B&B Numero 25

The positive is that the room (very small) was clean, as was the bathroom. The rest of the experience was not positive. We never met the host Silvie, but did meet her brother Giovanni. The first issue was getting into the place. We arrived at the front door at 5:00 pm, as had previously been arranged, and there was no answer. I sent a text and Silvie called to say she would be there in 15 minutes. I told her we would wait at the front door. At 5:26 Silvie’s text said “I am arriving.” She did not arrive. At 5:33 she sent a text saying the girl who was supposed to open the door had an accident and could not come, but her mother would come. I inquired about timing, and Silvie said her mother would be there in 45 minutes. At that point, we went to the café at the end of the block to wait, and I sent a text telling Silvie where we were. At 6:13, Silvie’s text said her brother would be there in 5 minutes. Ten minutes later, the café owner, who saw we had suitcases, pointed out Giovanni who was standing in the middle of the street. He then told us that Silvie, his sister, was in Venice. And that, of course, meant she never was “arriving” as her text said. Inside the apartment, Giovanni asked us for passports and we brought them to him in the breakfast room where we stood while he recorded the information. As we waited my husband picked up a book that was out on a table. Giovanni jumped up, snatched it from his hand, and told us these were his private quarters and we should not be there. He did not explain how the breakfast room of a bed and breakfast, into which he asked us to bring our passports, could be considered private. The long wait, the contradictory stories we were told, the rudeness, and the mediocre room made us uncomfortable and we decided to leave the next morning, even though we realized we probably would not get a refund for the second night. On the same street are two other places to stay – Villa Noctis and Santa Maria Foris. We were very happy at the latter, a small hotel, and highly recommend it.

We are from Melbourne, Australia, and we are travelling all around Europe. Unfortunately this is the worse experience we had recently. Our friend arranged for us the accommodation and some months ago went to have a look to the apartment. The lady showed her two types of flats and my friend booked and got the confirmation for one of those. After a long trip we arrived in Ravenna and get to the B&B but nobody was there, even though we had already informed about our time of arrival. After 20 minutes waiting, a young girl showed us a different room from the flat we had booked previously which was very disappointing. They said that they couldn’t give us the flat we booked because people that we there before had asked for post-pone their staying, which is very unusual since we had booked it a lot in advance. Then we’ve been said that if we wanted a bigger flat we should have waited for the day after and move into the flat upstairs, so we chose to stay anyway. Since we got into the room, we discovered some problems. There wasn’t air-conditioning, but just a fan, the little TV hold on a tripod frame didn’t work and the shower in the little corridor (not inside the bathroom) only had cold water coming out, till we found that the boiler was switched off. Since then our friend tried to contact the lady managing the B&B, but unsuccessfully as she never replied. So we left her a text saying that we need to talk to her. The day after we tried to contact her again but she didn’t reply. Finally at lunchtime she replied our call, we asked her to move upstairs as she suggested us the day before, but she said the flat was already been occupied and we should have called her before (impossible!). Then we explained her that we couldn’t sleep because there was no air-conditioning and we had to find another solution (We have 8 degrees in Melbourne now and dry weather). The lady insisted that there was air-conditioning in the room (we think she misunderstood with the fan, although our Italian friend spoke to her in Italian), but she also said that, if were not satisfied, we could check-out paying the previous night and go somewhere else. For sure we had to leave it unless someone would have come soon in the afternoon showing us the air-conditioning and the functioning of the TV and shower. We agreed that would have waited for a call from her to inform us when the young lady could come to the B&B and help us with the facilities. We’ve been expecting all the afternoon, but then we called her back. Again nobody replied and we left a text saying that we had to leave the room. At the time our friend went back to pay the lady would charge us for two nights because we left the room in the afternoon, while we have been wasting our precious time on holidays for someone to come and give us some assistance.. Be aware when booking with this company that you receive what you booked as we didn't. We would not recommend this company. Ciao Ravenna !!

While no deposit was required the entire amount for my planned one month stay was deducted from my credit card five months ahead of time. I raised a complaint with Booking. com through which I had made the reservation. B&B numero 25 told Booking that there was a problem with their payment system and that they could only reimburse me when I was physically there with my card. After weeks of mailing and phone calls, I got my money back. Not from the B&B, but from the dispute department of Booking.com Of course I cancelled my stay. To my shock and surprise, now three months later, B&B numero 25 deducted the amount again, misusing the credit card details provided when I made the booking. In this process Booking.com customer service has been great in supporting me and I hope this can get resolved soon as the amount is 2240 euro which is a lot of money. I strongly advise everyone to be very careful in providing your credit card details to this B&B.