Villa Santina

The service was generally good, and breakfast was good too. Lunch was just okay. Still, for what I paid, I expected more. To me, this is a three-star hotel at most. Our room smelled bad and wasn’t cleaned very well. The bathroom needs renovating, and there wasn’t enough toilet paper. They didn’t replace it even after four days. We could hear people in the hallway because the sound insulation wasn’t great. Having to pay an obligatory 7 euros per day for the service felt like the reservation price was kept low so we’d pay the real cost later. I felt cheated. I definitely expected more.

Mixed feelings about the place. The rooms were clean, and the staff were very nice and polite. Lunch and dinner had a decent variety for the size of the hotel and the number of guests. Breakfast was the same every day, and housekeeping didn’t leave shower gel each day, so I had to ask at reception. The WiFi signal was very poor. Also, the paint on the bottom of the pool was chipped, as shown in the photo, and that could injure someone in the water.

Getting drinking water was one of the worst parts. It was only available at the bar or canteen during their limited opening hours. At other times we had to use a vending machine behind reception or go to a shop 500 metres away. In the summer heat, that’s unacceptable. The hotel seemed to rely on Italian summer camps and schoolchildren, who ran and shouted around the hotel until late. There were only two public garbage cans that I could find, cotton buds were constantly left in a mess, and the canteen was dirty, with hotel dogs wandering around and begging for food. The pools were cloudy and dirty, and didn’t seem to be cleaned. They were unusable. The so-called beach was a narrow strip of black mud and stones, with the braver guests settling on the stones. The water was supposedly warm, but I didn’t dare get my feet wet. Our room was dark, dirty and moldy. Nothing worked except the air conditioning. The taps leaked, and the toilet flush ran all night. There was no fridge. The tiny TV had only five Italian channels, and the beds were terrible, with old spring mattresses. There wasn’t a double bed, just two wooden beds that were falling apart. We were there with our 3-year-old child and were put opposite the disco, which started at 11 p.m. and went on until around 2-3 a.m. The hotel was full, so changing rooms wasn’t possible. Communication was a nightmare because reception staff only spoke Italian. The canteen felt more like a canteen than a restaurant, and guests had to set their own tables. Breakfast was mostly cookies, hard-boiled eggs and scrambled eggs, with no vegetables. The honey disappeared after one day. Having dirty, smelly dogs in the canteen put me off. The food was abysmal, and the place was filthy. The free powdered coffee there was undrinkable. Bar prices were exorbitant, 2.5 euros for an americano and 4 euros for a small beer. Service was atrocious. Reception staff were impolite, spoke only Italian and seemed uninterested in sorting out problems. The room itself was hideous, and everything felt dirty, sticky and unpleasant. This place does not deserve its 4-star rating. My trip with Rainbow was a disaster. I’ll never return, and I wholeheartedly advise against staying here. The lack of drinking water in a supposed 4-star hotel says a lot about how it treats customers who have no alternatives. Avoid it at all costs.

We liked how the shower was designed, and the sink had lots of room for our things. The place itself was super nice, but we thought it could use more decorations. The food was the same every day, which got boring, and the WiFi was really slow. There wasn’t much for kids to do besides swim. My cousins and I slept in the living room with barely any privacy. It would’ve been better to have a door separating it, and I think rooms with two bedrooms, a living room and a small kitchen would be a good option. The lifeguard was my favorite staff member by far. He was so friendly when saying goodbye and gave my uncle a hug, which we all thought was really sweet. He was also patient and helped people whenever they needed it.