For what it's worth

We stayed at this hotel in late October 2006, booked through Greenbee. They described it as a "Charming hotel near public gardens" and list it as Three-Star (which they call "Quality" - better than "Value" and lower than "Superior"). The hotel is listed as "Limited First Class" by the Golden Tulip marketing chain ("limited" meaning that it lacks some services such as full-service restaurants).

We were very disappointed. Perhaps that was because we had unreasonable expectations - form your own opinion. Here are a few of our photos to show features - as at the date of our visit - that the hotel and Greenbee didn't seem to have room for on their websites.

The hotel’s apparent attitude to quality is perhaps best summed up by the notices around the hotel (but only visible after check-in) that warn: “Sorry for some deficient services. We are renewing our hotel”

To find temporary notices like this when you arrive (but without having been warned in advance) would be disappointing.

To find that the hotel had gone to the trouble of having the message engraved onto gold-painted notices and fixed permanently to the walls – that signifies a much more fundamental acceptance of customer disappointment.

At the Nazioni, those notices were not only permanently fixed, they had been there long enough to display streaks of paint that showed that they had been there since before the last round of decoration.

This is is the bathroom in Room 402 (two rooms making a "quad room" sharing one bathroom, potentially an excellent configuration for a family).

The original dark-pink tiles have been painted over with light-pink paint, but that has not adhered very well, and it has come off in places. Indeed, the tiles have come off altogether in places, and others are broken. Not my idea of "Quality" or "Limited First Class".






Warning for those with sensitive noses - we couldn't see or hear any sign of external ventilation in the (fully internal) bathroom for 402 (or 501) - it appears that the only way that "unpleasant bathroom smells" are going to disappear is by seeping into the bedrooms.







The bathroom (and bedroom) doors within Room 402 did not close because the frames were broken. The external door was fine, but if parents had any ideas of romance without their kids as an audience, they would be disappointed here.












Upon complaint, we were moved to Room 501, which wasn't a lot better. The doors did close, but there were no bedside lights (power sockets but no power), and the bathroom was both tatty...











... and had an electrical socket about 500mm from the basin (presumably legal in Italy even if it wouldn't be in the UK) which was coming out of the wall - a potentially fatal risk for young children.















Breakfast was also a severe disappointment - on our first morning I was almost sick at the stench from the rancid butter – two consecutive portions were the same, and the whole batch was eventually replaced when I complained.

The lukewarm coffee was identifiable only by the label “coffee” on its flask – certainly instant, and possibly a mix of cheap coffee and other even lower-cost adulterants.

The Pineapple “drink” was over-sweetened and unpleasant. The “Breakfast Grapefruit” drink was what I can only describe as janitorial.

The ham had hard white bits in it, which appeared to be hoof or bone.

I can only comment on four rooms at the hotel. The two that we occupied were tatty and very different from those pictured on the website at the date of writing. We also saw room 508 which we were moved to (but then moved immediately out of because it was suddenly "unavailable") - this was nothing like the rooms on the website, but tidier (and the bathroom even had a fan).

When I demanded a room that matched the website, we were shown Room 303 - which does look like the website pictures, and we could have had this room if only the configuration (double bed, double sofa-bed) had suited our family. But we needed single beds for the kids, and the hotel could offer nothing of that quality in this configuration. (We had confirmed with the hotel that they could offer us a suitable configuration - before booking).

Upsides - good location (useful supermarket very close, but only open to 8pm; cheapish Pizza restaurant nearby), and aside from the tattiness, the rooms were at least cleaned properly.

So, form your own judgements. Some - or perhaps all - of the other rooms may be delightful. And perhaps other people will enjoy the breakfast more than we did.

Update 11th November 2006:
I complained to Greenbee about this, and their response has been much more like the John Lewis I thought I knew - they seem genuinely upset, and have refunded me 35% of the cost of the hotel, which feels fair.

Greenbee have promised to update me on the results of their investigations into the hotel, and I will add a note about these when I hear from them.

Update 8th January 2007:
No followup from Greenbee. They have removed the word "Charming" from their description but are still offering the hotel, and still grading it as a "Quality" hotel. They do have a very rudimentary user scoring system (which shows that I am by no means the only unhappy user of this hotel) but it doesn't allow any user commentary - just points scores.

So - despite what one might expect from the John Lewis Partnership, you can still end up in a grotty hotel through Greenbee - they may offer convenience and price-negotiation muscle, but I won't be relying on their assessment of quality in future.