Hotel Miramare & Spa

******BUYER BEWARE—DO NOT STAY HERE******* Before you read on, I want you to know that this is an authentic review from an authentic person. I thoroughly read the reviews for this place and noted the boilerplate responses from the hotel manager (who has been stalking my reviews and who I fully expect to write a rebuttal to this review). I ignored the adage “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” and spent so much money here under the assumption that the good reviews were legitimate and the bad reviews were illegitimate. Sestri Levante is a charming town and there are countless wonderful hotels that don’t charge guests €300 for them to sleep in a windowless attic and call it a “Royal Suite” or a “Junior Suite” (we eventually stayed at the Hotel Balbi and the bathrooms were bigger than the “room” we stayed in for 25 percent less than a “suite” here). UNLESS YOU ARE COMFORTABLE PAYING WALDORF ASTORIA PRICES FOR A MOTEL SIX, DO. NOT. STAY. HERE. Words can’t describe the experience we had here. I’ve travelled extensively and honestly NEVER ENCOUNTERED AN EXPERIENCE LIKE THIS. We were given an ATTIC ROOM WITH NO WINDOWS, a slanted roof that did not fit my 6 foot height and the entrance to which required a precarious walk along an unfinished walkway outside. None of this was disclosed when we booked this. They consider this a normal room in this hotel, it was not a discounted room, WE BELIEVED WE WERE BOOKING A NORMAL ROOM. The room was sweltering hot due to it being the attic in a tiny tiny room. When we checked in, we initially raised our concern with the front desk clerk and she apologized and assured us that they could move us rooms the following morning. The next morning, we came down to change rooms and were COMPLETELY GASLIGHTED BY THE STAFF. They first refused to change rooms, then they pivoted and wanted to shift us into a new room each morning so that we would have moved each day of our three night stay.

If you do make the mistake of staying here, DO NOT LEAVE THEM WITH YOUR CAR. The parking is not on site and they are not at all careful with guests' cars. I left something in my rental so I asked to access it. A "valet" walked me about 6 blocks and offered to drive me back to the hotel with my bag, which I thought was nice. IT TURNED OUT THAT HE DROVE ME IN ANOTHER GUEST'S CAR!!! Want to know how I learned that? THE VALET LEFT MY CAR KEYS IN THAT GUEST'S CAR AND DROVE TO ANOTHER CITY!!

******DO NOT STAY HERE!!! Words can’t describe the experience we had here. I’ve travelled extensively and honestly NEVER ENCOUNTERED AN EXPERIENCE LIKE THIS. We were given an ATTIC ROOM WITH NO WINDOWS, a slanted roof that did not fit my 6 foot height and the entrance to which required a precarious walk along an unfinished walkway outside. None of this was disclosed when we booked this. They consider this a normal room in this hotel, it was not a discounted room, WE BELIEVED WE WERE BOOKING A NORMAL ROOM. The room alternated between sweltering hot due to it being the attic and freezing due to the AC blasting cold air into a tiny tiny room. When we checked in, we initially raised our concern with the front desk clerk and she apologized and assured us that they could move us rooms the following morning. The next morning, we came down to change rooms and were COMPLETELY GASLIGHTED BY THE STAFF. They first refused to change rooms, then they pivoted and wanted to shift us into a new room each morning so that we would have moved each day of our three night stay. All of these options, they insisted were going to cost us almost double the already OVERPRICED COST we had already paid through Booking. ThIS WAS NOT THE CRAZIEST PART. THE CRAZIEST PART was that the front desk clerk, Martino, kept saying that there was nothing he could do, that it was up to the manager. ALL THE WHILE, Andreoli, the manager, was sitting 5 feet behind him, refusing the speak to us. REFUSING! I kept asking if I could please speak with him directly, and he continued to refuse to talk with us, and Martino just kept saying that we should be interacting with him, but then claiming he, Martino, had no control, ‘because he is just a desk clerk.’ This was not a language issue, as I speak Italian and I heard Andreoli speaking perfect English. I have literally never encountering something like this in my life, where the manager is right there and refused to speak with us. IT WAS INCREDIBLY OFFENSIVE. When I raised the issue that the price they wanted to charge us for changing rooms was way over the standard price for the region, he said that Americans are wealthy and always willing to pay this cost because we earn so much more than Italians. If it were just a sub-par room, so be it. But I have never been treated this way while traveling, or been gaslighted in this way, Martino claiming that the desk clerk from last night who had offered us a room was wrong. Lastly, when we parked the car in their lot, they gave us a ride back to the hotel IN ANOTHER GUEST’S CAR! They lost our key in that car and now we are waiting for the hotel to take responsibility and get us our keys back. I REPEAT, DO NOT STAY HERE. We are still in a battle trying to get refunded from the rest of our stay, as after this crazy strange encounter and the way we were treated, WE DID NOT FEEL SAFE STAYING HERE.