So when we tell clients we almost always book Ikos in the Deluxe Collection rather than a standard room, the reasonable question is why. If everything is already included, what exactly is left to add?
The answer is that the Deluxe Collection is not a better room with more inclusions bolted on. It is a different set of arrangements around your stay. Some of them are luxuries. Two or three of them change how the week actually works. It is worth going through them properly rather than in bullet points, because the difference between the ones that matter and the ones that do not is the whole decision.
The arrival
Deluxe Collection guests get complimentary transfers from the airport, arranged in advance. You arrive at a private Deluxe reception rather than the main desk, there is a glass of Champagne, and check-in can be done in your suite on request.
Written down, that reads like the softest sort of luxury. In practice it is the single benefit our clients mention most often afterwards, and the reason is simple. The first two hours of a holiday set the tone for it. If they involve a transfer queue, a coach with eleven stops and then twenty minutes at a busy desk while children unravel, the holiday starts on the back foot and takes a day to recover. Removing that is worth more than it sounds.
Someone to arrange the week
Every Deluxe Collection suite comes with a dedicated Deluxe Concierge. They will book your restaurants, arrange spa treatments and organise activities, and they will do it before you arrive rather than when you get there.
This connects to a detail that is easy to miss in the small print. Standard guests at Ikos can pre-book three dinners in advance. Deluxe Collection guests can pre-book all of them.
Standard guests pre-book three dinners. Deluxe Collection guests pre-book all of them.
Your own pool, your own stretch of beach
There is a Deluxe Collection pool, described by Ikos as secluded from the rest of the resort, and an exclusive beach area with more space between the sunbeds and cabanas. At most resorts there are also Deluxe Collection bars, and at Ikos Aria, Ikos Andalusia and Ikos Porto Petro there is exclusive access to Seasons, a restaurant reserved for Deluxe guests.
Be clear-eyed about what this is. It is not a quieter resort. Ikos properties are large, busy and family-focused, and the Deluxe areas do not change that. What they give you is somewhere to go when you want the volume turned down for a few hours, without leaving.
For couples, that is often the deciding factor. For families, it tends to matter less than you would expect, because children generally want to be where the other children are.
The table, and the wine list
The Deluxe wine list adds 30 additional international labels alongside bottles from the Ikos private cellar, on top of the hundred already included. There is one Dinner by the Sea per room per stay, a private dining experience exclusive to Deluxe guests. In-suite dining is upgraded to signature dishes from the à la carte restaurants, and the minibar is replenished daily with branded spirits.
If wine is something you care about, the Deluxe list is a real upgrade rather than a longer version of the same thing. If it is not, this is the section of the benefits list you can discount entirely, and we would rather tell you that than pretend everything on the sheet weighs the same.
The spa
Two days with the keys
Every Ikos guest gets a complimentary electric MINI Countryman for a day as part of the Local Drive Adventure. Deluxe Collection guests get it for two.
This is the benefit we push hardest, and it is the one most often ignored. The failure mode of an excellent all-inclusive resort is that you never leave it. You arrive, you find the food is very good, the beach is well run and everything is paid for, and a week later you have seen a beautiful hotel and none of Mallorca, Corfu or Andalusia. One day is enough to feel guilty about it. Two is enough to actually go somewhere.
Ikos also include a Culture Pass giving complimentary access to museums and sites, and the Dine Out programme, which buys you dinner at hand-picked local restaurants outside the resort. Take the second day of the car and use those two properly and the holiday becomes a different kind of trip.
The children’s evening
Deluxe Collection guests get complimentary access to the Heroes Supper Club. Children aged 4 to 12 have dinner and supervised activities for three hours, booked in advance and subject to availability.
We have put this last, and it is arguably the most important item on the list.
If you are travelling with children in that age range, read the entire benefits sheet again through this one lens. The concierge who has already booked the restaurant. The three hours where the children are having their own dinner. The adults-only massage. What the Deluxe Collection is quietly selling to parents is not luxury. It is two or three evenings that belong to you, in the middle of a family holiday. That is a specific and slightly unglamorous thing to buy, and it is usually the thing people are actually looking for.
The suites also include a kids’ movie library and PlayStation, and a pillow menu, and there is a farewell gift and a beach bag. Nice, not decisive.
Who it is for
Honestly, not everyone.
– It is worth it if you are travelling with children aged 4 to 12, or as a group of more than four, or if the idea of arranging dinner reservations on holiday actively annoys you. It is also worth it if you want to see the destination rather than just the resort, because the second day of the car is the cheapest upgrade in the list.
– It is less compelling if you are two adults on a short stay, you are happy to eat wherever has a table, and you were planning to stay on the property the whole time. In that case the standard rooms at Ikos are already a strong product and the money is better spent on a longer stay.
The other thing to know is that the Deluxe Collection is a genuine ladder rather than a single tier. The entry point differs by resort, from 45m² at Ikos Porto Petro and Ikos Odisia up to 55m² at Ikos Andalusia, and it runs all the way up to four-bedroom villas with private pools sleeping eight. The benefits above apply across all of it, including the villas, which sit inside the Collection rather than beside it.
Which means the first question is not whether to book Deluxe. It is which Deluxe, and that depends on who is coming.
We work with a small number of resorts we know properly, and Ikos is one of them. Tell us who is travelling and roughly when, and we will tell you which suite to book and why.
Where this leads
See the Deluxe Collection resorts
or call 0208 421 7020