Booked four nights here for a quick last-minute break - chosen partly because of location, mainly because of absolute bargain price (we booked a couple of days before travelling). Wasn’t terrible, but four nights was enough!
The hotel pitches itself as five-star - Jet2 list it as four-star. At best, it’s three-star. There are good points - unfortunately, for almost every good point there’s a “but…”.
The vibe of the hotel could best be described as “faded grandeur” - it clearly used to be a lovely place, and it still has a nice look to parts of it (polished marble floors, sweeping staircase, and so on). But… it really needs some investment to get it back to its best. We’re both in our fifties, but we felt like the youngsters among most of the other guests!
Many of the staff (the ladies on reception in particular) are lovely - pleasant and welcoming, doing everything they can to help. But… there are a small number who clearly hate their job, and want the guests to know that. The older gent who was often on the bar by the pool was particularly miserable and rude.
Housekeeping is generally good - the housekeepers and gardeners, on the whole, keep the place looking nice despite its advancing age and need for a refurbishment. But… attention to detail is really lacking in some areas. We had a poolside room in the small annexe, and while the room was mainly very clean and tidy, there was an ashtray full of dog-ends which remained un-emptied on the wall of our terrace for our whole stay.
The pool area is fairly nice - lovely view down to Sorrento, across the bay and over to Vesuvius. But… there aren’t enough sunbeds for the number of guests (it’s not the kind of place where you’d expect there to be a ‘sunbed rush’ at dawn, but that’s what happens!), and the beds that there are - and especially the parasols - are in pretty bad condition.
Some of the food is pretty good (breakfasts are quite nice, and the desserts at dinner were good). But… there’s not much variety, they’re hopeless at keeping the buffet refreshed and tidy, and lunch was pretty awful. The “theme nights” in the restaurant are comically unimaginative and unimpressive!
The atmosphere at dinner was really strange - they advertise it as being available from 19:00 to 21:30. In a Mediterranean country you’d expect it to be the norm to eat later, but if you show up for dinner after about 20:00 then there won’t be much food left, what there is will look pretty messy and unattractive, and there won’t be any atmosphere at all as most of the guests will have been and gone.
There’s a very useful free shuttle bus which takes guests down into Sorrento. But… some of the timings are really odd, and dovetail badly with the slightly restrictive mealtimes which the hotel operates.
In summary - it was OK for a short last-minute break to chill out a bit and spend a couple of days exploring Sorrento, Capri, etc. But if I’d been there any longer I’d have been wishing for departure day to come around.
