PUCIC PALACE

There were five couples of us staying at your hotel in Dubronovic on Saturday 8 August . We are used to staying in five-star hotels, which is why we chose your hotel. The service was shocking for a five-star hotel.  1) Check-in: having arrived early in the morning at 9.00 am, we asked if it was possible to check in before the scheduled time of 2.00 pm. We were allowed to check in at 2.10 pm only after I had made a clear complaint; 2) Check-out: for just one room, we asked for a late check-out as our guests had a flight at 8.00 pm. We were allowed to check out an hour later than scheduled, i.e. at 12.00 pm instead of 11.00 am, and even paying extra didn’t secure an earlier check-out as the cleaning staff leave at 5.00 pm !!!!! 3) Rooms: four out of five rooms had broken air conditioning, with the temperature at 28°. Following strong complaints from 3.00 pm until the evening, the temperature dropped slightly in two rooms. One room had an extremely noisy cooling unit which prevented them from sleeping. They asked, at the very least, not to be charged for the water they drank during the night, but this request was refused. 4) In my room, the hairdryer was broken and not replaced, despite two requests.

Unfortunately, this hotel does not meet the standards of a 5-star property. In my opinion, it should not be rated 5 stars at all. Even a 3-star hotel should be able to provide a properly functioning air-conditioning system. When we checked in, our room was already at 26°C even though the thermostat was set to 18°C. There was also a noisy portable AC unit in the room, which immediately made me question whether the hotel’s main air-conditioning system was working properly. We left for about five hours and returned to find the room even hotter — 28°C. Two staff members came to the room, confirmed there was a problem, and even mentioned that another room was experiencing the same issue. Since the hotel was full, their solution was to offer us a fan. We decided to leave immediately and move to another hotel. I requested a refund for the two prepaid nights, but the hotel refused. Their explanation by email was that 28°C is “normal” during the summer because this is an old building in the Old Town. That explanation makes no sense to me. Being in an old building does not justify poor maintenance or an air-conditioning system that cannot properly cool the rooms. We stayed in an old building in Split Old Town without this problem, and the hotel we moved to in Dubrovnik maintained our room perfectly between 18–22°C. The maintenance problem also seemed to go beyond our room. Even the lobby was extremely warm when we checked in, and the reception employees were visibly sweating while working. The property visibly needs better maintenance. Being located in a historic building should not be used as an excuse for basic systems not functioning properly, especially at a hotel marketed and priced as 5-star. The location in the heart of the Old Town is excellent, but unfortunately that was the only positive part of our experience. I would not recommend this hotel.

The absolute worst hotel experience we have had in all of Europe. Check in was in a super uncomfortable hot sweaty room with someone who had no idea what they were doing. After taking our passports she hands them back and says “you’re all set”. I said, “can we have a key?” The rooms smelled musty. It was very dark. They promise a noise proof rooms which was an absolute joke because the window did not even close. Which was another issue given that it was over 90 the entire stay. The advertised air conditioning is a portable unit that could not keep up and never cooled the room. The bathrooms have no windows, no fans and get extremely hot. The water pressure to too high for the shower pan and floods the entire bathroom floor. The black out shades, also advertised, do not close due to the portable a/c unit piping rigged to stick out of the window. “Housekeeping” , also advertised, included someone coming in to make our bed. Soaking wet towels left in tub, countertop and sink left untouched. And then left us one clean towel to share: We arranged transport at 6:45 am specifically calling it an early night the night before based on their suggestion to get to Montenegro. They insisted anything later will result in a “massive line at customs” They had no bell service so we pushed our bags throughout the city to the gates only to find we have no car waiting for us. We called and she said “my colleagues fault. She never changed it from 7:30.” I specifically arranged a van tell her that we had too much luggage for a car. She sent a car. They were helpful making dinner reservations and also answering questions via email before our stay and were very timely in doing so. The location is great. That’s it. It is not a 5 star at all. The price is ridiculous on top of that. Miserable stay.