Casa Regina

It’s a hotel for two or three days at most. The room was large, and the receptionist could speak English. That’s about the only good I can say :p Check-in and check-out are 1.5 km apart. When booking, the lady asks for a €200 security deposit and says we have to take the rubbish out or there’s an extra €50 charge. She also wants a video at the end showing the room and bathroom condition, with another €50 fee if extra cleaning is needed. The room smelled unpleasantly old and damp, and clearly hasn’t been renovated in a while. To get to the toilet you have to pass through the shower, so if someone’s just bathed, there’s no way to keep a foot dry :p The bed is only suitable for someone up to 180 cm. I’m 2 m tall, and my legs hang off :p

I booked an apartment with a separate bedroom, living area, and bathroom, as stated in the booking and confirmation, and expected it to be clean. Instead, I was given a studio with fold-away beds. When I raised it, the receptionist said, "You didn't understand. What did you think you could get for that price?" I have a video of the condition and the confirmation showing I didn’t get the apartment type I booked. I strongly advise against this place. Apartment #4 was in terrible shape and badly maintained. The walls were chipped and mouldy, the bathroom door was swollen and patched, and water went everywhere from the shower. The toilet wouldn’t flush, the sink drained very slowly and clearly needed cleaning, and there was a hole in the apartment door. The fridge was full of mould, the inside of the freezer door was rusty, and there was dust everywhere along with some cobwebs. Terrible experience.

Shame there’s no zero-star option. The only star this place deserves is for the price and its convenient location, two minutes from the center of Desenzano. I was supposed to stay at Casa Bagatta, but because of a technical problem they sent me to Casa Regina, and I had no idea what I was getting into. The place was barely fit to stay in. There was no real cleaning, and no dishes, hairdryer, or shower curtain. The taps dripped all day and night, so I couldn’t sleep. The fridge leaked and had no freezer, and some walls had mould. The pillows and mattress were paper-thin. Every time the elevator next to the apartment started up, it made the place shake like an earthquake. The whole building was chaotic at all hours. I wouldn’t recommend it.

The apartment was truly disgusting. We were told it was "right next door" to the Plaza Hotel, but that simply wasn’t true. On arrival, they said the fridge had broken the day before and showed us a makeshift mini-fridge that barely cooled anything. We’d already bought groceries, and when we tried to cook a few hours later, the dishes and furniture were greasy and dirty. Everything was set up for one person, with just one cup and one glass, so that evening we had to ask around for plastic cups. Then things got worse. Some girls from next door came to get our help because their fridge had fallen over when one of its legs gave way. Our shower had no curtain or tray, so the bathroom turned into a swamp for the three days we were there. There were also loads of killer mosquitoes. In the morning we couldn’t check out because the building’s front door was locked, and its handle and inside lock had been torn off. I had to climb out of a ground-floor window to open it from outside. Calling the place disappointing would be an understatement.