"I am absolutely appalled by our experience at Hotel Bazzoni. This dysfunctional hotel doesn’t even merit one star. What was supposed to be an enjoyable holiday became a stay where I genuinely dreaded returning to my own hotel room.
By far the most serious issue was the complete lack of security and privacy.
On one occasion, a member of staff entered our occupied room without warning while we were asleep. On a separate occasion at approximately 6am, our door was opened from the outside again. Hotel management later told us that a member of the night staff had gone to the wrong room.
What made this particularly unacceptable was that there was no internal door lock whatsoever that allowed us to prevent somebody with a hotel key from entering our room. There was no deadbolt, privacy lock or security chain. Once we were inside our room, we had no way of physically securing the door from the inside against somebody with hotel access.
After our occupied room had been opened twice, this became extremely distressing. I had so little confidence in the security of the hotel that I resorted to barricading the door with furniture and other objects every night simply so I would be alerted if somebody attempted to enter again.
A hotel guest should be able to lock their bedroom door from the inside and know that somebody cannot simply open it from the corridor. The fact that we could not do this, particularly after two separate incidents involving our occupied room being opened, was completely unacceptable.
We eventually paid an additional €240 to move to a higher-floor room in an attempt to feel safer and salvage what remained of our holiday.
The hotel itself was also incredibly outdated and nowhere near the standard I expected. The rooms felt tired and desperately in need of refurbishment.
Breakfast was dismal. The quality and selection were so poor that on most mornings I ended up simply drinking water rather than eating the food provided. Having breakfast included means very little when you don’t actually want to eat it.
Cleanliness was another major concern. We encountered several cockroaches during the stay, which was disgusting and completely unacceptable in a hotel.
The pool area was extremely disappointing as well. The surrounding grass was overgrown and poorly maintained, the pool was freezing cold, and there were leaves and bugs in the water. A pool-cleaning device was also left in the pool while guests were using the area. The entire space felt neglected.
And somehow the problems still didn’t end.
There was a full fire evacuation and a prolonged power outage. When the electronic keycard system stopped working, the hotel began distributing physical room keys to returning guests. From what I personally witnessed, the level of verification before keys were handed out was extremely concerning. After already having our room opened twice and having no internal security lock, this caused even more concern about who could potentially access our room.
The power failure also meant our room telephone didn’t work and the lift was out of service while we were staying on the top floor.
Then, on our final full day, we experienced two further power outages. The first lasted approximately 2–3 hours and the second approximately 45 minutes.
Hotels can have maintenance problems. Power cuts can happen. Staff can make mistakes. But this was not one isolated problem. It was one issue after another: an outdated room, dreadful breakfast, cockroaches, a poorly maintained pool, repeated power outages, a fire evacuation and, most seriously, two incidents involving access to our occupied room while we had no internal door lock capable of preventing entry.
I paid to stay in a hotel. I should not have had to spend my holiday barricading my bedroom door with furniture because the hotel did not provide an internal security lock and I was worried somebody would open the door again.
This was without question one of the worst hotel experiences I have ever had. Regardless of every other problem we experienced, the room-access and internal-lock situation alone would be enough for me never to stay at Hotel Bazzoni again."
