Residenza Edvige - Italian Homing

We arrived a little after 10 pm, and Christian, the owner, smelled strongly of alcohol and seemed drunk. The bed hadn’t been made when he showed us the room, as if that proved it was clean. We finally got to bed after 11, exhausted, but the lumpy pillow wasn’t the only thing keeping me awake. Christian was shouting with a friend in the lounge. My boyfriend went to the toilet and they shut the lounge door, but our room was next to it and we could still hear them. At check-in Christian had said quiet hours began at 11, so I politely asked them to lower their voices. He then knocked on the other guests’ door and shouted at them. We asked him twice more to keep it down, and by then it was nearly 1 am. I opened our door and told him to shut up. He wasn’t happy and said it was none of my business why he was yelling at the other guests. I said it was my business after I’d asked three times and we were trying to sleep. The other guests felt so uncomfortable they left at 1 am. He claimed there was something wrong with their documents and it was for our safety, but he’d only checked our passports, so I didn’t believe him. The next morning I knocked on his door expecting an apology. Instead, he said guests shouldn’t tell staff to shut up. He cancelled our Booking.com reservation, saying the payment method was incorrect, but charged us for both nights. We’d already booked somewhere else for that night because I wanted to be able to sleep on holiday. When I said guests could tell staff to shut up after asking politely three times and still hearing them shout at 1 am, and that he smelled just as strongly of alcohol that morning as the night before, he said it was my opinion he was drunk. Then he yelled at me to shut up, slammed his “office” bedroom door, and called the police. From what we could make out, he told them we were violent or threatening him. He got nervous when we showed him I’d recorded the conversation. He was so drunk I put the keys on the bed in front of him and said we were checking out. Less than five seconds later, he asked where the keys were, as if we’d ever want to come back to that hellhole.

We felt frightened and cheated, and I wouldn’t recommend this place at all. My partner and I booked a room in this “hostel” for €56 a night. It’s actually a gentleman’s flat rented by the night, a bit far from the center, though the distance itself wasn’t the problem. When we arrived, the owner showed us the flat and room. The bed wasn’t made, there were no sheets or pillows, and the bedspreads were dirty. Then he took us to the living room to discuss payment. He said the fees had gone up and Booking hadn’t updated them, so we owed another €3 per person plus €10 for cleaning, nearly €75 total. That seemed strange because Booking had already charged us €40 and the fees were paid, so we thought we only owed €16 at the hostel. When we said we’d paid €40 already, he demanded to see a bank statement because he didn’t believe us and said we were cheating him. After my partner showed the payment in the account, he again complained that we’d paid Booking instead of him. He repeatedly insisted that we had to pay him that amount. We said we didn’t want the room, and he got even angrier. As we stood to leave, he said we could cancel for free but first had to pay him €20. We told him we had no money, and he told us to use a credit card. We refused again, but he kept insisting and wouldn’t let us leave the house. Eventually we got out. It was horrible, and I was terribly scared.

The owner was lovely and helped us discover all the beauty of this historic city. The place is very close to Verona’s historic area, with charming antique accommodation. It was a magnificent stay, and we’d absolutely come back. I also feel the bad reviews here are spam, since they’re all alike and so far from the truth.

We felt unsafe and didn’t feel we had privacy at all times. The owner seemed creepy and lives in the same apartment. There’s just one shared bathroom, and the rooms smelled of alcohol and cigarette smoke. It’s on the fourth floor. When he cleaned, he only gave the floor a quick, sloppy wipe.