Palace Catania | UNA Esperienze — Hotel in Catania

This hotel was recommended by my travel agent as a 'luxurious end' to a Sicily trip to celebrate a milestone birthday with my child. The hotel was beautiful and well located. When we checked in, Rita was most accommodating at the front desk. She even found a beach resort for us to spend our last day in Sicily to relax before a long trip home. Our hotel room was gorgeous, large and well- maintained.

Unfortunately, the toilet in our room would not stop running, even though 2 technicians worked on it. That's ok. It happens. We were moved up a floor after we returned from sightseeing. As we unpacked, I noticed this wasn't a well-maintained room - chips on the floor, ragged furniture, stains on the nightstand. But we were only there 2 nights, so I didn't complain.

Late at night, my child had already showered and was asleep as I went to take a shower. I looked up to find the shower ceiling was covered with MOLD. My child and I wear masks due to her severe autoimmune disorder. And now we're in a room with mold. She didn't tell me because she knew I'd make us move AGAIN and she was exhausted. Needless to say, I was furious at how they could rent this room to ANYONE. I called the front desk and was offered to move again, but at this point, it was midnight and we'd already been exposed. So, we closed the bathroom door, wore a mask to use the toilet, took all our toiletries out to minimize mold spores and tried to get to sleep since it was almost midnight.

The next morning, after breakfast, I went to the front desk to see what would be done. The gentlemen said we would be moved to another room, but we HAD TO do it now, this morning, because they were sold out and wouldn't be sure they'd have a room for us in the late afternoon. AND they'd be too busy to help us move our luggage.

I explained that we had the beach resort picking us up in 30 minutes and still had to get changed and to the pick-up point. He said just pack your suitcases and we'll move them. OK, but I had stuff in the safe I didn't want to take to the beach - like hundreds of Euros and our passports. He said to empty the safe and put it in the hotel safe.

So, instead of a nice relaxing start to the day, we ran around like fools to do just that. We did eventually have a nice day at the beach.

I sent my child back to the hotel ahead of me since I had to stop at the pharmacy. She texted me to ask where our luggage was. She had gotten the new room key at the front desk and the luggage wasn't there. We went back to the front desk and the same gentleman from the morning insisted it had been moved. Nope. It was still in the old room with the mold spores. UGH.

I was very upset. This was supposed to be a GOOD HOTEL. It was a very BAD hotel and a horrible end to our trip. Previously, he had offered me breakfast on the roof for the inconvenience of changing rooms ONCE. Now I was on my THIRD room in TWELVE hours. Insane. I had turned him down because we had dinner planned on the roof for our final night in Sicily and asked for that instead. He said no but he'd give us a credit.

During dinner, one of his associates came up to tell us we'd get a 30% credit off of dinner. And then when we checked out, he waived the parking fee. And made me sign that I received both of them. $36 in parking and probably about the same in dinner credit, if not less.

Nice gestures, but seriously, putting our health at risk and then causing us to have all the stress of having to pack and empty the safe FOR NOTHING? I thought this was a 4 or 5 star hotel.

I waited several weeks to write this to try to be calmer about the experience. I will be sending this to my travel agent and perhaps post it elsewhere. I thought I'd be less upset about it by now. Seriously, I can forgive everything except exposing ANYONE to mold. The fact that it endangered my child will never be ok to me.

6/19 Ops. Mgr. called me & apologized several times. He owned that it shouldn't have happened & wanted to make it right. Out of space but much...

Firstly , the positive. The rooftop bar is fantastic. We had breakfast there and the women on duty was the perfect example of how good customer care skills can make or break an experience. Thank you. The hotels location is good. This was a preliminary review based on arriving early and checking in and I hoped to increase from 3 to more stars later. However despite this being a beautiful hotel it’s probably the least helpful I’ve been in for a long time. I do want the hotel to know that despite booking their best suite - the customer service was pretty underwhelming. We arrived early , not expecting to be able to go to room, but leave luggage, charge phones etc before going out for a walk around. No help, no offer of a glass of water or anywhere to even buy a coffee if we wanted one. Just ignored really Even after coming back after three hours there was still confusion. To be fair We were taken to top floor for a welcome drink which was nice but then left in rooftop bar where the staff serving didn’t know we were there for welcome drink so left to us to find out what this meant. It may seem petty to some, but we expect to get what we paid for - no more no less. The problem with this hotel is that nobody seems clear what that it - so we made to constantly ask questions that the staff seem unable to answer. For example the mini bar has no prices - do we assume it’s included in the hospitality tray we were meant to have? Still no Idea what this is! We will never know. It can’t be too much to expect that the gym has the basics - cups for water , towels and exercise mats - but no / I have to go to reception and ask and then nothing happens. Eventually I see someone near gym and ask again - and finally get a cup to drink some water ( after my workout) and that they do have exercise mats locked away - very helpful! We are in I think the most expensive room in the hotel which is nice - but completely spoilt by a total Absence of customer care. I very very rarely give bad reviews - but I honestly can’t think of anything positive to say so far. Breakfast did raise my spirits and left me feeling more positive about the hotel. However having paid over €400 for our room and just getting a bottle of still water as a form of hospitality, I sadly won’t be...

When you visit Sicily in August, you expect heat—and you’re prepared for it. But when you book a hotel with air conditioning, you expect your room to be a place to cool off and rest. Palace Catania UNA Esperienze struggled to provide that.

We booked a Prestige Double Room with View. That evening, our room never dropped below 24.3°C (76°F). The hotel controls the A/C centrally and said rooms aren’t allowed to cool below 22°C—which would’ve been fine, if ours had actually reached that. Despite calls at 6:30 and 7 PM, and an in-person request at 8 PM, nothing was done. At 10:30 PM, I brought someone to the room—they tried adjusting it both in-room and from the lobby, with no success. We were finally moved at 11 PM.

The next morning, we were told our room didn’t include rooftop breakfast, despite what we were told at check-in. When I verified that it was included on our booking confirmation, they eventually let us stay—but made it feel like they were doing us a favor.

The low point came when the hotel offered to waive the €22 parking fee—but only if we signed a confidentiality waiver. That felt less like an apology and more like an attempt to suppress honest feedback. We declined.

They did adjust my booking at no cost when I mistakenly selected the wrong date—and that’s the reason this is 3 stars instead of fewer.

This wasn’t a terrible hotel—but it was inconsistent, overly controlled, and indifferent when it mattered most. We won’t...