Abita Appartamenti

The location made it easy to walk downtown and take trips out to sea, and the staff were courteous. Still, the manager's restrictions seemed to leave them resigned to problems. A pigeon feather was in the shared hallway when we got back late at night, for instance. Our safe never worked, even though we asked for a repair on the first day of our four-night stay. Bathroom fittings were broken, including a damaged shower holder that was taped up, then “fixed” with more tape after we reported it. The toilet flush handle came off in my hand. In a quadruple room there was just one towel hook and one usable chair. With nowhere to store suitcases, we had to leave them on the floor. There was no welcome kit, not even a kettle. The property has potential, but it felt neglected and carelessly run.

DO NOT GO THERE. The room was tiny and unpleasant, and several things were broken. Some of the amenities listed on Booking.com weren't there. The worst part was how filthy it was: stains and hair on the toilet, bidet, shower, and sink. Hygiene should come first. Unforgivable, disgusting.

We'd booked an apartment through a travel agency four months ahead and still have the written correspondence. But on arrival, the receptionist said she had a booking for two rooms, not the apartment. After a lot of arguing, we accepted her offer of two nights in those rooms and then two more in an apartment, if it can be called that. She showed us around, and the “apartment” turned out to be a quadruple room, with a double bed and another double bed on an open mezzanine. So we went from expecting a two-bedroom apartment to getting one room. It smelled unpleasant by the mini-bathroom, and the iron spiral staircase was narrow. Nothing else to add.

We were in a ground-floor room above a water trap, and the noise and damp came right into the room. There was mold on the walls and furniture, the sink was blocked, and the uninsulated water tank splashed all night. In the morning my shoes were damp from the humidity. Then the whole building ran out of water that morning, as it had the previous Wednesday, according to the other guests I spoke with. The receptionist was vague about the room's issues, though surely she'd known from the start. €70 a night wasted.