Nikos and Yannis Orfanakis, founders of Omicron Hotels: over 30 years of Greek hospitality in Crete

Starting out from a completely different path each, you have ended up creating an entire collection of hotels that stand at the forefront of Greek hospitality. What is the story of Omicron Hotels, how was the first idea of a hospitality space true to the authenticity of Crete born, and what led you next?

Nikos Orfanakis: Our own journey, in truth, did not begin with hotels. We started with clothing shops. And we loved that work very much. We were in the shop every day, talking with people, meeting people, seeing what they liked, what they asked for. It was a very social kind of work, and that was what won us over most. At the time, of course, we could not imagine that one day we would be working with hotels. Looking at it today, though, I think that is where we learned things that followed us into hospitality as well.

We entered tourism little by little. In 1991 we bought our first plot in Hersonissos and built our first accommodation, around 57 rooms. There was no grand plan back then that we would do this and then that. We started with what we could, and every year we did something more. The 57 rooms gradually became 100, the accommodation became a hotel, and little by little we found ourselves deeper and deeper in this work.

And the deeper we went, the more we loved it. We were there from morning until night, learning by doing, making mistakes, correcting things. That is how we learned hotels. In 2005 we took the next big step and built our second hotel, in Agia Pelagia. But that one, too, never stayed as it was in its first year. Every winter we thought about what we could do better. We added rooms, changed spaces, built new facilities. There was always something we wanted to improve.

I liked Agia Pelagia from the very start. Back then it was not so well known, and perhaps that was exactly what drew me. I saw a very beautiful place, with the sea, the hills and that distinctive landscape, and I believed it still had much to give. I think we always liked to see the promise of a place, and not only what it is at that moment.

You have lived much along this journey and built an enviable hotel infrastructure that constantly evolves with dignity and ethos. What are the ingredients of this success — what have the two brothers done differently in the way they run their business?

Nikos Orfanakis: Perhaps one of the most important things is that, although we are twins, we are very different people. We have different characters, different ways of thinking, and many times we may hold completely different opinions about the same thing. When we were younger, these differences could bring us into conflict more easily. Over the years, though, we understood that this is actually one of our strengths. I may have an idea and Yannis will see it from an angle I had not considered at all, and the other way around. We will discuss, we will disagree, we will change things, and usually in the end something better comes out than what either of us had in mind.

Beyond that, I do not think there is any secret to success. There is a lot of work, patience and — for us at least — being present. We do not believe you can build a hospitality business from a distance. You have to be there, to see, to listen and to understand what is happening. Even today we want to know what is going on in the hotels, perhaps a little more than our people would like! We ask, we talk, we listen to what they have to tell us, and our door is literally always open. Sometimes so open that we wonder whether we should introduce visiting hours.

What has changed over the years — what particular qualities has Greek hospitality developed along the way, how has your way of managing things evolved, and how much have the circumstances changed in general?

Yannis Orfanakis: A great deal has changed since we started. I essentially learned the hotel by living inside it. It was as if a small, temporary neighbourhood was created every summer, and we were part of it. I remember, for example, that we had a BBQ every week and the whole family took part. Our father would come, light the fire and grill the souvlaki himself. Our mother was in the kitchen helping, and we ran around doing everything else. We put on Greek music and then we all sat at the tables with the guests. Things were very simple. It was as if we had invited people into our home.

And most of them came back. We had many guests who returned every summer. We knew roughly when they would arrive, we knew which room they wanted, and we kept it for them for the following year. Some would even leave their belongings behind when they departed, so as not to carry them back and forth. We kept them all winter, and when they returned the next summer, they would find them here again. Another thing I remember fondly is that when they left, we gave them a small bottle of raki with their name written on it. And there were people who came back the following year with the same bottle, empty, and told us: “I have come for you to fill it up again”.

And back then we did not think we were doing anything special. It just came naturally to us. That is how we had learned hospitality. At Christmas, people who had stayed with us in the summer would send us postcards. They would write to us about their news, send their wishes, and we answered. With some we kept in touch for very many years. So when I think of that era, this is what I remember most. The people.

Passing a family business on to the younger generation, what is the scale of responsibility you handed over to your children, and what possibilities for new conquests arose?

Yannis Orfanakis: For me, our children joining the business is something very personal. On the one hand there is great joy and pride; on the other, great responsibility. I never wanted them to think that because it is a family business, everything is a given. I wanted them first to truly get to know the work, to work alongside us, to go through different positions and to understand what a hotel means in its everyday life.

When we started with Nikos, things were very different. The children grew up in another era, with different images, and that was very positive for us too. They helped with ideas, they gave greater weight to branding, to gastronomy, to wellness, and in general to how a hotel can have its own personality. And of course there are times when we see things differently.

But that is precisely the beauty of it. Nikos and I have the experience of all these years, and they bring their own complementary perspective and want to try new things. We learn from one another. What makes me proud is that they are not simply trying to continue something they found ready-made. They want to evolve it. And I think that is what every parent wants for their children.

What challenges and difficulties were faced, and what was the guiding philosophy for each hotel separately?

Nikos Orfanakis: There have always been difficulties. And I think this work teaches you very quickly that nothing is a given. We went through economic crises, Covid, wars, periods of great uncertainty. There were years when we closed the hotel at the end of the season and genuinely did not know what the next one would look like.

At first this makes you very anxious. Over the years, though, you learn that you cannot control everything. What you can do is adapt, never rest on your laurels and keep evolving. I think that is perhaps the greatest lesson we have taken from all these years.

And perhaps that is why we never wanted our hotels to be identical to one another. Each was created in a different era and has its own personality. There is, however, something we try to keep common to all of them: the relationship with the place. To understand where you are, to see Crete around you, and not to feel you could be anywhere in the world.

With so many people you have hosted from all over the world, which stories have marked your journey?

Yannis Orfanakis: We have so many stories over all these years that it is genuinely hard to choose one. There is one, however, that has stayed with me vividly. We had a guest from the Netherlands, Koko, who came every year with his wife and little by little had become almost family. He had grown very attached to my children as well. I remember distinctly that he and my elder daughter kept going on the water slides together, and they could spend endless hours there.

The years passed, he had a little child of his own, and at some point he told us he had given her our daughter’s name. That truly moved me. Through this work, relationships are formed that can become part of your life. These are things you never forget.

Nikos Orfanakis: Over the years, many different people have passed through our hotels, from political figures to people from the world of the arts. And at some point came a real rock star — Mick Jagger. That certainly stayed with us. You think: here is a man who has travelled all over the world, who has seen and lived through so many places, and in the end he chose to come to Crete and stay at Acro.

What different hospitality proposition do your newer acquisitions offer, and what makes them so special?

Yannis Orfanakis: Each hotel carries a different story. Momi is where we started, about 35 years ago. We renovated it completely, but we wanted to keep something of its old energy and simplicity. We have a special relationship with Hersonissos, because it is where we took our first steps, and we have watched it change and evolve along with us.

Acro was something entirely new for us. In the past, the right investment path was the big hotels: small rooms, many doors. The boutique was something we had never done. Acro was our first such product, with a specific concept and an identity of its own, and through that process we learned a great deal.

Nikos Orfanakis: Our most recent project is The Tierras — five villas we completed this summer. For me it is perhaps the most personal project to date, because the idea began very spontaneously. There was an abandoned plot near our hotels, which I passed constantly, and every time I would look at it and think that we could do something there.

I did not have in my mind from the start exactly what it would become. What I did know was that I did not want to build yet another hotel. I wanted us to try something different, more residential, with autonomous, fully equipped villas and more privacy. That is how The Tierras were born. At the same time I wanted to see whether there is a genuine market for such a product in Crete, outside the classic summer season. So for me it means a great deal to see today that plot, which for years I simply drove past, transformed into something that once existed only as an idea in my mind.

What kind of audience does this address, and how important do you consider the possibility of someone here getting to know the authenticity of Crete, and of Greece in general?

Nikos Orfanakis: People come from everywhere, from America and Australia to Asia, and of course from all over Europe. What strikes me in recent years, though, is that however different the people who come are, in the end they are looking for very similar things.

Luxury is not what interests them most. They want to understand, a little, where they have arrived. To try a dish that we ourselves eat, to drink a Cretan wine, to ask where the olive oil we serve them comes from. They want to walk the hills around the hotels, to find a nice spot and watch the sunset.

I, for example, every evening as I leave work, see our guests sitting for hours on the rocks, simply looking at the sunset. I like that image very much, because I think that what stays with them may be something so simple. A view that for us is part of everyday life can, for someone who has travelled from the other side of the world, be the very reason they remember this journey.

I see the same in the restaurant. I often hear guests asking our children: “What would you eat? Tell me what to order.” That, for me, says a great deal. They do not want us to present them with a Crete made for the tourist. They want to taste our own Crete, the one we live in every day.

In which spots does one discover a piece of authentic Greece in the wider area, and in the places you have created?

Yannis Orfanakis: The area around Agia Pelagia has many such corners, as long as one looks a little beyond the beach. A little further up, in the mountain, is Achlada, a small village with fields and olive groves — a route where you meet goats crossing the road, quiet landscapes, nothing hurried. There is Dina’s taverna there, where she cooks herself with her husband, and at the end, before you leave, they treat you to raki to drink together. The food there is simple, without pretence, but it has flavours that remind you of something familiar, like home cooking.

It is this spirit we try to carry into our own hotels, in our own way, of course. We do not try to round off the character of the region — we want you to feel it as it is.

Which collaborations bore fruit over the years, and which were shaped into lasting values of your hotels?

Nikos Orfanakis: We believe deeply in relationships that last for years. We have partners, travel agencies, who have stood by us for many years and trust us, even through difficult periods such as Covid, when everything was uncertain. This relationship of trust is not built easily or quickly. But above all we feel it with our people — the staff who stay with us season after season, whole years, and who are ultimately the ones who convey to every new guest who we really are. This continuity, the people who stand by you in the difficult times, is what makes the difference.

The results vindicate you — has what you dreamed of been realised?

Yannis Orfanakis: To a large degree yes, but the truth is our dreams never stayed fixed. They grew along with us. We started from zero, with nothing ready waiting for us, and whatever we created came step by step, through a lot of work.

Nikos Orfanakis: Every time we achieved something, we did not sit down to enjoy it for long. Our mind went almost immediately to the next thing. That is how we were since childhood. We always wanted to create something of our own, to move a little further on. And perhaps because we built everything ourselves, we never took anything for granted.

Yannis Orfanakis: What moves me most when I look back today is not only how much the business has grown. It is that I remember very well where we started, and that, throughout this entire journey, we did not lose ourselves.

Is there a returning clientele — what feedback do you get from your guests, and why do you feel they come back?

Nikos Orfanakis: Yes, many people return, and for us that is the most important sign that we are doing something right. Many come back to find their friends, our staff, with whom they have bonded over the years. They arrive every summer with gifts in their hands — chocolates from Austria, sweets, cards — and they embrace as if not a single day had passed. Many times they even book for next year before they have even left.

At Seaside we have people who have been with us for more than 15, 20 years, and they have their own returning guests. They know which table each one wants, they know their wine by heart, they tease one another. Often you hear their laughter from afar, and it moves you, because you understand that this is not simply work — it is a relationship.

What are the rarer virtues of your hotels that shape their uniqueness?

Yannis Orfanakis: I think it is immediacy and warmth. In Crete we have learned to make the other person feel like one of our own very quickly. We will strike up a conversation, ask where they are from, tell them where to eat, where to swim, what to try. And our people are like that — spontaneous and genuine. They do not follow a manual in order to be friendly; it comes naturally to them. That is more or less how we grew up too, in a house that always had people, food on the table and room for one more. This is the feeling we want someone to have when they come to our hotels.

Is Crete a place that attracts quality tourism, and how do you feel this aspect could be improved?

Nikos Orfanakis: I think Crete has developed enormously in tourism terms and today can attract visitors who seek quality, but also something more substantial. What I believe we should do better is show that Crete is far more than a summer destination.

For me, one of the most beautiful parts of the island is our villages. We have wonderful mountain villages, mountains and trails, small cafés and tavernas, and above all people and a daily life that exists independently of tourism. Especially in winter you discover a completely different Crete, quieter and perhaps even more genuine.

There is so much to see and experience here all year round — I just do not think we have communicated it as much as we could. I would like, at some point, for someone thinking of Crete not to think only of the sea and the beaches. For me, that is the next step. Not simply to bring more visitors, but to give people more reasons to get to know Crete differently, and in different seasons of the year.

Yannis Orfanakis: On the other hand, I believe that in the coming years we will see major changes in the island’s infrastructure as well. The new airport is a very important project for Crete and can open up new possibilities, with more flights and direct connections to markets that today do not have such easy access to the island.

Equally important is the BOAK. Crete is a large island, and today travel from one region to another is not always easy. A modern and safe road network will change not only the guest’s experience, but the everyday life of all of us who live here.

I think all of this will change Crete considerably in the years ahead and will create new opportunities for the island. Having lived tourism here for so many years, we always try to look a little ahead, to see where things are going and to be ready for the next step.

How do you dream of being ten years from now?

Nikos Orfanakis: In ten years, above all, I would like to be working and occupied with what we love. I am not a person who can easily imagine himself sitting. I like being inside the hotels, seeing people, talking with our people, thinking about what we can do better. I hope that will not change.

Of course I also want to see our children having moved forward, having taken up more space and evolving the business in their own way. We will be there as long as they want us and as long as we can contribute — perhaps in a different role, but always close.

Yannis Orfanakis: And I see it somewhat the same way. I do not dream that in ten years we will simply have more or bigger hotels. I would like us to keep creating things we love. To still be able to go to our hotels and feel the same joy we had when we were starting out. To have built something sustainable and timeless.

And of course, as the years pass, you want to see the next generation move forward. To take what we created, make it better, and take it somewhere we perhaps never imagined. If in ten years we are all well, we keep working together, we still love what we do, and we can look at what we have created and say we did it right — for me, that will be enough.

Give us your own definition of beauty

Nikos Orfanakis: For me, the truest beauty is our family, our children, the moments when we are all together. As the years pass, these are what count the most in the end.

And then there is the beauty of toil. When I look at something that was once just an idea and remember how hard we fought to create it, how many difficulties we went through, and today I see it full of people enjoying it, I feel it differently. Perhaps if everything had been handed to us ready-made, we would not have loved it in the same way. The effort hidden behind something is, many times, what makes it more beautiful.

Yannis Orfanakis: Beauty is looking back and seeing how much you yourself have changed throughout this journey. For me there is beauty in the toil, too. In giving yourself to something, struggling, persevering and, through it all, evolving. To look back and see that things that once seemed mountains, today you face differently. Beauty is not only the moment you say “we made it”. It is also everything that changed you on the way there. The fatigue, the mistakes, what you learned along the way. For me, this evolution is perhaps the truest form of beauty.

What do you consider authentic these days?

Yannis Orfanakis: Authentic today is to admit you are wrong, to be able to say it simply, without pride, without excuses. In our generation we did not learn this easily — we were taught to appear strong, never to show weakness. It took time to understand that the opposite is true.

And yet, the truest thing anyone can do is to say “I did not know that” or “I made a mistake, let us fix it”. You do not see this often, and when you see it in someone, you understand that before you stands a real person.

The same applies to us. In all these years we did not get everything right — we made mistakes too. But what kept us authentic was not that we never stumbled; it was that we were not afraid to admit it and to make it right.