Hotel Royal Victoria — Hotel in Victoria

I really, really liked this hotel! We spent 4 nights in a prestige room that had a balcony and lake views. I wasn't sure what to expect from the photos, but our room was just perfect. The bed was very comfortable with very nice linens. There is a coffee machine in the room and coffee is refilled daily. Lots of storage and shelving for a longer stay, loved that! The bathroom was small but very nicely arranged and the shower/shower products were terrific. Even the lighting was well done. My only minor criticism would be that their blow dryer was not salon-quality, but not a big deal. I just let my hair air dry. Air conditioning worked very well in this room during the hot days of late July. We slept great! I did bring a clothes line clip to clip the curtains together so that's something to consider in your packing list.||The hotel staff were amazing! It's been ages since I have seen anywhere staffed as deeply as this hotel is. The entire staff: lobby, restaurant, pool and housecleaning were amazing! Honestly, they were so professional, welcoming, hospitable and caring I was just in awe. The hotel really shines in this department. If I owned a hotel in Lake Como I would try and poach these employees to my hotel because they were that amazing!||Breakfast was quite the event! The setting itself was amazing but then the food and coffee were delicious and plentiful and I think we easily spent almost 45 minutes to an hour drooling over the views and pastries! I also appreciated how the hotel guests wore nice clothes to breakfast. It elevated the entire experience seeing the ladies in pretty sun dresses and the gentlemen in resort wear instead of pajamas. I just loved all of it!||It was very easy to navigate Varenna and find the ferry to take over to Belagio and Mennagio, but I just wanted to enjoy the grounds at HRV and not be in the hoards of tourists in these other towns. The hotel did a wonderful job of politely keeping non-hotel guests from using the facilities. The views from the pool are amazing and there is also a public swimming beach right below the hotel that looked like fun if you were up for that adventure! ||There is a nice little salamaria and take-away pizza shop just to the right of the hotel. The shopkeepers spoke perfect English and helped us pick out some meat and cheese so we could make a little picnic for ourselves on our balcony. We had aperitivo in the hotel bar one evening and once again the service was amazing along with the drinks and aperitivo snacks. Wow! Such a great place to enjoy a spritz before dinner!!!||We visited the neighbor hotel cipresi and while it is also stunningly beautiful, we are pleased we spent all 4 nights at HRV. In sum, I cannot imagine a better hotel or location to have experienced Lake Como. Everything was just perfect for us at HRV and we thank their hard-working hospitable staff for making it such a comfortable and memorable experience. Thank you for the memories and I cannot...

The parking in the back is an open gravel lot with no markers, which is fine, but because they don't monitor it or assist guests, so that parking is done decent enough that each guest has space to park, it is very difficult to find adequate space to park, let alone room to unload and unload luggage.

After unloading luggage and going to check in, the hotel did not have our rooms ready when we arrived, despite having reservations well in advance, and also arriving later which gave them even more time upfront. The wait wasn't like 5 or 10 minutes. It was at least an hour, and we were not the only ones with this problem. There were several guests that were all there, camped out in the lobby waiting, with their luggage as well, and it was standing room only while everyone waited on staff to get rooms ready despite being well after normal check in time.

However, despite these hassles, they are nothing compared to the air conditioner situation. The weather was very hot (hot enough to start sweating while sitting still, and even AFTER a cold shower). We tried to get the air conditioner running, it would fire up, but would not produce air any colder than room temperature, it also did not have enough airflow to even match the smallest personal desk fan. The fan speed adjuster would not change the speed no matter how high you turned it. It was the same as if it were on low. Then, there was the temperature controls, which also did not change no matter the setting. It was beyond ridiculous and pathetic. I got management to look at it, but they did nothing, and didn't even try to defend their air conditioner problem.

We were a large family group, and had two other rooms, with the exact same size and model air conditioners. These were large and very capable class of air conditioners, but when I realized that all had the exact same behavior, I realized there was no mistake or doubt, that the hotel had intentionally recalibrated the air conditioners so that they would blow very little air, and also so that the air would not be cold, all so that they cut costs, yet have customers still pay rates for air conditioned rooms. This is an absolute disgrace, and the hotel should be aahamed of themselves for cheating their customers. It made trying to sleep there very difficult and was a miserable customer experience. Fortunately, we only needed to stay there 1 night.

The hotel had decent rooms otherwise, and the staff were nice. Although the service of the restaurant downstairs was painfully slow, the food was good. (These are the only reasons it gets 2 stars...

Solicité una habitación para dos personas. La recepcionista me dijo que justamente quedaba una disponible. El precio $52.000 la noche. Nos acompañó al segundo piso para entregárnosla. Una vez dentro, mientras acomodábamos nuestras cosas, nos percatamos de que había una puerta que se conectaba a otra habitación, además con un huésped en ella, pues se escuchaba el televisor y cómo conversaba por celular. Impresentable. Fui entonces a recepción para reclamar este hecho y ver si había alguna posibilidad de transferirnos a otra habitación que nos garantizará privacidad (eran las 17:00 horas, vi varias desocupadas en el mismo piso, por tanto cabe dudar si realmente no habían más disponibles a esa hora). La recepcionista sin arrugarse me dijo que era lo "único que había" y que si quería "podía cancelar el servicio si así lo deseaba". En ningún momento me dio las disculpas protocales correspondientes por no haber mencionado las "especiales" características de la habitación ($52.000 por escuchar la vida privada del huésped de al lado). Atención deficiente, recepcionista mal preparada, al final sólo nos hizo perder tiempo en el check-in, subir y acomodándonos. Lógicamente nos retiramos del lugar bastante decepcionados, ya que siendo un hotel muy caro, esperábamos con justa razón una perfecta atención y no que nos pasarán una habitación digna de un hospedaje rasca. Y además insisto: ninguna intención por parte de la recepcionista de pedir disculpas por el mal...