Folks, please indulge me for a moment, because I can’t help but think about this every few weeks, and I imagine someone out there can give me a definitive answer as to what’s going on…
My unforgettable stay at the Aegon Mykonos
Some long time OMAAT readers may remember my summer 2021 stay at Aegon Mykonos, a Marriott Autograph Collection property (well, at least at the time). This was a new points hotel I was excited to check out, though my stay ended up being much more memorable than expected.
Long story short, I used a confirmed suite upgrade, but was downgraded. Fair enough, stuff happens, but the general manager was a complete jerk about it, basically suggesting I couldn’t complain because I was staying for “free,” and then offering to compensate me with free breakfast, which was already included on account of my status.
And that was only the start of the problems, as eventually the owner of the hotel came into the driveway to ask “are you OMAAT,” and then to yell at me for my “bad energy.” We ended up checking out after four hours, because we just weren’t comfortable staying there.
Anyway, you can get the play-by-play of what happened in these posts, if you’re interested:
The Aegon Mykonos disappeared without a trace
Long story short, some time in 2022, the Aegon Mykonos just vanished into thin air. The hotel was no longer listed on Marriott’s website. The hotel’s own website — aegonmykonos.com — started returning a domain error. The hotel hasn’t updated its Facebook or Instagram since 2022. And when you search “Aegon Mykonos” online, you won’t find the hotel bookable anywhere.
It seems that the hotel just closed, which made no sense for a hotel that was only two years old in one of the world’s busiest summer tourist hotspots. Now four years later, it seems absolutely nothing has changed.
For what it’s worth, I suspected that something strange was going on with the hotel back in 2022, before it officially closed. In the summer of 2022, I wrote about how the hotel was no longer accepting reservations through Marriott’s website. I assumed that there was some sort of a dispute with Marriott. Nonetheless, when I reached out to a Marriott spokesperson, they claimed the hotel wasn’t leaving the Marriott portfolio.
Even with that statement, I assumed that the hotel would either become fully independent, or join another one of the major global hotel groups. We all know that just about all hotel groups are looking to expand their footprint in Mykonos. What I didn’t expect is that the hotel would just shut down long term, since that also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
What could explain the hotel closing?
I can appreciate why the hotel might have wanted to rebrand, but it appears the hotel just closed, and has remained that way for four years. What could possibly explain that? I’m trying to come up with theories, and have just two possible explanations:
- There were financial issues; maybe the owners were in financial trouble, or something along those lines
- There were structural or safety issues; maybe the hotel just wasn’t in a position to accommodate guests, didn’t have correct permits, etc.
What made me most recently think of the Aegon Mykonos is that I just wrote about the opening of the Four Seasons Mykonos, which is also located near Kalo Livadi Bay, the same area as the Aegon.
I’m not sure how current this is, but it appears that Pima Group may have purchased the Aegon Mykonos at some point in the past several years. It sounds like there might be some controversy surrounding that, but I can’t find enough sources to be sure this is accurate, vs. something that’s being blown out of proportion.
So yeah, this ultimately doesn’t matter, I’m just shocked to see a new hotel sit abandoned in Mykonos for years on end, given the insatiable demand for tourism. Obviously something went very wrong to cause that outcome.
Bottom line
In 2022, the Aegon Mykonos closed, and sort of disappeared without a trace. I know all of that might sound random, but I had a very “memorable” hotel stay there in 2021, and obviously found the whole owner situation to be very strange.
It’s one thing for there to be a dispute between Marriott and the hotel owners, but to see the entire property just be shuttered and (seemingly) abandoned for years is something I can’t make sense of. Presumably there were some sort of financial or structural issues, or something.
If anyone has more details and can indulge my curiosity, I’d sure love to know what happened!
What do you make of this Aegon Mykonos situation?