Hotel Centrale

The whole place had a wonderful atmosphere, and the staff were welcoming and happy to suggest several hidden gems around Olbia and Sardinia. We loved the beautiful bathrooms and the attention to detail throughout. Breakfast was great too, and the hotel is in exactly the right spot.

I should have paid more attention to the reviews about the loud music downstairs. The Cuban-style bar under the hotel had live music until 12:30 on Sunday and stayed open until 1 a.m. I could hear it all through my earplugs, so sleeping before then was impossible for me. That was especially frustrating because I’d contacted management on Booking.com right after booking to arrange a 6:30 a.m. taxi. It was obvious I’d need an early start, so being placed above live concerts felt like a lack of real hospitality. I do have to own that I could have checked the reviews first, and the music was performed pretty well. The room itself was clean, huge, and had comfortable beds. The hotel is nice, and the receptionist was a genuinely lovely guy. I enjoyed checking in with him, and he reassured me about the music.

The staff we met were friendly and helpful, but there wasn’t much they could do. Reception was often unattended, and the hotel wouldn’t agree to the 50% refund we felt was fair. They said no refund was possible because we’d paid through Booking, but we checked with Booking and were told that wasn’t true, since the payment went straight to the hotel. We’d booked a week, but after that awful first night we quickly found somewhere else. The hallways were extremely loud, with people shouting and slamming doors, and the nightclub music was blaring. The rooms weren’t nice, and the breakfast was really poor: about four pieces of bacon, four sandwiches, a few sweets, and bad coffee. They offered another room, but we didn’t want any of them. The location is good if you’re after a very, very noisy stay. Otherwise, look elsewhere in Olbia. This felt more like a zero-star hotel.

The pictures didn’t match the room we got. There was no regular window, just one in the ceiling, and no way to let in fresh air. Before arriving, we called to ask if we could drive up to the hotel to unload our bags. They said we could, but the police stopped us when we got there and said only residents were allowed. We’d also specifically asked for a parking suggestion. The hotel pointed us to a public lot where, as far as we understood, nothing usually happened. In the morning, though, our car windows had been smashed and belongings stolen. None of the information they gave us turned out to be right.