"I rarely write reviews this negative, but our stay at The Lake Como EDITION was, without exaggeration, the worst experience I have ever had at a luxury hotel.
We booked three rooms, including a Loft Suite, with rates approaching €2,000 per night. I am also a Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite member and have stayed extensively across Marriott’s luxury brands worldwide. What happened during this stay was completely unacceptable for a hotel positioning itself at this level.
The problems began on our first night.
One of our standard rooms developed a ceiling leak directly above the bathroom sink. We had to report the problem and temporarily relocate for the night.
At the same time, our Loft Suite had malfunctioning air conditioning and a persistent sewage smell coming from the bathroom. Because engineering was unavailable at night, the guest in that room had to spend the night with inadequate air conditioning and the sewage odor. The following morning, we were told the problems had been fixed. We returned to the suite and discovered that neither problem had actually been resolved.
Management eventually agreed to relocate both affected rooms.
Unfortunately, even the replacement Loft Suite was not properly prepared. The in-room safe was still sitting there with wires and packaging intact, as though the room had not been fully finished for guest use. During the stay, one of the bathroom mirror lamps also fell, and the issue remained unresolved through checkout.
But the most shocking incident happened with our third room.
We had requested that one Standard King room be changed to a double-bed room. We were told the new room needed additional time to be prepared and instructed to leave our packed luggage behind so hotel staff could transfer it once the room was ready.
When we returned at approximately 11 PM, we collected the keys to what we were told was our ready room.
We opened the door and found a room that had NOT BEEN CLEANED after the previous guest checked out.
The bedding was not changed. Used towels were scattered around the bathroom. Trash and belongings from the previous occupancy remained on the floor.
Even more unbelievably, the hotel had already moved our luggage and personal belongings into this dirty room without any repercussions.
We immediately went downstairs. Because housekeeping was apparently no longer available at night (non-24 hour housekeeping team? That’s a first at a luxury property!) and the hotel claimed to be fully occupied, we were told our only option was to return to our previous room — which also had not been cleaned or refreshed.
The situation was essentially reduced to choosing between someone else’s dirty room and our own dirty room.
At a luxury hotel charging close to €2,000 per night, I find this extraordinary.
And somehow, the problems continued.
We pre-ordered breakfast for two rooms for 9 AM the following morning, clearly specifying which order belonged to which room. One room received nothing at all, while the other received the wrong room’s breakfast. We had to call yet again to have the missing order prepared.
Our room keys also repeatedly deactivated throughout the stay, requiring us to return to the front desk more than six times to regain access to our rooms.
Meanwhile, one of the hotel’s two elevators was out of service for two full days, leaving the entire hotel relying on a single elevator. Guests regularly queued for it, and many resorted to taking the stairs.
Any hotel can experience an occasional maintenance problem. That is not what this review is about.
What made this stay so unacceptable was the sheer number and consistency of failures across virtually every aspect of the experience: leaking ceilings, malfunctioning air conditioning, sewage odor, an inadequately prepared replacement suite, a falling bathroom fixture, a completely uncleaned room being assigned as ready, our luggage being placed inside that dirty room, incorrect/missing breakfast orders, repeatedly deactivated keys, and an elevator being out of service.
It reached a point where we genuinely wondered what could possibly go wrong next.
As an ambassador member of Marriott, I have stayed at numerous EDITION, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis and other luxury hotels around the world. I understand that no hotel is perfect, and I am generally very accommodating when isolated issues arise.
This was not an isolated issue. It was a complete breakdown of basic luxury-hotel operations throughout our stay.
With regret, The Lake Como EDITION ranks as the worst luxury hotel experience I have ever had."
