Calasetta Residence

Federica really looked after us and managed to bring the stay from awful up to modest. Well done, Federica. We were there as a family in August 2021, and there were four of us, just as the contact person had said the apartment could accommodate. The kitchen supplies were shockingly limited. We had only coffee cups and three teaspoons, so even breakfast was a problem, and there weren’t enough suitable pots, pans, or lids for cooking. The sofa described as queen-size was the right size, but couldn’t actually be made into a bed because there was no way to put sheets on it as usual. I’d looked back at the website photos and felt some things didn’t add up. We should have complained to management and perhaps asked for an upgrade instead of trying not to bother them, but even so, there weren’t other solutions. Goodbye, Residence Calasetta.

The whole place was terrible, dirty, and badly organized. I’ve had cleaner and more peaceful holidays at campsites. We’re in this completely unsuitable “suite,” though “Amethyst hovel” would fit better. It’s me, my husband, our three-year-old, and our 17-month-old. The dishes were sticky, smelly, and filthy, and I had to wash them several times. The outdoor patio was dirty too. The shower drain was clogged with hair and other debris from previous guests. Each time we showered, water backed up, and several times I had to reach in myself to pull out hair that wasn’t mine. With the sand and two kids, the terrace gets dirty constantly, so I wanted to hose it down at least once a day. But there’s a structural problem: the water rises and floods the passageway. For three days the ladies kept coming by to complain to us and treated us as if we were the rude ones. We should have been able to enjoy an expensive holiday in peace.

The only good things were how close it is to the beach and Mrs. Elisabetta, who was very friendly and quick to sort out problems. Thank you to her. At such a high price, though, it just wasn’t worth it, and I wouldn’t book again. There are better, more affordable options. Never again. I stayed with my wife and two children in the La Perla apartment at Calasetta Residence. The apartment didn’t match the website description at all, which I found misleading, and there were no photos. We immediately found a previous guest’s underwear on the sofa bed. After our first shower, we had to call to get the bathroom’s 10-liter boiler replaced; that amount of hot water barely washes two cups. The air conditioning had apparently been out of order for some time. They’d installed a portable air conditioner/dehumidifier, the “penguin” kind, with a condensation hose running across the whole terrace and draining downstairs. It was infernal, especially in the bedroom. There was also a constant sewer smell from the shower. They said the bathroom had been renovated, but four tiles and the floors had just been glued down, without replacing the drains, mixer tap, or toilet flush. I’ll stop there. I’ve been a construction contractor for 30 years. Unlike them, I’m attaching photos.

Being close to SottoTorre beach is the one real advantage. The building goes back to the 1980s, with the good and bad that comes with that. The plumbing is very dated, and a problem showed up after a few days. Some of the residential neighbors were far from welcoming, and the garbage collection is poorly organized, which seems to benefit the local strays.