Travel has a certain kind of mystery, something that should be there, but no longer is that I don't mean adventure, I mean the mysterious. The Aegon Mykonos is just as enigmatic. A brand new hotel on one of the most coveted islands in the world, not found on any booking site, search engine or corner of the Internet. And it's been that way for years.

This is not the tale of a falling down house that had reached the end of its tether. It's a hotel that only opened two years ago and then disappeared and it was in a market where hospitality investors are bidding for bits and pieces of developable land. That's what makes it so confusing.

This book is a Stay Nobody Could Have Predicted

The Aegon Mykonos was initially announced as a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel, and seemed like a great new addition to the points-earning list for visitors to Greece. The character of Autograph Collection hotels was bound to be there, as was the summer heat and the whitewashed walls, the turquoise waters and the intensity of Mykonos throughout the summer.

The experience, at least for one one-of-a-kind guest, proved to be something else entirely. It was a points redemption that was followed by a checkout after 4 hours. The short answer: A confirmed suite upgrade was refused at check-in; the GM brushed off a guest's concern; and then in all the weirdness of a dream come true the hotel's owner got in the driveway to speak with the guest about his “bad energy.”

After that, the Hotel Disappeared

The Aegon Mykonos ceased to operate 2022 as a new booking platform for Marriott. Speculation at the time was that the property had fallen out with the owner, Marriott: Things can go sour in hotel brands, and they get sold up out of their portfolios regularly for various reasons. When a Marriott spokesperson was asked about it directly, they stated the hotel wasn't leaving the portfolio. It did just that shortly after.

At the end of 2022 the issue went from "off Marriott's site" to "off every site". Error: The hotel's own domain returned an error. It has left its social media silent. It wasn't picked up by any new booking platform. The property was checked and old newspaper clippings were found but there was nothing of value.

A hotel, just a few years old, in one of the world's hottest resort markets sitting empty and idle

It is not a re-brand. This isn't a renovation closure. That's something else. Now, after over 4 years, nothing has changed at all. The premises are still closed.

• 2020 Opens: Aegon Mykonos becomes a property of the Marriott Autograph Collection, close to the Kalo Livadi bay.

• 2021 Four hours of trouble and confrontation with the owner of a guestbook and a disputed reply from TripAdvisor, get discussed widely after this incident is documented.

• 2022 Disappears Property ceases Marriott bookings, and then disappears from all platforms. Domain goes offline. The internet goes down.Social media goes down.

• Now Closed No date or public reason for closing the property has been given, and it remains closed four-plus years later.

What else could it be?

Mykonos is a place where hotels do not sit idle due to apathy. Demand for tourism on the island is overwhelming; people have been investing in the island for years and putting up a lot of money to break into the market. If a home did suddenly go completely dark and remain dark, there had to be a serious occurrence. The most likely possibilities are that:

• Financial difficulties ownership may be facing debt issues, legal matters about the asset, or issues that caused investors to cease participation, making it impossible or unfeasible to keep operating.
• Regulatory or structural problems could be that the property did not have the necessary permits, it did not meet safety requirements or it was identified by inspections that it could not lawfully accommodate guests.

There's another wrinkle here, too. According to unverified reports Pima Group may have bought the property some time after the closures. We don't know whether that has anything to do with the ongoing inactivity, or whether there's anything particularly legal involved with the transaction, simply because there are not enough confirmed sources for us to draw any strong conclusions. 

The Bigger Picture: This and its implications for points travelers

This story has more than just the sense of intrigue that surrounds the closing of a hotel; it includes a valuable lesson for those who use hotel points to book their lodging. The Aegon Mykonos situation is an extreme example of how things can fall apart at a seemingly healthy property in a seemingly healthy deal. An entry in a large loyalty program does not mean that it is good, responsible or enduring. Hotels can, and do, leave brand portfolios, sometimes suddenly.

In the meantime, the hotel scene as a whole on Mykonos has changed. The Four Seasons has just opened up very close by, in the Kalo Livadi Bay area, where they have the institutional support and operational infrastructure that makes it virtually unthinkable to have an institution closed for an extended period, without some explanation. It's a stark contrast.

Still No Answers

Aegon Mykonos still is one of those baffling snarky travel history notes. A brand new hotel in an irreplaceable location, that for many years has been silent, with no official word said, no rebranding was announced and there is no reopening in the horizon. It has not been a straightforward course correction in its financial or regulatory affairs, or perhaps anything else.

Should anyone step forward at any point with a clearer understanding of what happened, it would resolve a question that's been hanging in the background for years. For now, however, the Aegon Mykonos remains in the same place as it's been in the last four years: somewhere between a cautionary tale and an unsolved mystery.

The Bottom Line

In less than two years the Aegon Mykonos started out promising, provided its guests with a disastrous on-site experience, and then disappeared.The Aegon Mykonos had a perfect start, an infamous guest experience and then it was gone, all in about two years. No announcement, no re-branding, no explanation. A single building left abandoned in one of the world's most sought-after resort destinations, as the rest of the island flourishes.

This could be due to financial issues, a regulatory barrier, or something even shadier that may involve an ownership change, but it all comes down to a hotel that has been expected to be successful is not being successful at all. It is one of the more peculiar stories that has occurred in hospitality memory in recent years, and that's just it.

In other words, for travelers, a brand association is a first step towards trust, but it isn't a certainty. Research, read the new reviews, and remember even a new listing at Marriott may have a very short lifespan. The Aegon Mykonos learned the hard way.