Veronetta 52

The biggest surprise was finding out that the two bedrooms were separated by an uncovered garden, which you have to cross to reach one of them. That’s a miserable setup in cold or rainy winter weather, and the website never made it clear. The woman handling reservations just said we’d booked a garden-view apartment, not that we’d need to walk through the garden to get to the room. We booked through Booking.com based on the photos, but the actual apartment didn’t look like them at all. There were no useful appliances for heating food, no oven, microwave, or toaster, so you have to improvise. There was a coffee machine too, but no instructions about which pods to use, and no pods supplied. You can always go have coffee at the bar, apparently. SCAM APARTMENT, beware!

We’d paid in full for two nights but couldn’t get there before check-in closed on the first day, so we weren’t able to stay. The host was rude and completely inflexible with paying guests. Even when we came the next morning, he still wouldn’t let us in. Shameful.

We were left without a place to stay at the last minute and lost €500. We couldn’t make the agreed check-in time because of an unexpected problem, and offered to give up the first night. The apartment had already been paid for beyond that, but the agency wouldn’t even let us check in another day. Booking.com support tried to negotiate, and said the date could easily have been changed, but the agency refused. This was during Vinitaly. A few hours after we failed to arrive, we saw the apartment listed online again, and soon after it had been resold for twice what we paid. We believe the agency took advantage of bureaucratic loopholes to cancel our reservation and resell it. If you’re visiting Verona during Vinitaly or another big event, or might have any check-in or reservation issue, avoid them. We’ll keep trying to get to the bottom of it, even if it costs us more. The agency representative treated both me and a family friend who was trying to help very badly. I had anxiety attacks and nearly became ill. I was visibly in shock, and they still showed no compassion. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Injustice and cruelty shouldn’t go unpunished.