Hotel Marina

The rooms and toilets were filthy, the hotel smelled awful, and there was no hot water. In our room for three, they hadn’t even left toilet paper; we had to complain to get a roll. The food was disappointing, and the staff were rude, especially the woman with glasses. When we arrived, the room was already dirty and disgusting, but after we left it that way they charged us €10. We got nothing good out of the stay and were charged more than we should have been. I’d choose any other hotel. This place doesn’t deserve even one star, maybe zero or minus one.

The location was a highlight: about a 10-minute walk from the center, with little shops and bars nearby for evenings, and the Funicolare was cute too. We’d read the reviews and expected things to be awful, but it was decent. Our room was small but manageable, and the shower was tiny and had to be assembled, though that didn’t bother us much. The food was really nice, even if the staff seemed rather rude at first when someone wasn’t hungry after a 19-hour bus ride.

The food was okay, mostly noodles with sauce each day and the same breakfast, and two women working with Vincenzo were nice. The night porter was friendly too, and the only person who could speak English. But Vincenzo yelled at the women in front of guests, and phones weren’t allowed in the dining room because they didn’t want people taking food photos. We also found our multiple charger missing after going out. They’d taken it to the lobby and wouldn’t return it until checkout, saying it was because of an electrical shortage. I suspect they just didn’t want to pay for the electricity, which may explain the air conditioning too. It cost €6 per night and couldn’t be used during the day, which felt criminal in nearly 40-degree heat. The room was a disaster even after we’d waited an hour and a half for it. Nobody had warned us about the delay, so we were left outside in 37-degree weather with nearly 100 guests arriving at once. The lobby had no AC and was too full of luggage for us to wait there. The place was still dirty: dusty floor, black marks under the bed, rubber bands on the ground, and hair in the shower. There were stains everywhere, and some furniture looked as if it had urine marks. The bathroom was tiny, had no real ventilation, and felt like a sauna. The rooms themselves are small and old. Avoid this hotel at any cost.

For a short stay, it’s worth the price, though I wouldn’t want to spend two weeks here, and Montecatini isn’t all that spectacular either. It’s far from luxurious. The bad reviews had made me nervous, but I didn’t find it as awful as I expected: the rooms were clean and mostly in decent shape, apart from a broken toilet flush. The food was another story. The pasta starter was decent, but the main course was often hard to identify, smelled odd, and looked like a mess. They served fish to vegetarians. Most of the waitresses were friendly, but the owner insists on locking the door at midnight, which is really annoying and doesn’t seem good for the hotel.