HG Hotel Cappelli

The hotel is old, and there are no laundry facilities. Parking is available right outside for a fee. The staff were great, and so was the food.

The room stayed cold even after we complained two or three times. Staff said the heating might come on later and there was nothing they could do, while it was below 10°C outside. The water was cold and weak, and half the room's plugs didn't work. Breakfast was very poor too, with food that had no taste.

The waiting staff were lovely, though it must have been embarrassing for them to serve food like that. The meals were appalling. We were half board, and my food was shockingly bad despite my dairy allergy and gluten intolerance. The rest of the party's food was just as bad. I was sometimes served 20 minutes before everyone else, sometimes 20 minutes after, and once my main never arrived. They later claimed I hadn't ordered it the night before, though I definitely had. Food was often cold and badly presented. Dessert once was just two whole peaches in a bowl. Breakfast was self service and poor too: cold meat, including very fatty salami, was served from the same platter all week, and the older slices were dry, discoloured, and curled at the edges. The hard boiled eggs were green, and other guests got scrambled eggs that were stone cold. The restaurant was understaffed, and my plate was often taken while I was still eating as they rushed to clear tables. The self service food was uncovered, with no way to keep it warm. The hotel also hosts groups of teenage schoolchildren, one group after another. Teenagers acting like teenagers when away from home can't really be blamed, but putting them with older guests who need to get up early for a tour is a bad idea. They ran around the hotel until the early hours. Montecatini Terme is beautiful, but Hotel Capelli was a letdown. We booked through Mistral tours, which I can't recommend as a company, and I definitely can't recommend the Capelli. Avoid it if you can. My sister and I were in room 408, which wasn't too bad, to be fair. It had a balcony and a large bathroom, but the balcony furniture was poor and there was extensive mold around the bath and shower tiles. My sister and aunt shared room 333, which must surely be the hotel's worst room. If you're unlucky enough to be put there, I'd advise declining it. The walls were dirty, there was mold around the shower tiles, the bed headboards were tatty, the floor was badly scratched, and there was no balcony furniture. For the first few nights they had four single beds in the room and couldn't get to the balcony. Two beds were removed a couple of days later at my sister's request, since the hotel had no other room to offer. There was no air conditioning anywhere in the hotel at first, and the receptionist couldn't say when it would start. A couple of days later it came on, but only for about an hour a day and not when we needed it. I have no idea how this is meant to be a three star hotel. I'd be kind to give it two. Stay if you want, but don't say you weren't warned.

Some staff were nice, but others ignored requests, and a few argued with us about obvious mistakes they had made. The food was ridiculous. The choices were cheap and lousy, the bread was old and hard, the meat badly prepared, and there were unidentifiable things in the pasta. It left me with elevated gastric acid as a souvenir of the meal. The room was hot and stuffy because the air conditioning didn't work, even with the windows open. Hundreds of mosquitoes flew in at night, so we got no sleep. The outdoor pool water didn't look very clean, and the hot tub wasn't working at all. It looked dirty and broken, like it had been out of order for a long time. So far, this has been my worst hotel experience.