Vico Bianco Raro Rooms Collection

Unfortunately our stay wasn't as good as I'd hoped to have been. I'd like to start by saying this building and rooms are beautiful but my poor rating is due to an issue we had & the way in which it was dealt with by management, I believe is a very serious safety issue. We booked in for 3 nights into the junior suite (a treat for the last stay of our trip). We arrived to a gorgeous building on a side street off the middle of the old town to a really nice room but we instantly noticed the room was warm with both thermostats reading above 25°C. We set the thermostats to 17°C and went out for the night. When we arrived back late at night and 6 hours later, the temperature had actually risen! The 2 A/C units were only working as fans and not cooling the air. After an uncomfortable night's sleep, I went down to the 2 ladies (who were very kind) working at the breakfast station and through Google translate told them about our issue. They informed me that "the technician was there yesterday but they will get them to come back". In case the issue was lost in translation, I decided to contact the hotel helpline as well where I translated the automated message to find out the hotel helpline only works office hours Monday - Friday and to contact them via WhatsApp. 4 hours later I got a response to say they had never had an issue with this before (even though the ladies clearly stated a technician had been there yesterday). Now frustrated and repeating what the ladies had said, the management told me the reason the technician had come was because I complained! even though we had only arrived at 6pm the night before proving that their had previously been an issue and the last clients must have complained about the same issue. We set the temperature to the low temp of 15°C to see if it would drop at all, nothing. Still both thermostats read 25.1 and 25.6. This is a big issue when the outdoor temperature was 35/36°C. The next afternoon as we were at the pool (which was very nice), we saw the 2 ladies enter our room and leave shortly after where we realised the 2 lovely ladies who worked as the cleaners & at the breakfast station were also the technicians fixing the A/C! They had removed the metal covers from the A/C units and had set them aside. This allowed the air to circulate a bit better but the A/C was still not working properly. I have attached a photo of the uncovered A/C unit, I'm not an A/C technician but I'm pretty sure a 2 motherboards (1 working and 1 not) hanging off a wall, wires everywhere & a wine cooler are not standard parts of these units (Again clarifying that this was an ongoing issue and the management had lied to me). As our departing flight was late in the day, we decided to pay for late check-out. When paying, it outlined that this was up to management and availability. I decided to contact management to check if it was confirmed. Again, 4 hours later I got a response that it was confirmed but the check-out time on the booking never updated. Fast forward to the next morning, we go out for some breakfast & arrive back at 10:03 to find my mobile key card was frosted out & I was unable to gain access. Thankfully the 2 ladies were working and could let us in. Without them & due to the uselessness/laziness of the management this could have been a very stressful issue as well as it being a massive Safety & Security issue. I have stayed in many self service hotels around the world & have never had such poor communication with the hotel. Smaller properties (3/4 rooms) may have nobody present during the day but always have somebody at the end of a phone at all hours but in properties of this size (8+ rooms) they always have somebody present on site at all times, a massive safety issue. If you have any issue at this hotel whether is be small like an A/C unit or big like an emergency/injury/fire, you're on your own and won't be getting any response or help for hours & to me, that just is not acceptable (which is a pity as it is a gorgeous hotel in a great location)

Mixed feelings! Initial impression is wow. Rooms are grand and beautifully decorated. Modern meets old. Beds comfy and the pool is a great addition. The negatives though were the noise. Our room was next to the Brekefast room as were 2 other rooms. This means an early wake up call every morning from guests and staff at breakfast banging around. The air con also did not work. The room was so hot but, after an hour of trying the air con just didn’t work. We messaged the company who were useless. They sent someone to look at it 24 hours later after a sleepless hot night. The lady spoke no English and did not fix the problem she then left. They refused to move us rooms and did not do anything to help. The consequence was sleeping with the window open which leaves you likely to either being broken into or kept awake from the noise. They were really unbothered on the chat and didn’t offer solutions. Ultimately a place can be beautiful but, if you can’t sleep because of noise and heat then you may as well stay elsewhere.

As other reviewers have said, mixed feelings! In many respects this has all the elements of a nice boutique hotel ie. serviced each day, nice fresh linen, toiletries, nice reception etc but also the room was very run down and felt dirty (even tho it was clean) with stains on the floor. Also it has no on-site staff which shows ie. furniture by the pool is carelessly strewn about, and you better hope you have no problems with anything bc no one is there to help you. Overall I’d say it was ok but would try somewhere different next time.