Unpretentious, conscious luxury

STORY

Dexamenes Seaside Hotel, Kourouta Beach, Amaliada: Unpretentious, conscious luxury

A wine factory turned into a stunning seaside hotel that truly cares about the guest experience. Owner Nikos Karaflos felt the powerful energy of the place and knew „that a hotel would have to be the next stop in the history of this place.“

Let yourself be sucked into the intriguing story of how Dexamenes Seaside Hotel – a conscious luxury resort located in the Western Peloponnese that once was a wine factory – became a highlight of hospitality.

Let’s go back in time. Come on, stroll along with me: After achieving independence from Ottoman rule in 1830, Greece made currants its main export. However, following a drop in demand for the fruit in the late 1800s, the country began to explore possible new uses for its unsold currants. This gave rise to the construction of the first wineries and distilleries. A perfect example of the architectural methods employed at the time, the winery that houses Dexamenes was built on the water so that the wine could be pumped directly onto ships.

The winery belonged to the „Autonomous Currants Organization“, an organization that was founded in order to face the currant crisis that broke out in Greece by the beginning of the 20th Century. In 1997 this organization quit its operation and so the winery got abandoned. The property was later sold to the Karaflos family.

„Being a native, I knew the place and its history since I was a student. →

“I started analyzing the layouts of the Wine tanks and I decided that these spaces would be perfect for hotel rooms”.

Nikos Karaflos, owner of Dexamens Seaside Hotel

In fact, when I was a student, in the context of a piece we had to do for history class I researched the topic and even met with people who had worked at this winery“, remembers Nikos Karaflos the owner of Dexamens Seaside Hotel. „In that way, I collected information about how the winery operated and how it contributed to the economy and social development of the broader region.“ The history and the vibes of the site were so strong that instinctively the owner Nikos Karaflos felt that the buildings should be preserved, this part of modern Greek history should be respected and highlighted.

“ I felt that the energy exuded by these buildings was extremely powerful. I imagined how it would feel to sleep in the tanks and wake up to see the sea first thing in the morning“. He was sure that a hotel would have to be the next stop in the history of this place.

And he was so right about his gut feeling. The vision of Dexamenes is that it will work as an open platform for contemporary art, wine, cultural activity as well as a platform for giving back to the local community: All employees are local, only the freshest ingredients form local farmers are used and they highlight the local culture incorporating it in the experience of the guests. “Our guests are people that are passionate for original experiences. They love design, contemporary art, nature, wine and conscious wellbeing“.

Sustainable luxury

And he is quite proud of what he and his team have been able to achieve. “I am really proud of the concept of sustainability that has been a strong motivating factor that has followed this piece of land from the beginning: From the design approach (maintaining the existing buildings, upcycling materials, etc), to the daily operation that is as paperless as possible, with minimum impact on the environment and it focuses on the really valuable aspects of the guest’s experience like the reconnection with nature through unpretentious, conscious luxury.