B&B Studios Gardarco & APPARTAMENTI

The location is genuinely great, but we asked for a room with a private bathroom and found out at check-in that ours was meant to be shared. The apartment could use a serious makeover, and we couldn’t access the balcony because it was being used for city event lighting. To be fair, that probably wouldn’t have been an issue at another time of year. Use Booking, or you could lose an expensive 50% deposit if you’re unhappy. For a similar price, there are much better places. I’d only suggest staying here if you’re four friends who don’t mind sharing a bathroom and have no other option. B&B Gardarco, you can do much better.

Find somewhere else. In my view, this place should be boycotted. The room itself might have been fine, but the manager was dishonest and tried to pull a fast one, adding costs he had made up at the last minute. He pretended to offer us a better room, even though it was clearly the same one we had booked. He asked us to cancel our Booking reservation and pay cash, which would leave us without protection if anything went wrong. Once you’re there, with no guarantee of finding another room at a reasonable last-minute price, you may feel stuck accepting what these people demand. I wonder how many tourists they’re scamming while giving Italy that “pizza and mandolin” image.

Be careful. After booking, he sent a private message telling us to cancel on Booking and pay cash, supposedly for a better room. I didn’t respond, but he still claimed he was giving us an upgrade. It was the same room shown in the photos, and he demanded more money with a lot of talk on the phone. He also tried to charge tourist tax and cleaning fees that were supposedly included in the room price. The city website says the tax is 1.50 per day, but he wanted 35 for three days. We got the correct amount sorted by contacting the Guardia di Finanza and explaining what happened. Booking customer service also assured us he couldn’t kick us out if we refused his demand to defraud Booking and pay extra. Don’t trust them, these crooks are ruining tourism.

WARNING: SCAMMER In my opinion, the owner is a criminal trying to scam people, as several other reviews have said. He basically pressures you to cancel through Booking.com and pay him in cash. We got a free cancellation and simply booked somewhere else. After that, he called us Nazis.