Europa Hotel

A hotel to avoid at all costs. This hotel is nowhere near the standard you would expect from a five-star hotel, and in our opinion, it does not even deserve a three-star rating. We stayed for four days and encountered a shocking number of issues, especially considering the price of €700 per night. Most importantly, there was no hot water for two full days. We reported the issue to reception, but were initially told that there was definitely hot water. Only after checking did they acknowledge the problem. The following day, we were told it had been fixed — but it still wasn’t. Having no hot water for two days at €700 per night is simply unacceptable. The spa service was equally disappointing. There was almost never anyone at the spa reception. On our last morning, we wanted to use the spa at 7:00 a.m., its advertised opening time, but were told the spa attendant would not arrive until 8:30 a.m. As a result, we could not use the swimming pool. The breakfast was extremely basic. No bacon, potatoes, or mushrooms, and although breakfast is advertised as opening at 7:00 a.m., the staff member arrived around 7:15. Nothing was ready before then, not even the food labels. There were also very few complimentary amenities: no water or refreshments at reception and no fruit in the gym. For a hotel charging €700 per night, these are basic expectations. It also appeared that only three staff members were responsible for the entire hotel — one at the bar, one at reception, and one at the spa — which clearly affected the quality of service. Finally, after four days, we still had not received the access codes for the parking. Overall, this was an extremely disappointing experience. Paying €700 per night for this level of service is simply outrageous. The hotel falls dramatically short of five-star standards and, frankly, does not even meet what we would expect from a three-star hotel in France. Absolutely not recommended. Save your money and stay somewhere else.

We stayed at two other five star hotels either side of Eight, which I mention so it’s clear that we had two comparators. Safe to say, Eight is not a five star hotel. In terms of what was good about Eight: The breakfast was varied and delicious (though - and this will become a theme - see below). The staff were generally very nice and attentive. Our room was always cleaned to a high standard (though see below) and the hotel manager was welcoming and friendly. The hotel is very nicely appointed, with excellent appliances (including a Dyson hairdryer), a nice balcony (though again, see below) and an excellent spa. The air con was fantastic and much needed in high Summer, and the room was reasonably quiet. Though the spa might be overcrowded in the Winter as it is quite small, we had no trouble finding beds in August. The hotel is also very well located, impressively close to the centre of town and the start of popular walking routes. Now for the negative aspects of our stay: Our room smelled strongly of chips every single day?! Even directly after cleaning. The manager must have known this as she showed us to our room on the first night and the smell was quite strong, but she didn’t mention it. Breakfast was quite chaotic. If you wanted to sit outside, the tables weren’t made up so you had to wait (generally for a fair amount of time, i.e. after you’d actually started eating food from the buffet) for a server to put down cutlery and a placemat - or resort to taking these from the inside dining room yourself. The menus were also given out seemingly at random, and you didn’t get what you ordered (specify two poached eggs, you may only get one). The two female waiting staff were generally very attentive whereas the sole male staff member seemed less so, so this may have been an understaffing issue. Water was provided in our room for the ‘Nespresso machine’, but there wasn’t any such machine. We had to go to reception to raise this as the phone in our room wasn’t working, and despite the manager’s assurances, a coffee machine was never provided. The phone was also never fixed. Our room was extremely small. Granted, we had inadvertently booked the smallest room, but it was billed as being suitable for two guests. While the bathroom was weirdly spacious, the room itself wasn’t big enough for our suitcases to even be on the floor. We had to stash these under the bed and put all of our belongings into the (again, too small) wardrobe/drawers to make everything fit (just). This is likely an argument for booking a bigger room, but for the price tag (even in Cortina) we would have expected far more space. The view from the sole window and balcony was also blocked by a complete building site, which is presumably temporary but put a bit of a downer on our mountain break. For context, our other stays were in Selva and Venice - not cheap places, but in each case the rooms were less expensive and at least double the size of our room at Eight. This is not a ‘bad hotel’. It’s a very nice hotel, but it is not a five star hotel by quite a long stretch. Hopefully some of these issues can be ironed out as they are all relatively minor in isolation, but cumulatively resulted in a disappointing stay.

I just wanted to say I had an AMAZING stay at this hotel. The location is great, the atmosphere is cozy, romantic and warm. We took 3 rooms and each of them were exquisite beyond words. The decor is just WOW. They use the best products, best brands, the decor was very well thought out and expensive. Rooms and public spaces are very clean. The SPA is beautiful and clean. Hotel is very quiet. We didn’t experience any noise. Everything was very pleasant and quiet. The service is beyond words and I would like to express special gratitude to Mathéo, Georgia, Michaelo, Katerina and another guy in the restaurant who I didn’t get his name, they ALL went above and beyond to make us feel at home. It felt more like a home than a hotel. Also the ladies at the breakfast service were so helpful, quick and friendly. When I come back to Cortina I would love to stay here again. I would also like to mention that out of all the restaurants in Cortina, our favorite one was the one in this hotel 8 Bistro. Very fresh and very tasty. It was so convenient for us to have such an amazing restaurant right there without having to run around town. Highly recommended!!