I never thought that there can be anything hard about booking a mountain hotel in Italy. Even though I've never been to Italy before, I've traveled to Europe and had some experience with booking.
I decided to have a skiing vacation so I was ready to spend all my days at the slopes. That's why when it came to booking a hotel, I didn't have too many requirements. I thought all I needed was a bed and a shower so I looked for the cheapest options. I knew that ski rentals, ski passes, and etc. are quite costly so I decided to save some dough on the hotel. Boy, was I wrong.
If just like me, you think that a hotel is a large building with hundreds of rooms where linens and towels are changed daily and nice people at reception are ready to answer questions, you are not talking about small Italian accommodations. I was promised a tiny but nice room in an authentic hotel near a picturesque slope. I was sure that this was exactly what I needed.
My flight got delayed and I finally arrived at the hotel at nighttime. Whoever called it a hotel forgot to look up the definition in the Webster's dictionary. It was a rickety house one story high and it appeared completely dark. I knocked on the door, which was closed, and got no answer. Thankfully, I had the owner's phone number so I called. I had to dial the number 3 times until he answered. The guy barely spoke English and was extremely upset for being woken up in the middle of the night.
It turned out that he was soundly sleeping in the comfort of his own home which was about 2 miles away from the hotel. I had to wait outside for over an hour until the disgruntled owner appeared and opened the door for me. He handed me the key to my room and disappeared.
By that time, I was cold, hungry, tired, and upset to a point when I didn't even feel up to arguing. Obviously, I decided to find a new hotel the next morning. But since it was the middle of the night, I settled for what I got. And what I got was a cold room, cool water in the shower and an old and squeaky bed.
I barely made it through the night and left the hotel as soon as the morning came. After this unpleasant experience I spent an hour choosing my next venue and ended up staying at a studio in the C'est la Vie apartments in Livigno. This time I was completely satisfied with the experience. Nice, clean, warm, modern and close to the slopes.
I won't be mentioning the name of that unfortunate hotel. However, I want to give a few smart tips to anyone looking through cheap mountain venues in Italy.
Read ALL of the reviews (the ones I read were obviously paid for by the owner).
Call the owner before booking.
Beware of very cheap options.
Always plan for transportation that can take you to another hotel.
Always have a backup.
Budget traveling is an art all on its own. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Good luck!
Source : Click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment