The hotel is greatly located some 5min walk from the train station walking in a straight line towards the sea passing through a small piazza and a garden. It is a majestic building dating late 19th century with high ceilings and beautiful terrace garden and they have some beautiful pieces of furnishings in the common areas but this is where everything stops as:
1. The hotel is positioned on the cliffs above the port which starts it’s activity soon after 7am meaning your well deserved rest in the holiday bed will have to be delayed until you go back home. The noises are so bad with one boat coming or going that even closing the simple balcony doors will not suffice
2. Dreaming of using the swimming pool? Dream on, as is situated right near the port and the noise could be worse than up on the cliffs where the hotel is
3. The breakfast area is in a beautiful ball room and the staff is welcoming and friendly, however the menu is rather anaemic and what a pity the juices are not as good as the ones you can buy in any café in Sorrento
4. My room itself did not have any carpets which meant the cold marble floors affected my back straight away; no sleepers were provided either but I found a very thick bath gown in the bathroom to hide in
5. The double bed was actually two single beds put together which meant one cannot but sleep on one side of the bed. The TV screen was very small and only the news channels in English. No kettle to make a cuppa in the room, no iron but some anaemic toiletries in the bathroom. Ancient taps at the sink, just like the key entry system.
6. I accessed my room 206 which I booked more than 1 month earlier directly with the hotel and for which I paid 210 euros per night as a solo traveller via a beautiful hallway, but not carpeted which meant I could hear people walking or talking and thank God the hotel was not packed with screaming teenagers or full, despite the receptionist claiming otherwise. My email request was for a top floor room as I sleep very light and I hear everything leaving me awake for hours and indeed I could hear the heels on the above floor as well as could hear conversations in the bathroom coming from the floor above or maybe below. The reception said will try it’s best to accommodate my wishes which normally means ‘come to our hotel as we need your money but we will give you second best if somebody else comes and pays more as they will stay longer’.
7. As the hotel is square shaped, it means the smaller rooms (only seven rooms per floor face the sea and are bigger) will mainly face the busy road that separates the hotel from the little gardens
But most annoyingly, after arriving mid morning only to drop my luggage and get on with my day around Amalfi coast and despite exchanging emails and calling them to ensure everything will be perfect and paying this high rate only for sleeping several hours in the hotel, I met this male receptionist who said they cannot accommodate my wishes. Asking them why I have this problem only in this part of the world, another receptionist called Loredana who took on the conversation and kept going on and on, not letting me finish my sentences replied: ‘if you do not like the Neapolitan way, then GO AWAY’!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not believe what I was hearing, the worst customer service encounter I have ever had in my life. And I was subjected to this from the very first 5min I arrived at the hotel only to drop my luggage. Should I have decided to go to a cheaper hotel, surely they would have charged my credit card and blame me for this lady’s bad attitude. All Italians I met later in Sorrento and Capri, as well as the English people I spoke with, could not believe that a receptionist can speak like this. Everyone agreed though, this lady should be fired if the hotel cares about it’s customers. The next day, the male receptionist said ‘sorry’ when he heart how bad I slept. I am not sure though if he apologised for his colleague and the way she spoke to me. After all he was present there when she was so rude to me and I have never heard her apology.
Conclusions: I would NEVER recommend this hotel to anyone: high price but no quality, noises from the port, one of the world worst‘ receptionist who surely needs to retrain. Maybe this lady will improve, by contrast, her attitude towards future customers, older customers or customers with children. But don’t we all deserve the same kind of respect, courtesy and customer service for which anyway I paid a high amount? I would definitely give the hotel a higher score based on it’s grandeur but is dragged down by this receptionist’ attitude.