Santa Sofia

The only good thing about this place is where it is. The beds were uncomfortable and made noise whenever we moved, and the old parquet floor creaked so much that we could hear anyone walking by. The heating didn’t work, and we had a couple of power outages. It was quite dirty, and everything seemed to be falling apart. Worst experience ever.

Avoid booking the deluxe room with a queen bed, sofa bed, and attached bathroom. There are at least 2 rooms of that type, and room 8 has broken air conditioning. It’s still really hot at night in August, so there’s a good chance you could be given that room. We asked the receptionist to look at the aircon, but all he did was change the direction of the vane. We weren’t allowed to switch rooms.

Staff were friendly and the location was good, and it was extremely cheap. Still, I’d rather pay more for a nicer stay. The rooms were tiny and basic, more like a run-down hostel than luxury guestrooms, with no amenities. Having the bathroom down the hall was frustrating, and without a shower curtain the water went everywhere and took ages to dry. Our window looked straight into an apartment block, with 20 other rooms looking into ours, which felt awkward. Noise was the worst part. On 3/5 nights, the couple on the floor above argued loudly at 11pm. On 4/5 nights, their children ran around, stomped, and slammed doors very late. One night another guest talked loudly on her phone at midnight, and there was lots of outside noise too. The lift seemed dodgy and stopped halfway once while we were riding it.

The room with its own bathroom was great, and the staff were friendly. The mattresses felt a bit hard, but the stay was otherwise a great experience. The location was superb and easy to find, even though others had trouble locating it. They printed our boarding passes for free, and there’s a smoking terrace. We’ll be back.