Hotel Villa Ducale

The pool looked beautiful and had an amazing view, and our room was clean and in very good condition. But the pool service felt lacking, with little proactive attention such as offering water or greeting guests. The hotel’s handling of our reservation and shuttle arrangements was far more disappointing, especially for this price. We booked a sea-view suite at Villa Ducale about nine months ahead, for over €600 a night, because this was our honeymoon and we wanted an exceptional view. Two weeks before arrival, we were told flooding had damaged some rooms and our reservation had been moved to another hotel. An email said they’d arranged a same-category hotel nearby with the same view and a free upgrade to a special suite. We hadn’t been asked to agree to the move, and since we’d already booked a suite, calling it an upgrade felt awkward. The replacement was clearly lower quality. For the same dates, Google showed Villa Ducale at around €600 or more per night and the other hotel closer to €300. When we arrived, it felt very dated and disappointing, so we went up to Villa Ducale to complain. After waiting in the lobby for more than 30 minutes, we were moved to a North Wing room, with a coastline view from the far edge of the property. It still felt underwhelming given the sea-view suite we’d originally booked for our honeymoon. There was also a mess with the shuttle. Villa Ducale had emailed that shuttle and activity bookings from our original reservation would transfer automatically, and we confirmed that by email beforehand. But on the day, no shuttle had been booked to pick us up in the town center. When we called, staff said we’d never made a reservation and that the shuttle wouldn’t run without one. After we arrived, I showed a male staff member the confirmation email. Instead of apologizing, he argued that their system wasn’t for advance bookings, only same-day requests. He was unnecessarily defensive and rude. Then, while he explained that shuttles could be booked on WhatsApp, I tried to add the hotel contact and he scolded me to focus on his explanation and add it later. The service felt extremely unfriendly and unprofessional. For our Italy honeymoon, other four- and five-star hotels included à la carte breakfast dishes at no extra charge. Villa Ducale charged extra for those, and its buffet was surprisingly limited: scrambled and boiled eggs were basically the only included egg choices, with other options costing more. We also booked an Etna winery visit through the hotel. The taxi they arranged was quoted at 374 euros, which seemed ridiculous, so we searched Google Maps and booked a different company for the same route at €180. I’d strongly recommend avoiding the hotel’s taxi services.