Le Club Boutique Hotel

I felt uneasy after booking when I read more reviews, but the stay turned out better than I expected. The location was great, the staff were helpful, and breakfast was tasty and well stocked. The restaurant seems to be closed for good, though there are plenty of places to eat nearby. Our ensuite was clean but laid out strangely, and the bed was very firm. The air-conditioning worked well and the room was cleaned every day. The elevator was working, and reception pointed us to a nearby car park with a good rate. Lecce is lovely.

Staff were so friendly, and the woman at reception even remembered the next morning that our daughter needed gluten-free breakfast. The hotel is in a great spot, just a two-minute walk from the main sights, and everything was very clean. It's not really a four-star hotel, and the rooms are a little dated, but breakfast was okay and we had a good stay.

We stayed for three nights and four days, and our room wasn't cleaned once. There was barely any toilet paper when we arrived, so we had to go to reception and ask for more. The service here was dreadful, one of the worst hotel experiences I've had, and I travel for a living as a travel writer. Breakfast was meant to run from 7 to 10, but on two days, when we came down at 8:30 and 9, the trays had been cleared and there was nothing left. Guests shouldn't have to be first in line to get enough to eat at an apparent four-star hotel. One day we had to ask for an omelette because there was no breakfast left. The server was nowhere in the restaurant or kitchen. After waiting over 15 minutes, I asked reception, and they said they'd find him. Another 20 minutes passed and he still hadn't appeared. Nobody else was in the restaurant either. That isn't acceptable service. The staff's general attitude was poor. We'd prepaid online, and when we arrived the man handed us the key moodily without explaining anything about the hotel or area. We didn't know checkout was at 10:30 and assumed it was noon, as at a normal hotel, because nobody had bothered to tell us. The whole stay was a terrible experience.

The hotel has a delightful roof terrace with nice views, though both of the large mechanical shade umbrellas seemed broken. It has potential, but during our three nights it felt like a bit of a disaster. Getting there by car can be difficult at certain times because it's in the old town. The hotel suggested parking on Via Adua and gave us a phone number to book, but they had the parking name wrong, which made finding the right place unnecessarily stressful. It's called Parking ex Gil. Our room was very dark, especially the bathroom, where the backlit mirror was the only light. Some of the fittings were in poor repair. Breakfast also got stranger and worse each day: on the first day they offered eggs and bacon, but only the eggs arrived, and those were fine. On day two I had to ask for eggs, and they came. There was no juice, yoghurt, or cheese until I asked. On day three, I was told eggs weren't available. At checkout no one showed much interest in our stay, and they added water to the bill that we hadn't had. The restaurant and bar were closed the whole time we were there.