GH Rooms Catania

WARNING: They leave you out on the street. From what I've read, we aren't the only ones this has happened to. Just minutes before we arrived, after we'd confirmed our check-in time, they canceled the reservation. They said another guest had shorted out the electrical system and it wasn't working. They didn't call, warn us, or apologize. We found out through Booking.com that they were overbooked. They leave you stranded, tired, with your suitcases and nowhere to go. Your reservation gets canceled just before you're due to enter. They overbook and put up whoever pays the most. I had my reservation canceled a few minutes before going in because of overbooking. WARNING: they leave you out on the street.

The location near the city center and Villa Bellini was why we booked GH Rooms for the night of August 11th, while attending a concert. That was the one good thing about our stay. We arrived in Catania at the time we had already told the host, but ended up waiting more than an hour outside the main door in the hot early afternoon sun. We made dozens of calls and got no answer, all while waiting for someone to click us in. We started to wonder if we'd been scammed online. Once inside, the room wasn't the one assigned to us on Booking.com. We later found out that the room we'd booked had two other guests in it. There were no towels, and we strongly suspected the host hadn't even registered us. The poor management and service made us feel uncomfortable and out of place from the start. I can't recommend GH Rooms, despite its convenient location.

We stayed for two nights early in the week. The room was clean and well equipped, and check-in was up to date and handled with technology. The building entrance didn't make a great first impression, and the narrow staircase was a bit awkward, though we got used to it quickly. It's very close to the villa and city center, which makes the location a good one.

I'd booked three rooms about two months ahead, but at 7:16 AM on the day we were due to arrive, I got an email saying the property couldn't host us after all. The guests leaving that day had caused damage that couldn't be repaired, they said. This caused us a lot of inconvenience, and the property didn't even try to address it. I looked at other reviews and saw that my experience seemed isolated, but the problem itself sounded like a recurring pattern.