is the car park across the road. Anyone who has tried to park in Rethymno will understand why guests mention it in the same breath as the rooms, and it makes this a sensible base for a touring week.
The breakfast, and why it keeps appearing
Breakfast is the detail that recurs. Guests describe the kitchen producing a different, creative egg-based dish each morning rather than a fixed buffet, and one reviewer calls breakfast a real joy, which is not a phrase people use about hotel buffets. At 17 rooms a kitchen can cook to order, and this one evidently does.
The other recurring theme is the staff, described as lovely, smart and welcoming. Between the two, the reviews describe a hotel where the human parts are the product and the building is the container, which is the correct order for a property this size.
Position is the other half of the case. Rethymno is the most walkable of the three big Cretan towns, with a Venetian old town, a fortress and a long sandy beach all within a compact centre, and this hotel sits close enough to reach the beach in 5 to 10 minutes and most of the restaurants and shops in the same time. That combination, a quiet modern room, parking and a town you never need to drive across, is what makes a small hotel like this work for a week rather than a night.
How to get there
Fly into Chania airport (CHQ), about 60 km west, or Heraklion airport (HER), about 80 km east. Rethymno sits between them on the north coast national road.
Hire a car if you are touring, and use the car park opposite, which removes the usual Rethymno headache; the terms to check are in our car hire guide for Crete. Pre-book a transfer if you are staying put, using the operators in our guide to taxi and transfer services in Crete. The beach, the restaurants and the Venetian old town are all short walks from the door.
The Crete Locals review
SAVUS earns 8.6 from us, on the strength of a 9.5 across 492 Booking.com reviews. For a 17-room hotel that is a deep record, and it describes a property that is clean, modern, well located and well staffed, with a breakfast that guests single out repeatedly.
Ignore the Tripadvisor ranking. Ninety-fourth of 158 hotels in Rethymno sounds damning and means nothing here: the hotel has 18 reviews on that platform, and rankings weigh volume as well as score. The 4.7 rating itself agrees with Booking.com, which is the relevant fact.
The honest limitation is ambition. This is a small hotel that does a few things properly rather than a property with a spa, a pool complex and three restaurants, and the rooms are plain by design. If that sounds like a compromise you will resent by day four, book a resort. If it sounds like exactly enough, the parking, the breakfast and the position make it one of the better-value stays in Rethymno.
Book SAVUS for a Rethymno week with a hire car and an appetite for breakfast, and book early because 17 rooms go quickly. Book a coastal resort if you want facilities, or a hotel inside the old town if the Venetian streets are the reason you are coming.
