GRAND HOTEL TRIESTE & VICTORIA – Contemporary Thermal Luxury SPA

The pools are great, but the rest of the hotel feels tired and could use a proper renovation. Breakfast was poor, with only basic food, nothing like what I'd expect from a five-star place. A lot of the staff didn't seem warm or friendly. I don't speak much Italian, so maybe it feels different for locals. To me, this is really a four-star hotel whose best days are behind it.

At checkout, extra restaurant items appeared on our bill, which was an unpleasant surprise. That felt like a marketing scam, something I wouldn't expect from a five-star hotel. The place also feels like it's from another era, and that goes beyond just the interior.

The pools are all really warm, and there are several sections with bubbles, along with a sauna, steam sauna, and an ice sauna where ice is used instead of a sauna unit. The hotel is classically beautiful, well maintained, and has friendly staff, excellent service, and good food. Can't wait for another chance to return. 5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The restaurant staff, most of them, were the only real positive for us. They were genuinely nice and professional. Everything else made this stay a major disappointment. My wife and I booked ten days to enjoy the thermal pools, but left after three nights. We might have left sooner, but wanted to find an alternative hotel carefully and avoid ending up in the same kind of trap again. I don't consider myself an expert, but after looking at the legal requirements for five-star hotels, I don't think this hotel really qualifies. In my opinion it should be reprimanded. I tried to find an easy way to report it to the authorities, but couldn't. There was mold in the shower, and rust came out of the sink on the first day. The room wasn't soundproofed, so we could hear everything from the corridor, toilets flushing, showers running, and the piano bar as if it were in our room from around 7 pm until it ended, between 11:30 pm and midnight. The moldy smell in the corridors, probably coming from under the carpet, was so strong it nearly made me throw up one morning when I went down for an early breakfast. The windows only start being opened from 8:30 am. We had booked a room with a bathtub, but got one with a shower instead. When we complained, the receptionist said the hotel was full and couldn't move us, and that a paid upgrade was the only option. I was shocked. I expected a five-star hotel to deal with problems like these without asking for more money when the room wasn't up to standard through no fault of ours. My wife complained about the noise again and they offered another room, but it was beside the lifts. With the poor soundproofing, we'd have heard people coming and going all the time, so we decided to find another place and get out of there. When we left, they said, "if only you would have told us earlier we could have done something", but we had already told them. We'd asked for quiet rooms from the beginning, by email and over the phone when I booked, and nothing was done. About 99% of the guests we saw seemed to be seniors, at least 65 or older. Maybe they're less bothered by noise or smells, but we found it unbearable. A few more things added to the frustration. The cleaning lady knocked at 9 am while I was still sleeping. I hadn't put up a do-not-disturb sign, but I think that's much too early to disturb guests. The gym was very old, with some equipment almost broken. There was also, or maybe still is, a huge wasp nest outside one of the windows. They kept the windows open, so it got really hot in the day and wasps flew around inside. The shower setup was strange, with the entrance on the side about 15 cm from the basin. It was easy to slip getting in or out, and there wasn't really room to put a towel on the floor. The scrambled eggs were sweet, as if sugar had been added, and the bacon was extremely chewy and hard to eat. The coffee was burnt and very acidic. I'd expect better coffee at an Italian five-star hotel, and had to add three sugars to make it drinkable. The lead waiter asked the other waiters for money to fix his car, right in front of guests. The WiFi was the slowest I've ever seen, capped at 5 Mbps, dropping the connection often and feeling like the 2000s. Staff were generally polite, but some were unprofessional or rude. Once, two hotel employees fought at reception, and the police and an ambulance had to come. There are problems throughout the building, and it clearly isn't well maintained.