Hotel I Portici — Hotel in Bologna

This would be my 2nd time staying at Hotel I Portici. My first time was back in 2018 and it was definitely a 4+ star experience. HOWEVER, the interior, fixture and room amenities have aged significantly since then and I don't think they've had a renovations since my last visit 6 years ago. Few things they should really improve on: Room Cleanliness: We've spent 2 nights there and both nights the floor and the bathroom were dusty. We never wear shoes past the entrance so the dust was just there in the room. They did provide slippers but it's a bit unacceptable to have dusty floors in a hotel room. Noise: They gave us a room facing the main road. Which should be fine, except that the window serves zero noise cancellation purpose. There were also major construction happening on that road, and construction starts at 7am. I feel like this is definitely something the hotel should warn guests about ahead of time. The quality of their window is very poor and it doesn't shut properly. Aside from the construction noise, we could hear pedestrians talking and cars passing by. We were on the 4th floor and the noise level was just unacceptable. It also feels dishonest to put guests in a room like that and charge them the same price knowing that they won't be able to get a proper rest. Indoor temperature and non-functioning AC: It was very warm through out the hotel and the room. it's 18-22c in Bologna last week and it was at least 25c indoor. The AC definitely didn't work. Some of the staff we saw were sweating. Not sure what's happening. Bathroom amenities: It's just old and dusty. The shower leaks and it's dark. It definitely needs an update. In-room refreshment: Don't all hotel give you free bottle of water per person every day? We've only had 1 bottle on day one. If we had known that there wouldn't be any water, we would've procured some on the way back. It's just inconvenient. They also provided INSTANT nestle coffee. this is unacceptable. At least provide drip packets of coffee if not a little espresso machine. Why would you even have the option of instant coffee powder? In Italy? That's just embarrassing.

Overall the staff is very nice, it's a good and convenient location despite the construction. The hardware of the hotel is a zero star. I can't believe you house a 1-star...

My husband and I had a bad experience from beginning to end at this establishment. We came for our honeymoon and at check in we were greeted fine. We went to our room and found no functioning water. We were told only after the fact and it didn’t return for an hour. We then also waited over an hour for our bags to come to our room only after going to reception to ask about them.

The rooms were fine but they didn’t have something as basic as tissues and the air conditioning didn’t work that great.

There is a ton of construction currently due to the electric tram that is being built all along the main road. We received notification that electricity would be out for a few hours one day but fortunately we were going to be gone for the majority of the day. Although they notified us the electricity would still go in and out at times outside of the time we were notified which was annoying.

I had emailed ahead of time to find a spa for a couples massage 3 weeks prior to checking in. They sent me a place and I booked an appointment. We walked 30 minutes I was incredibly surprised when we walked into a full on construction site. I called the hotel and they were able to get in contact with the masseuse and have her come to the hotel room the next day. This was only after we were told that there was another spa another 25 minute walk back towards the hotel but they weren’t able to rebook us for anything but we could do it ourselves online. Not only that but since I booked a couples massage when it was time for us for do the massage there was only a masseuse due to lack of space for another and so the other person had to awkwardly do something else which they did not accommodate for.

This hotels only saving grace is their Michelin star restaurant which we ate at our last night before leaving which was a great experience but it is clear that they are relying heavily on the restaurant’s reputation to sustain their hotel’s business. This is a 3 star hotel at best that has a connection with a 1 star...

pros: location is not far from the center on a nice shopping street, though not central. Breakfast was very nice and tasty (the lady was chopping fresh ham for the omlettes). The staff at reception were lovely, effective, and efficient. Overall covid-19 measures were well respected. Room and decor is pretty.

cons: we had a horrible overall stay for one key reason: we had specifically asked for a quiet room when booking as we would drive a lot the next day and came with a small child and it was extremely noisy. There was a concert in the park which our room overlooked and we thought it was crazy they had no idea it was happening. Initially I called reception multiple times as we were right above the restaurant terrace and thought it came from there. However they said it was the park and they said they couldn't do anything about it. I then spoke the next morning with reception staff and told I found it hard to believe they weren't told this would happen and they admitted that of course they have a way of knowing about these things happening but management had not informed them about this time and therefore didn't take it into account during my booking as they would have moved us to another room had they known. They then insisted that they would contact us via email to let us know what they could do for us and after 1 month of chasing them they said it was out of their control so they couldn't do anything except give us a better rate next time... appalling...

Other negative things but minor: the cot was not ready in the room during check in and we had to call & wait for it to be sent up, cleanliness was not great as there was dust on the shelves and we found some brown stains on a pillow, the restaurant at the ground level has tiny portions and although they talk about fresh pasta all the time it wasn't very good for the price and...