Central Rooms

The location and price are good, but that’s where the positives end. The place may look beautiful, though it didn’t work well at all. The ground floor was full of cockroaches, and bugs got in because the balcony door wouldn’t latch properly. Inside, the sink stayed blocked and brought up nasty residue from the pipes. The toilet would sometimes bring up sewage, leaving the whole room smelling awful. Our room’s front door was broken, and the handle came right off. The power also cut out at random, sometimes coming back and sometimes not. The parking rate shown when we booked was €12 a night, but on arrival they asked for €20, so we parked somewhere else. Checkout was listed as 10:30, yet at 10 AM someone knocked aggressively. When I opened the door, the housekeeper shouted that checkout was at 10. There’s no reception or key for entering the hotel. You need internet on your phone to get in and out, so keep that in mind.

The room had a great view, but it was noisy. The air conditioner was loud and didn’t cool effectively, and the fridge wasn’t plugged in when we arrived. ConfortHotel doesn’t really feel like a hotel if you expect services such as luggage storage after checkout. It’s an unstaffed property that you enter with a smartphone. The only luggage storage is a 15-minute walk away, and it’s available on arrival day only, even though they charge on departure day.

The location was very convenient. There’s a bus stop right outside, a 24-hour drinks and snack booth nearby, and a supermarket and chicken restaurant/snack corner next door. Across the street are restaurants, and around the corner you reach the old city and the Saint Nicholas Bastilistic. A modern shopping street nearby runs all the way to Bari Central Station. The downside is how busy and loud that street gets. People party, walk by, wait at the bus stop and talk loudly, and the city seems to go all night. Even the street cleaning vehicle came by at 2 am, 2:30 am and 3 am. This could really bother people who need proper rest. It didn’t affect me too much because I wasn’t on a restful vacation, but it’s only fair to mention it. I still had a blast on my trip and loved it. I had a worrying start because I’d completed check-in well before the trip, then checked again the day before leaving and found that Central Rooms had switched to a new check-in program. Luckily, the company I booked through gave me their service number, and the employees at Central Room were very helpful over WhatsApp. The whole check-in and apartment entry process depends on an internet connection, so bring the Central Rooms phone number and make sure you can get online when you arrive. I stayed in room nr 2. The entrance door looked like a construction site, as if it was being replaced, though I’m sure they’ll fix it soon. Once inside, the hallway looked amazing, with white marble floors and stylish paintings. There are three steps up to the elevator, which I didn’t use because I took the nearby stairs. The apartment was clean and stylish. My room had a queen-size box spring, two bedside closets, a desk and chair, another chair, a closet, a TV without international channels, and a bathroom with good water pressure. Wooden panels on the balcony doors made the room very dark, which was great for resting. The towels smelled wonderfully fresh, and cleaners replaced them every day. A couple of things could be improved: the bathroom doorpost seemed water-damaged on the inside, and the area behind the toilet looked a little rushed while the rest of the bathroom was smooth. Still, I was very pleased with the room at Central Rooms.

We were in room no 4, which faced away from the road, so street noise wasn’t an issue. The room was really nice and quite spacious, though some other noise kept bothering us and we couldn’t figure out what it was. Light also came through the opaque glass above the door, so the room never got properly dark. The door-entry link in the email often gave an “error” message even when it opened the doors. On the third day, it stopped working altogether while we were standing outside. Fortunately, another guest called his wife, who let us in. The location is handy, with the old town a stone’s throw away and the train station about a 10-15 minute walk. There’s a supermarket next door and plenty of restaurants and cafes nearby.