Mandarin Oriental, Lago di Como — Hotel in Blevio

Euros 15,847 for 2 nights.The Mandarin Oriental in Lake Como is a disaster from start to finish. I was with my son, and we were shocked by the hotel’s poor quality, which is far from the luxury you would expect. The place is made up of four or five disconnected buildings, linked by endless, confusing corridors that feel like World War II bunkers. Navigating this maze is a nightmare, and the elevators are just as chaotic.

We had originally booked a two-bedroom suite, and to my disbelief, it didn’t even have 2 bathrooms. This was the first time in my life I’ve stayed in a two-bedroom suite without bathroomS. After arguing with the staff, they “upgraded” us to a supposed 2# terrace suite, which they tried to sell as much better. In reality, it was just another basic two-bedroom suite nothing special at all. Triple check the website what you will get exactly …before to book.

Dining is another disaster. There’s no real gastronomic restaurant in the hotel ,just a snack bar and a breakfast room that’s either underground accès or requires walking along dangerous outdoor paths filled with stones and holes. The best dining options aren’t part of the hotel. We had to take a boat costing $1,000 just to cross the lake and eat at La Veranda, which, of course, wasn’t e on the property. Meanwhile, Il Sereno dinner ,in another hotel by the lake, is far superior. Everyone at breakfast was on their iPads, desperately trying to cancel their reservations at the Mandarin Oriental to switch to Il Sereno instead.

The rooms aren’t even proper hotel rooms. Bathrooms and kitchen not perfectly cleaned.They feel more like random apartments that have been sold to private owners who no longer want them. These rooms are filled with lot of personal junk from these owners, so it feels like you’re staying in someone else’s cluttered home. The decor is awful completely uninspired, with a cold, generic American style that belongs in a 1990 timeshare ski resort, not Italy.

To make things worse, they have an absurd obsession with energy-saving. The bathtub took 1 hour and 32 minutes to fill, and the water wasn’t even hot. When I was with my son, we realized that the moment you open a window, everything shuts down .the air conditioning, the heating because of a sensor. One of our rooms had a malfunctioning door sensor, so we had no climate control for the entire stay. The entire place shuts down when you leave the room, turning off all the lights and air conditioning. Good luck coming back to a dark, freezing room at night.

It’s a hotel managed by international financial controllers who have fallen victim to woke misinformation, promoting energy savings at the expense of the 5 stars paying $ guests. It’s completely ridiculous, and the hotel is not comfortable at all.AVOID IT.

As if this wasn’t enough, they transport you to restaurants outside the property in a ridiculously slow electric car going at 12 km/h, driven by a guy from Romania—again, probably to cut costs. There’s nothing Italian about this hotel. It’s all run by junior managers from Hong Kong, England, China, Australia, you name it, and they’re clearly just focused on maximizing profits for investors in asia.

And don’t expect housekeeping either. Unless you decipher some hidden Italian instructions and hang the right card, they won’t make your bed. If you stay for four days, don’t expect any cleaning service during that time. And to top it off, the libraries are empty because, according to the staff, all the guests have stolen the books over time. The whole place feels like a joke.

In short, if you want to waste your money and ruin your vacation, this is the place for you. Otherwise, avoid the Mandarin Oriental Lake Como at all costs. It’s a huge disappointment, run with no care for guest experience.

#5078SE046089 6-9 Oct Vista Lago Duplex Terrace = 12,230eu Changed to 2B Premier Suite = 14.700eu Final Invoice = 15,847 6 Oct by car = Il Sereno Al Lago 7 Oct Restaurant by boat (750eu) = Veranda at Villa D'Este by phone 1130euro boat to cross lake but final invoice shows...

Nice location with awesome views BUT, our room cost over 2000 EUR for the night and that´s what we´ve got:

1. There's no parking, you have to park the car by yourself far from the hotel and then walk down a little path to the hotel and lake or wait for buggy, I had to argue with the staff to get my car parked.

2. When we came they told us that the temperature in the swimming pool was about 18 degrees, for the 1 day we didn't use it until evening when we realised that temperature was 24 in reality and the guy that informed us was just ignorant.

3. We didn´t have the restaurant menu in the room, we asked to bring it when we just checked-in, but they just forgot. I had to call 3 more times different number in order to get it.

4. When we needed the laundry, we called laundry, we called the front desk and all the numbers that were listed on the phone within an hour no one answered. Only when we got through to the сoncierge, they took our stuff. The same situation happened on the second day. It took us about 40 minutes to get anybody on the phone after calling reception, concierge and operators. Only reservation department answered and promised that somebody would call us back.

When our patience run out we asked front desk to talk with the manager, but she was in a meeting and they promised she would call us back, but she didn´t and for the next time she was in a meeting too, as a result we never talked to anyone. Managers don’t care about guests they are too busy to deal with guests staying in 2500 euro per night room.

5. On the second day we stayed by the pool until 2pm, when we came back to the room, there were no signs of housekeeping, then we went to the lunch asking to clean the room while we are out. In 2 hours we came back at the same time with housekeeper entering our room and she was cleaning our room for an hour in front of us. So the housekeeping was finished around 5pm.

-They don't change the water and fruit plate. We had to ask them separately. -Changing the towels they brought us the durty one with some dark hair on it.

6. Bringing the breakfast they forgot that we are two and we were waiting for the second part of food, they also forgot to bring salt and papper every time. Waiting and waiting again. We also ordered raspberries with our meal, they forgot about it of course. Also they have pizza on Monday, but they refused to bring it to the room (given that they have pizza menu in the room‍), and on another day, their chef just refused to cook it and we had to order pizza from the nearest pizzeria.

7. Concierge service of the hotel is incompetent, they told us there was parking next to the restaurant that we booked for lunch in the village nearby, but in fact you have to walk 500m by foot and it is nearly impossible to park the car. Once in the morning we asked the hotel concierge to book the self-drive boat for us, and what do you think? Of course he forgot about it and just finished his shift and went home and did´t let his colleague know about our booking, we asked again another guy he confimed it again, but when we came down to the lake for our trip at the arranged time, there was nobody and nothing. Someone forgot about it again. So we had to ask an evening concierge again. She called the company and the boat arrived in 10 min but we started the trip 30 mins later. Instead of 5pm we started at 5:30pm but you are allowed to make self-driving only until 7pm. So we wanted to have a trip to 2 hours but had it only for 1,5 hours due to the delay.

Everything is so slow, service is not very bad. I stayed in Mandarins before in more than 10 different countries for sure but I will never trust this chain again. They just killed their reputation in Italy.

Today we came to the pool, and there was no one of the staff there, NOT A SOUL AROUND. We had to arrange everything by ourselves, prepare towels etc. No one even came to ask if we need anything.

The hotel isn´t worth that kind of money. You will not be able to relax there. On the picture: insects on the...

The Mandarin Oriental Lake Como is an unbelievable property. That is about the only positive thing that I have to say about my experience at this location. Rar and away the most disappointing luxury hotel experience I have ever had.

First, the staff is completely overwhelmed and not effective. From what I could tell, this seemed to stem largely from the fact that no one wanted to take responsibility for anything, even the simplest tasks like calling for a taxi. Every conversation with a staff member resulted in "I'll let XX person know" and then it didn't happen. Examples include: I spoke with a member of the concierge about a dinner reservation. I returned multiple hours to find that not only had that not happened, no one even knew what I was talking about My girlfriend left her hat at the pool; we returned in the morning and the same bartender from the day prior informed us that he had found it and given it to the hotel security to be put in the lost & found. I spoke with probably 10 people who assured me "they would let the security team know." I never got the hat back. The staff literally took the hat from where it was known to be and then lost it (or just didn't care to look for it).

In addition to the numerous terrible staff experiences like this, the L'Aria restaurant was an absolute disaster for me (and literally every other table eating there). It was near comical to watch the management team go from table to table putting out fires and apologizing to guests that had been waiting hours for food, never got their food / drinks, or received their food and were extremely dissatisfied - we all struggled with the same issues. Our food quality was extremely poor (bad meat and cold), it was extremely slow, and multiple dishes never arrived. I had to request food that never arrived be removed from the bill because I was brought a check including it (restaurant not even aware they failed to deliver portions of the meal).

This was all after our waiter made a whole show around "structuring" the courses for things to arrive in the recommended order. How this restaurant is on the Michelin guide is beyond me - makes me question the entire integrity of their ratings system. My personal favorite moment was when the gentleman next me to took one bite out of his seabass, called over the waiter to tell them it tasted like bad chicken and that he's never had seabass with tendon in it, and immediately requested the check. As someone who had just ordered the sea bass, I knew we were in for a treat...

Putting aside that the food was downright bad for the reputation / cost, most of the issues again seem to stem from the fact that no one takes any responsibility. You don't have a designated waiter / waitress, so the staff takes turns walking past your table, not providing service or checking-in. They don't realize something never came or you've been waiting 45 mins for a drink because presumably they just assume someone else is handling it.

Exacerbating all of these issues is the fact that hotel is on a complete island, and they price gouge you on transportation to anywhere. Prior to my arrival, the concierge helped me schedule reservations at recommended restaurants, and assured me they would easily be able to arrange taxis to them.

When I actually arrived and requested help with transportation, the concierge told me that there are no taxis available and that I would have to take their hotel transport instead at a roundtrip cost of EUR300 (for a 15 min drive; btw this quoted price went up EUR50 each day I was there). That is an absolutely egregious rate. I was told that even if I was lucky to get one it was it would EUR90 each direction, so I should just take their car instead. I arranged one in 15 mins for EUR54. Couldn't believe the concierge was so unwilling to assist with something that was clearly achievable, and that I had been provided such bad information...