Romazzino, A Belmond Hotel, Costa Smeralda

The booking was a nightmare. Many emails forth and back, every time a different agent. They confirmed and asked to call to give credit card details, then when called the options offered were not even physically available at the property. One week of endless calls and emails to book at such an expensive hotel. Not worth it. Would expect much more from such a resort. Don’t recommend.

* I have never written a negative review but I felt it was important for other people to understand that this is not a Belmond yet... it is nowhere close to the caliber of service that is to be expected of hotels that cost this much.

We wrote the email below to the team after our honeymoon and after 2+ weeks haven't gotten a single response. The poor service, insane prices and lack of care is clear throughout the entire property. Given they didn't care about the email (below), I thought it was important that others understood what you are signing up for at Romazzino.

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It all began on our first night, at the Terrace restaurant. We were taken aback when our waiter approached us for the first time with no hello, but rather a "ready to order? Eat? Drink?" We told him we needed a moment and only communicated next when he took our order. My husband ordered the Four More drink (42 Euro), which the server was extremely confused by, asking my husband to point it out on the menu. There were also several spelling mistakes on the menu and we were asked if we were ready for the check several times. On our first night of our honeymoon, if felt odd to be rushed out and for nobody to acknowledge the day.

The following morning at breakfast, we each ordered an Eggs Benedict (which was confusingly listed as Eggs Florentine). We got two pieces of ham, topped with two poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. No English muffin. When we pointed out the mishap to the woman in charge, she kindly apologized and let us know that yes, an English muffin should be present. We waited 10 minutes to be brought a piece of white toast on a side plate - not at all the proper element of the dish, with our eggs and ham have gone cold.

A few additional things then further soured our experience, such as the host at breakfast each morning being confused by our room number (writing it down in the margin of her list of guests), the hairdryer in our room only blasting cold air, and calling to request a steamer for two garments, to which it was insisted that we have the Romazzino team press (being assured it will be complimentary). Upon return of the items, we received a bill for 53 euros and after calling again to voice the confusion, the manager assured us it would be taken off of our bill right away. It wasn't, as we found out at checkout.

On our last night, we decided to eat at the bar. The gentlemen serving us greeted us kindly and remembering the tomato water risotto I ate at the Terrace restaurant, I thought to ask if it were possible to serve the risotto from the level above at the bar. We were told this was absolutely impossible, which of course I accepted. A few moments later, the table next to ours arrived and were served an entire dinner from upstairs (including the Sardinian bread basket and olive oil, and a plethora of items from the terrace). I understand that situations between parties differ, but it seemed a bit careless to claim it absolutely impossible and proceed to do so, at the table right next to ours.

At checkout, we were first told that our reservation couldn't be found in the system. Once it was, we were told that the system had us checking in that day (the day we were checking out) for two days. We explained more than once that this was impossible, as we're clearly checking out and have stayed on the property for four nights. This disclosure didn't seem necessary as it only further proved the overall chaos and misunderstanding we felt at the property, and placed us in a stressful position.

This stay was followed by a few other hotel experiences that we expected to be of lower caliber than the Romazzino (hence why we wanted to begin the celebration here). It was only at the Romazzino that not a single staff member recognized our honeymoon or made us feel celebrated. To us, our experiences at the Belmond are always a clear step above any so this disappointment was especially shocking.

Romazzino Beach is one of the few free and public inclusive beaches on the entire Coast, equipped with a disability access ramp. The new corporate policy of this Belmond Hotel, which manages the demanial concession, has refused since this year to provide the remote control to open the access ramp to holders of disability permits, thereby de facto denying access to all disabled persons despite the presentation of European legal documentation.

SMOKERS PARADISE

The hotel is stunning, beautiful location, very clean and lovely staff. Unfortunately they do not accommodate to Non/ smokers. The private beach is beautiful BUT you will be inundated by cigarette smoke, it made it impossible to enjoy the beach at all. We moved up to the pool, same problem smoking everywhere, we decided to have lunch at the pool, ashtrays at every table so had to endure the stink of smoke with our Very expensive lunch (€15 for a bottle of water) Furthermore the non smoking rooms have ashtrays on the balcony, if you wish to sit on the gorgeous balcony be assured you will have the smell of smoke wafting your room. Enjoy eating dinner outside? I hope you don’t mind smoking along with your meal we had to move inside , such a pity. As you walk into the hotel, ashtrays and smokers adorn the entrance. Would be nice if they made considerations for those of us who would like to breath fresh air. Ruined our stay completely. We spent almost no time at this very expensive resort as there was no where to escape the cigarettes. We didn’t come to the Island to be inside we would have loved to enjoy the amenities too. Maybe the hotel should consider. No smoking areas too?

Did not stay in the hotel but took a coffee at the pool bar. We were very chocked when we recieved the bill. 18 euros for 2x cappuccino!!! I have stayed in a 5 star hotel many times but never have i seen this prices. Terrible.
Other then that, the place is beautiful and very nice beach