La Villa Resort Charme & Relax

The bathroom and heating made this stay especially unpleasant. It was cold because the heating was inadequate and often switched off, and the towels were threadbare, mismatched, and so worn that some were nearly see-through. The bathroom was dirty and poorly maintained, with broken or missing shower handles and a bidet drain plug that was blocked, so emptying it took manual effort. The tiny travel hairdryer barely seemed capable of drying short hair, let alone long hair. Breakfast was just two tarts to slice yourself, a few discount-store snacks, and coffee or cappuccino. There was no juice, yogurt, or savory food. When we asked for an omelet, the response was something like, “Oh my God!!!” The family management also felt unprofessional and at times made us feel like a nuisance. At checkout, the woman working out the bill miscalculated by €20. We chose not to make an issue of it at the time, out of politeness, and decided to share our dissatisfaction in a review instead. This was our second stay here in two years, and the property has kept getting worse, partly because the owners seem to show it no care. We paid €240 for two nights in a quadruple room in charming Pignola, a remote village far from Potenza. For comparison, an elegant, well-maintained place in central Potenza cost a little less for the same dates. After seeing the condition on arrival, we would have turned down the booking if we hadn't already paid a small deposit. The place is now in a worrying state of neglect, and the service lacks both courtesy and willingness to help. €120 a night for a quadruple room with these problems is absolutely unacceptable. If half a star were possible, that's what I'd give. I absolutely don't recommend it.

The part that upset me most was that my grandparents had paid for this Christmas meal for the whole family as a gift, and it ended up being such a disappointing experience. We paid an exorbitant €40-50 per person. The meal was in the restaurant only, not the hotel, during the Christmas holidays. Dessert was supermarket panettone and pandoro, which would have been fine in itself, but there were only two slices of each for 16 people, cut into little pieces. The amari came in tiny 2 cm shot glasses, and the coffee was burnt. The portions throughout were embarrassingly small, and the food was awful because of how it had been cooked, not because of the Trentino cuisine the set menu was based on. The canederli were precooked and frozen. Mine felt warm on the outside but was still frozen inside, seriously frozen. That should never happen. The cannelloni were also precooked and merely reheated, with just two measly pieces per person. We got there at 1:30 pm, just before the scheduled lunch time, and the dining room was freezing. They'd only just turned on the stoves, while the radiators in the room weren't on. It stayed cold through lunch, and some people kept their jackets on the whole time. Holding a holiday meal in a cold room is unacceptable. The restaurant is also very inconvenient to reach, up above Pignola. I regret not taking photos to show what it was like. Since it was a family get-together, I hadn't thought I would need to write a review, but this was so awful that I couldn't leave it unmentioned.