Hotel Vecchio Borgo

DO NOT STAY HERE ON A FRIDAY OR SATURDAY!!!!!!! If I could post a video, I would. Just outside the hotel is a small square where dozens locals with motorcycles and cars congregate and play music so loud you cannot escape it. Earplugs and noise cancelling headphones do not make a difference!!! This is not an exaggeration. Staff informed me it is EVERY WEEK! They should stop at MIDNIGHT but no guarantee and of course the police do not come! It’s Palermo. I had been touring and walking since 8:30 this morning and cannot get sleep. Result: ruin my next day,! How will I be compensated?? Friday was bad but Saturday night is INTOLERABLE!! If this was not happening, this hotel would get at least a 4/5. Breakfast is a disappointment. Lots of pastries. I am beyond belief this noise level is tolerated by neighbours. My intro to Sicily is so tainted. It cannot possibly get worse.

While I did not expect much for this hotel, I can clearly state this is NOT a 4-star hotel. The only reason I would give this hotel a single star is for the fact the water was hot. The hotel is located in a shoddy location. Each of the three nights of our stay locals were shooting off fire works disrupting our sleep. The rooms were in poor condition and the staff was unhelpful in every way. There is nothing near the hotel and its location as described is shoddy...basically located in a slum area. I would NOT recommend this hotel to anyone.

The Hotel Vecchio Borgo is very well situated in Palermo ,Sicily, Italy, but for one very large weakness-it is right next to an intersection hosting some of the noisiest party venues in town. On Friday and Saturday nights especially the noise can be deafening, making it difficult to sleep. In addition the hotel has a practice of having “non-working” airconditioning systems. I was told (by the hotel staff) that the airconditioning system is turned off, often to save energy and money. When this happens, and patrons complain, the reception staff use the excuse of saying the system has broken down. If you push them hard enough it can be switched back on, but it will, at some stage, “fail” again. This is important as not only are the rooms then very stuffy, with double-glazed glass, but the the solution offered by the Hotel is for you to open the windows, thereby aggravating the noise problem from the streets below. When I complained to night staff about this their response was that “There is a malfunction, I cannot fix it”. More likely the system is turned off and no one wants to fix it. Their solution is to then offer ear plugs to alleviate the noise problem. Even assuming you can sleep with ear plugs, this does not solve the air-conditioning problem. This is a pity as the Hotel is used by GAdventures as one of its bases in Palermo. I am surprised that GAdventures has not moved to pressure the hotel to fix the problem.If you are doing a GAdventures (or other group) tour, and this is one of their hotels in Palermo, I strongly recommend you look for an alternative which doesn’t use this hotel-not if you want to sleep.In the circumstances I can only advise against staying in this hotel.