We bought very cheap flight tickets to Crete in February completely by change - never been to Crete before. Then we chose Venus Mare hotel after a lot of searching and comparing on booking, expedia, airbnb etc. In the end it was a great choice. The place is ideal for families - nice pool, quiet street (dead end), 200 m from the beach (not crowded and clean), everything in walking distance - bus stop to Heraklion and Hersonissos, the village on Analipsi, supermarket, car rentals, travel agencies (we used the nearest one called Analipsi tours - 250 m from the hotel - they can arrange horse riding, biking, boat trips incl. pickup from the hotel). You can buy basic groceries small supermarkets nearby or go to Lidl supermarket in Hersonissos once in a while (3 km walk or 2 stops by bus for 1.80 Euro). The hotel arranged a taxi to and from the airport for us as well (40 Euro).
We stayed for 11 nights and were very satisfied - in an appartment with 2 rooms (bedroom, kichen-living room, bathroom - around 40 sq. meters) and a balcony - reality same as the pictures on the web (well kept place). The staff is friendly and helpful. Our room had all we needed incl. everything for cooking (we often cooked for ourselves). Our room was cleaned once in 2-3 days, we got towels replaced every other day, bed sheets every 3 days. Around the pool we heard mostly Dutch, German, Italian and English - usually families or teenagers on holidays.
Simply the best holiday ever, will definitelly come back.