Review: Domes Zeen Chania, a Luxury Collection Resort, Crete

Our family recently spent five fabulous sun-filled days in Crete. This happened to be my second time in Crete, since I visited with my husband 12 years ago, before we had kids.

We’d always wanted to return, so when my in-laws wanted to plan a family trip, we thought it’d be a great opportunity to return with the kids.

This time around, we chose Chania as our base, and stayed at our first Domes property, the Domes Zeen Chania, a Luxury Collection Resort. As it turned out, it made for a very pleasant stay for us and our extended family. 

Domes Zeen Chania, a Luxury Collection Resort, Crete – Booking

Domes Resorts is a luxury brand comprised of both family-friendly and adults-only resorts, mainly situated in Greece. Over the last few years, many of these properties have come under the umbrella of the Marriott Bonvoy Luxury Collection and Autograph Collection hotel portfolios.

Domes Zeen Chania is one of those properties. The resort officially opened in 2019, but with the pandemic, it didn’t really take flight until 2022. 

As with most hotels located on the Greek islands, Domes Zeen Chania is only open during the summer season. Therefore, bookings can only be made from the beginning of May to the end of October each year.

When it comes to booking, your best bet is to book early. I noticed that when tracking the cost for our dates, it tended to increase as we got closer to check-in.

For bookings in the early season, expect to pay around €250–300 ($270–325 USD, $370–440 CAD). During the peak summer months, room rates start at €400 ($434 USD, $590 CAD), and go up from there.

If you’d like to redeem Marriott Bonvoy points, expect the cost to range between 50,000–91,000 points per night. 

It’s worth noting that the baseline redemption rate applies to several room types that vary in cash prices, including:

• Tropical Open Plan Suite
• Sapphire Bungalow
• Tropical Bungalow
• Tropical Family Bungalow 

Of these, the Tropical Open Plan Suite tends to cost the most. 

Unfortunately, if you’re travelling as a family, these base-level rooms can only accommodate up to a maximum of two adults and one child.

In most situations, it makes more sense to pay the cash rate and save your points, when using our target valuation of Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5 cents per point (USD) / 0.7 cents per point (CAD) as a guide.

Rooms aren’t priced by the number of people, so if you’re…