Hotel La Bussola

I was at the hotel for a wedding and was given room 124, which had visible damage and smelled strongly of fire smoke. Another wedding guest told me he'd first been assigned that same room, asked to move because of the same problems, and was moved. They then assigned it to me. I argued with the front desk for 30 minutes. The concierge came up to check the smell, but didn't agree with me, even though several Italian-speaking guests with me all said it smelled strongly of smoke. After more back and forth, he moved me to a smaller room with a smaller bed. I accepted because I couldn't sleep in a smoky, visibly damaged room, but nobody made clear that they wouldn't refund the price difference. When I checked out two days later and asked about the difference, the front desk said it was impossible because I hadn't asked the day before. The hotel staff wouldn't take responsibility or put things right, and one front desk staff member told me to leave a bad review if I was unhappy. The customer service was horrible. No guest should stay in room 124. I also felt foreign guests got significantly worse treatment than Italian natives or people who spoke the language. EDIT: In response to the hotel's reply, calling a request for a price adjustment "extortion" says a lot about how they treat guests. I slept in the new room for two nights, not three. At checkout, I asked what they could do to make it right, and they said they would have helped if I'd asked the previous day, but it was too late now. They also said I could leave a bad review if I wanted. I was a bridesmaid and was out all day both days, leaving at 10 AM and getting back at 2AM, so I'm not sure when they expected me to raise it.

The website made me expect somewhere with character, charm, and the facilities you'd get at this price. In reality, none of that was there. We arrived at 8.00pm after a four-hour flight from Ireland and a two-hour transfer from Catania, hoping for a meal and a few drinks. A man greeted us. He was friendly enough but a bit creepy, and the restaurant and bar were dark, with an eerily quiet atmosphere. Nobody told us where to find food, though luckily our taxi driver had recommended somewhere nearby. Our room was beige and bare, despite the website describing the rooms in nice colours, or something along those lines. After dinner down the road, the host, perhaps the manager or owner, suggested we go to the roof terrace. We had two glasses of wine there. The red was bad, the white was okay, and the terrace itself was pleasant. Breakfast was dreadful. The host stood in the middle of the room without explaining how things worked, so we didn't know whether to get food and coffee ourselves or wait for service. We were eventually served coffee. The hot food was cold, anaemic-looking scrambled eggs that were downright nasty. A staff member offered to reheat them, which was a big red flag. Don't reheat eggs. We ate the handful of ham and cheese slices, hoping they weren't as dangerous as the eggs. The Wi-fi didn't work. The host said he'd look into it but never did. At checkout, we were charged 24 euros for the wine and four euros more than the room price on the original booking. I only noticed the extra room charge when the receipt came by email after we left. Don't stay here unless you fancy Bates' Motel. This was a poor start to our first proper vacation in 20 years. Never again.

Our room was comfortable, clean, and spacious, and the front desk woman who welcomed us was wonderful. She helped us with parking for the evening and showed us how to reach the parking we'd reserved for the next day. Since she knew we had an early ferry, she made sure breakfast would be ready early. The location is great for the ferry.

The staff were super friendly, and we had a huge, well-equipped room. Breakfast was delicious. It's very close to the port and only minutes by car from the train station. The hotel exceeded our expectations, and I'd definitely stay again next time. Thank you for a great experience 😊