We have traveled far and wide, tried many locations and many mid to high range hotels, but this was a rather nice little hotel with what one would consider comfortable facilities.聽
Upon our check in which was on the 10th of Sep. 2018 we were greeted with what they called a FREE welcoming drink. We accepted, however only one of us would take advantage of this, and that would be myself as my fianc茅 wasn't in the mood for any drinks of any sort. What they offered was Pineapple juice, Orange Juice and I suppose water. Unlike the previous hotel we visited, the drinks were far more elaborate and way more exclusive making sense to the welcoming drinks a hotel usually offers. That aside, it is still a nice gesture.聽
We were greeted by a dark gentleman called "Landing", his skill in communication in Italian or English was practically non existing, which made it difficult to communicate with him even on a basic level as he didn't comprehend much of what was said to him.聽
We ran into an issue immediately as he was explaining what was offered, Pineapple juice, Orange Juice and when I asked if that was all as it seemed rather limited I thought perhaps he would show me what was a little more elaborate and exciting. He showed me the fridge and summed up everything from Coca Cola to Redbull and a branded Pineapple Juice that looked alright. Not what I had in mind, but I finally settled with the small bottle of Pineapple Juice. Once he opened it and was pouring it into the glass, I caught him mumbling something 2 euros, to which I asked him to explain what the 2 euros he were referring to were. To this he said, the drink is 2 euros and will be added to our bill, this somehow was NOT included in the free drink and I was rather upset and showed my dissatisfaction without words. He understood he made a mistake and said it won't cost me anything but the fact that the hotel management can hire someone who doesn't have the basic skill of communication in ENGLISH OR ITALIAN which is the country of origin here, was mind boggling to me. I find it very dishonest to hire a person standing in the BAR section who cannot communicate with customers, this makes absolutely no sense to me.聽
But enough of that, this little hiccup wasn't too bad but after a long travel to the hotel it was something I felt was not what we needed as an experience to an already tiresome day.聽
However now we get to the actual issue of the stay.聽
Upon arrival, as we checked in and settled, an incredible noise was continuously and uninterestingly keeping us from resting and recovering from our otherwise tiresome day. This to me was incredibly poor in standard for something so basic as a hotel's main function which happens to be :
鈥?Safety聽
鈥?Comfort
鈥?Peaceful and restful environment !!
鈥?PRIVACY
鈥?Service
However due to how incredibly tired we were, we didn't feel like going to complain and gave the hotel a chance to just deal with whatever was going on next door. For your information what was actually going on was that the cleaning of the room caused so much noise that it was difficult to rest because of it.聽
Fast forward to the morning after on the 11th of Sept. at 8:20 am in the morning. We are woken up by loud voices next door again, furniture being pushed constantly, hammering and eventually electric drilling sounds. Again being still exhausted, this was utterly insane to us that the hotel management could not schedule worker doing this work AFTER 11am where most people check out and have already had breakfast etc. It is highly unacceptable to be so disrespectful of your gusts that you allow such low standards to take away the very basic of services a hotel needs to guarantee their visitors.聽
When we mentioned this to the staff, they said we ought to have called them and ask the workers to stop, however, when you are tired, trying to rest, to be asked to get out of bed, find the manual for the phone to figure out what to dial to get to them then HOPE they pick up and HOPE they stop working, is asking too much. By that time most people would have been so upset and agitated by the noise alone, that they would have a very hard time going back to sleep because of this. It is unfair to ask your customers to work for something you organized.聽
IF this was a guest who was making noise then of course one calls the receptionist to complain, but when the hotel orders workers to commence their work in the morning, that is unacceptable.聽
Upon further inspection of the room after we noticed it wasn't very pleasant to stay there, we noticed that the front and main door was not sealed properly so not only was sound seeping in from everywhere outside let alone the thin walls, but sound was going out from our room as well, the light from the outside was coming in to the point if any bug wants to enter, they could simply crawl through all the wide open cracks around the door. But more importantly, this took away our PRIVACY. Another basic thing that every hotel should offer at a high level to ensure trust in their guests.聽
When finally the staff understood how poorly the management of this situation was, they apologized but this is a small comfort given that a day was wasted and a rude awakening was forced upon us due to their inability to respect their guests need for rest.聽
They offered a free drink, but after knowing their somewhat limited range it felt a bit like an insult as it wasn't nearly enough of a compensation to what was lost.聽
鈧?5 per day for a room that offered no Privacy in terms of what sounds came out of our room or into our room, but most importantly no rest and relaxation was given either, we felt that even the 鈧? commission charges added to the bill was an insult at this point.聽
We understand that the staff is unable to give a decent and respectful compensation for what went on and are hand tied to giving pitiful gestures of compensation such a 0.60 cent drink is all but unacceptable in our eyes.聽
The manager of the hotel ought to give an honest compensation to earn back our trust in their ability to represent their business better.聽
We were even asked to give in our complaint in writing which we did, however this offers no comfort or satisfaction after how little was done to ensure us that they honestly meant what they said. To be promised that they will do better next time means nothing, 鈧?5 euros were thrown out the window leaving us with a rather disappointed experience and moreover one that shows no comfort in their ability to rectify their mistake.聽
I urge the owner or manager of the hotel to take seriously the level of compensation given to customers when they break the simplest rules of running a hotel in this business.聽
Give your staff the tools to ensure that your gusts don't leave with an empty promise and a pitiful compensation of a drink which by the way was not accepted. If you ask for our trust, you need to earn it, show it in the level of professionalism you offer through your service and this ought to come through your staff's non restrictive means to rectify any mistake made on your end.聽
On a whole, the hotel is nice, rooms are acceptable, inside the hotel's premise is nice, but when basic needs are not met, it doesn't mean a thing how many stars or how good ratings they have on TripAdvisor… it takes only one experience to express dissatisfaction of how things were dealt with.聽
An honest compensation should have been given, it is truly and honestly the least you could have done. After all, people come and go, we've been there a few times already, but we may just as well use this as an opportunity to look elsewhere since there are so many places around to book a rooms in.
Mind your business better, give a fair response and we will reconsider your business for next time.聽
Two unrested and dissatisfied guests…
PS. To those who need to make a decision on picking this place. Mind you, in general, this place is good, but it isn't perfect, so be mindful that such situations can happen, and if you find yourself in similar situations, demand a better compensation than a drink and something to be done to rectify an incident that isn't to your liking.聽 聽
WARNING!
Trip Advisor's webpage on this hotel has come to our attention through research carried out by our agency, are dealing with their reviews in a very dishonest way. Hotel Casena dei Colli – Palermo is Trip Advisors client and as such they favor their business over honest reviews, which means if you write something that can be damaging yet true to their client they will remove it and give you a false statement to why. We tried this with a number of places and their method seems to be the same. We can only conclude that either Trip Advisor is paid to remove bad reviews or this is simply their policy to ensure their clients don't get bad business therefore keep their business relations with them. Whatever the cause, DO NOT trust Trip Advisor's reviews as they are not showing honest reviews when it comes to English on Hotel Casena dei Colli – Palermo's page.
We advise readers to avoid Hotel Casena dei Colli in Palermo as they do not have an understanding of what the Hotel business is and we also advice readers to be careful with Trip Advisor's reviews, they are not entirely honest.