Hotel Gallery House

We called to reserve and agreed on a price with the receptionist. Later when we had already made plans they contact us to double the price we had initially agreed on. I understand mistakes but this seemed more like a tourist trap and unfair business.

CAUTION: if you're planning a trip to palermo, sicily, do not book a room at the Hotel Gallery House! Booking.com lists that "hotel" with an average rating of 9.1/10. what you actually get, though, is what you can see in the pictures attached to this post. first of all, the place is not what you'd expect when booking a HOTEL: it's not a seperate structure but rather one level of a huge commercial building. after we complained to the staff about the condition of our first room, we got moved to a supposedly better room, but as it turned out the second room was just as run-down as the first one was. particularly the bathrooms were totally unacceptable: the toilet seat fell of the bowl. the shower cabins were not properly sealed, everytime we had a shower the bathroom ended up being completely flooded. the wallpapers, the windows and the furniture looked more than shabby and many items were not fully functional. furthermore, none of the rooms had a ceiling light. there was no safe in the rooms. in the morning, staff would chat loudely in the hallway which made it impossible to sleep in. on the third night, ultra loud music on another floor of the building kept us from sleeping until midnight. after another fruitless complaint, we informed Booking.com about the situation and checked out the next morning since we couldn't take it anymore. neither the Hotel Gallery House nor Booking.com are willing to compensate us for our awful stay and the remaining three nights that had already been paid for. over the past years, we've made countless reservations via Booking.com and we've never had an experience like this ever before. feeling massively ripped off, this was very likely the last time we would book an accommodation on their website and we can only encourage you to precisely look into what you're about to book on Booking.com. feel free to share this review, it might just spare one of your contacts a terrible stay.

This hotel is unlike any I have ever stayed in throughout my entire life of traveling Europe and the states, but if you keep an open mind and adventurous heart than you will be just fine. The hotel is located in a large building filled with other "hotels" and lofts on each floor... This hotel is located on the third floor of the building. That is when we started to notice that this may be a little bit of a different hotel experience; We were welcomed by the very sweet owners who speak broken english and appreciate when we tried our broken Italian, lol. The hotel is just one floor with about ten rooms, small lobby, and small breakfast eating area. My room was nice, not a great a view, the electricity kept turning off several times a day and I would have to turn the power box off and then back on again, and the shower doors were messed up so water leaked out onto the floor. The rooms were cleaned reached day very nicely though and any request we had the staff provided. It's an old Italian building so there a bound to be issues, but this is more like a cross between a "hotel" and bnb. My grandparents room fridge didn't work and they replaced it within 24 hours, their window latch was broken so the window can not be opened, and the bathroom sink leaked when in use. The walls are thin so in the mornings we were able to hear the other guests getting up and talking in the hallway. The air conditioners did work though which is always a blessing! The location of the hotel was convenient to a lot of the main attractions and the hotel provided information for tourist activities. We bought our hop on hop off bus tickets through the hotel and were able to walk less than five minutes to stop 1 on the bus map. Overall, the place was a different and not a typical hotel experience but if you keep an open mind you'll be just fine. The staff was really great and we probably would not have stayed if it wasn't for how kind and welcoming they were to us the entire time!