Calapetra Resort

We left feeling uncomfortable and thought the hotel offered very little for the price. We stayed two nights, and the staff kept bringing up the extra guest even after I agreed straight away to pay the fee. We had a last-minute change of plans and were worried we might not be allowed to stay, which is why we didn't mention the extra person up front. When asked for documents, I showed photos of our passports because they were back at our home base in Calabria. I didn't argue about the fee or give them a hard time. I explained that I didn't know Italy required guests to be reported to the police, since that's not the policy in the US. I never said Americans can hide someone. We weren't trying to avoid a fee or make a calculated plan; we simply didn't know whether we'd be able to stay. But after the matter was settled, another receptionist confronted us about it the next day, and the same one brought it up again at checkout. I felt we were treated like criminals and watched constantly. During breakfast, staff stood a few feet away watching us, and when we used the “jacuzzi’ or went elsewhere, the receptionist came to see what we were doing. At checkout, she told me she'd looked at my Facebook to check whether I had a third child and knew there would be more of us. We were supposed to be four, but that changed at the last minute. We were polite, kept the kids from getting too loud, left the room very clean, and never refused help with our luggage; we only had a couple of bags and my husband said he could handle them. That part was exaggerated. Later, in Taormina, we told the front desk about the extra guest and they had no problem with it and didn't charge more. We never gave Calapetra a hard time, but the repeated confrontations and checking my Facebook felt extremely unprofessional, almost like stalking. The beach was awful: just a tiny public stretch in a corner, with no room and huge rocks in the water to walk around. We paid to spend a day at a Lido instead, which felt necessary given the hotel's beach. There was also a lot of outside noise in the middle of the night, and the patio motion light kept turning on while we were trying to sleep. We couldn't wait to leave. We spent our second day at another beach, and for the price, I don't think this hotel is worth it or has anything special to offer.