Casa Gabriela

The rooms were clean and quiet, and there are several good restaurants nearby. Everything was nice.

Free coffee, though. The place was otherwise clean and quiet, but the breakfast is a joke: a reheated sandwich from, I swear, the supermarket across the road. The heating was much too warm even with -10°C outside, so we had to keep ventilating. It would have been perfect with better breakfast and if sitting in the common room or lobby hadn't felt like I was a kid staying up past bedtime.

The people were so kind and welcoming, and the room was lovely, spacious, and clean. Breakfast was the one letdown. It was just a small croissant, an apple, and coffee or tea, which isn't a real breakfast.

We left after five nights, despite having paid ahead for a week and a half. The manager had promised to refund at least the nights we wouldn't stay, but that never happened. We've never had such degrading treatment or such poor service in a hotel anywhere. Keep your soul away. The room was filthy, smelled of sewage, had shocking lighting, and wasn't cleaned. Staff ignored problems, including a dangerous toilet leak, and the heating was so noisy it woke us at night. I recommend staying away if you don't want your vacation ruined. The toilet kept leaking and left a puddle on the floor. I slipped on it when I got up at night. I reported it repeatedly, explained it was a safety issue, and asked for towels so we wouldn't slip while waiting for repairs. They said only the cleaning lady could provide towels and she came only in the morning. After more complaints, the receptionist suddenly found the storage room key and brought one towel. The leak still hadn't been fixed when we left early, five days after it began, despite staff and the manager assuring us it would be handled. The photos are from the day we left midway through our stay, showing the leak that remained unresolved. The room was first cleaned after three days, following repeated complaints. The reception man mostly acted as if we were bothering him whenever we raised something, and like he had nothing to do. The woman who was sometimes at reception at least apologized, but kept saying it wasn't her fault and there was nothing she could do because she just worked there. A plumber came on the third day, said the problem was complicated, and promised to return the next day with parts, but disappeared. Staff continued to brush off our complaints, saying he wasn't to blame and that we should contact management. We waited quite a while for the manager, who arrived on the fourth day. She apologized at length and said she hadn't known about the faults, though we'd complained from day one, including about safety. It was unbelievable that staff hadn't even told her. She promised an immediate fix. After our first conversation with her, the room was finally cleaned. The leak still wasn't repaired the following day, despite her promise, so we decided to leave. There was also a strong sewage smell in the rooms. When we complained, the receptionist suggested opening a window, even though it was around zero degrees outside, and said we should sleep with the windows open to clear the odor. The whole stay felt like a horror movie. The heating worked sometimes and failed at other times. When we asked them to fix it, they said it was automatic and to be patient until the room warmed up. It did eventually, but that was unpleasant with below-zero temperatures outside. The system was also unreasonably loud and woke us more than once in the middle of the night. Breakfast was a bad joke at best. The ad says, “At Casa Gabriela you can enjoy an Italian breakfast.” In reality, we could choose between two kinds of packaged, not fresh sandwiches, and one day there was only one left. I have no idea what was Italian about it. We felt cheated. The manager apologized and blamed it all on the holiday, Christmas, which is a strange explanation for rooms that were uninhabitable.