Excelsior Hotel Gallia, a Luxury Collection Hotel,

After traveling around Spain and Italy, I stayed in four five-star hotels, but this one was the worst. Except for the word "luxury" in the name, there was nothing luxurious about it. First of all, they said they wanted an extra bed before we came, and they emphasized it again when we checked in. They called twice to ask for an extra bed, but when we came back at night, there was still no extra bed. After calling several more times, two people came at 11 o'clock to make the extra bed in front of us. It was after 11 o'clock when they were done, and we couldn't rest. Second, all the bath towels were damp and smelled musty, and I didn't want to take a shower the next day. Then the faucet in the bathroom was broken and leaking. Finally, the front desk, I often couldn't find anyone on the phone, and later I could only call the catering department to find someone. In short, the service and hardware are not at all luxury hotels, at most at the level of Home Inn Select.

My wife and I recently completed a 4 night stay at the Excelsior Hotel Gallia. Unfortunately, we experienced significant issues with the room and service, including cigarette/burining electrical smells, room left unlocked by turndown service team, air conditioning not working, mold and water damage in the bathroom, and a hole in the bedsheets.

Cigarette/Electrical Buring Smells: The first room we were assigned was on the first floor in the new annex of the hotel. It had a very strong cigarette smell, which upon calling the front desk, was confirmed to be due to it being a smoking room. We were assigned a new room on the second floor in the historical part of the hotel. At 7pm and 1am on that first night, and at 3:30am on the fourth night, the very strong cigarette smell also came into the second room, this time with a burning electrical smell as well.

We were concerned that we were assigned another smoking room because the emergency exit signs in the corridors mentioned that no smoking was allowed (see image 1), but no such ban was there on the emergency exit sign in the room (see image 2). Around 7:30pm on the first night we went down to the front desk to complain, and they said that “Usually all the smoking rooms are on the first floor”. No other rooms were available, and so they offered to run an air purifier for 10 minutes during the turndown service of that first night.

Given that there is no mention that smoking rooms are available on the hotel website, in online reviews, or in the booking preferences, we simply assumed that all rooms in the hotel were non-smoking. So, it was surprising that the front desk staff said that we should have selected the non-smoking room option when booking.

Upon check-out there was a guest from the fourth floor who was also complaining about the cigarette/burning electrical smell. So, we were not the only ones to experience this issue. It should also be noted that this smell was not present in the corridors or the hotel lobby.

Turndown service: On the second night the turndown service staff left our room unlocked. Thankfully no items were stolen.

Bathroom mold and water damage: there was black mold on the shower walls, floor, and ceiling, and orange mold on the shower walls. A significant amount of water also leaked from underneath the shower door, so we had to resort to using towels along with the bathmat to prevent an injury when using the adjacent vanity.

The door to the bathroom also did not close because of damaged hinges.

Air conditioning: the air conditioning stopped working periodically throughout the stay. This was particularly problematic when the smoke smells came into the room. Changing the temperature or fan speed on the control panel did not restart the air conditioning.

Hole in the bedsheet: we noticed that there was a hole in the bedsheets (see last image).

Service Issues: On the first night we requested table/cooking salt so we could do saltwater gargles. We called the front desk twice and no salt was brought up to the room. Thinking that it was lost in translation, we made the requested the salt along with some bottles of water via the Marriott app. The water arrived but not the salt. Talking to the front desk again, we were told that this request needs to be done via the room service team. This is perfectly fine, but there was no button on the bedside phone to call room service.

The room service menu was missing from the room. Upon calling the room service team, we were told to use the menu on the TV. This was very fuzzy, and so we called again, upon which we were delivered the menu.

The housekeeping staff did not replace the vanity pack at any point in the stay.

Coffee Machine: the coffee machine did not work and still had a used coffee pod from the previous guest. The machine was eventually replaced by the second person who came to have a look.

Bedside table light: the right bedside reading light did not turn on.