Parco dei Principi Mini-hotel

I will start by saying the only reason this is a two star review rather than one is the staff. They were always polite, professional and courteous. Beyond that, I do not understand how this could ever be considered a five star hotel. Please review the photos and be the judge. On our first night we were in three different rooms, as we were awakened at 3am by the sound of water leaking from the roof through our ceiling. We were moved to a second room where we tried to open a window to get some air and found dozens of ants inside the room on the window sill. Our third room was acceptable, although a downgrade. The carpets in the corridors are stained, worn and generally disgusting. The rooms feature mildew stained grout in the bathrooms, corroded mirrors and missing door stops (featured in all three of our rooms) that are great to step on/trip over. The furniture in the room is old, worn and stained. Breakfast is terrible, to the point that we stopped going. The pastries taste as if from the three day old shelf at the local grocery. The eggs are watery, the potatoes taste like they have been frozen and reheated multiple times. I didn’t go near the bacon. Stale bread is featured along with meats and cheeses. Beware the hotel shuttle that drops you off at the “center of town”. It drops you off on a random street corner, a 10 min walk to the actual center of town. At a two star 150€ euro a night hotel all of these things would be expected and acceptable. At 460€/night it’s entirely unacceptable and well below the standards of any hotel we’ve ever stayed at.

This was a very unique hotel but our stay was complicated by some major problems.

The positives were that the hotel was visually stunning and had fascinating interior design reminiscent of classic 1960s Italy. It had a wonderful beach area with a swimming cove, massive botanical gardens, and a chic swimming pool.

The problems started when I ate a fish sandwich prepared by the Blue Bar after checking in. After about 2 hours, my entire body developed an anaphylactic-like reaction. This is strange because I had never had food allergies before, but after going to the emergency room, we discovered it was due to histamine poisoning from improperly stored fish. This may have been a result of improper storage by the fisherman and may or may not have been the hotel’s fault, but they should still obtain their food from reputable sources. And to top it all off, they did not even remove the sandwich from our bill (despite having to pay ER fees!)

After getting back from the hospital, we noticed the rancid smell of sewage permeating throughout our entire room. We brought this up to staff and they simply sprayed a perfume to unsuccessfully mask the odor. We also noticed that this was not unique to our room, and to a lesser degree also affected common areas such as the lobby, elevators down to the beach, and the gym.

At the end of the stay, we were very excited to check out and move to a different hotel where we were not made sick by the food or the smells.