Hotel Villa Franca — Hotel in Lignano Sabbiadoro

About myself:||My mother and her friend were at this hotel at the end of July 2020. She is elderly and shy with computers but she felt strongly enough about the hotel to ask me to write a review about the terrible experience they had. I feel she and her friend were taken advantage of because they are not Italians and the owner thought he could get away with his tricks and dangerous attempts at saving money on anything he could (like food and hygiene). Unfortunately, since he is the sole operator (the hotel is not part of a chain or anything) he doesn’t care about getting bad reviews and in Italy there is really no way to make places like this to take responsibility for their hygiene, food quality etc.||||Client treatment:||• My mother and her friend booked on the phone for 10 days, with breakfast and dinner included. The initial agreed price was 734 euros. When they arrived, they wanted to pay but the owner refused, insisting they would pay at the end. When they wanted to check out, he asked for 1190 euros instead, even though they refused the breakfast and dinner on the third day because they were disgusting. He insisted that there are different tariffs for each month, even though they booked the room in advance and a certain price was agreed upon. Anyone would agree that this is a shady practice. ||• When my mother reminded him what price he confirmed at the beginning, he suddenly started answering in German instead of Italian, in an attempt to not have to answer.||• There was an Italian family of four staying at the same time and the owner did not ask for more money from THEM. He is clearly racist, on top of everything (my mother and her friend are not Italian, but they do live in Italy).||||Room/Amenities/ Cleaning:||• The rooms are old, with no amenities. There is no fridge, no hairdryer in the room.||• The hotel is old and very dirty. ||• The corridors are not cleaned for months on end or if they are, the owner insists that the staff uses cold water with no detergent. ||• Same goes for any communal area, like the dining room or the terrace. I remind you that we are in the middle of a global pandemic. Cleaning is a must. The staff really do their best, but the owner is simply disgusting with his practices. For example, he also insists that the plates, cups and cutlery are washed with cold water, no detergent, instead of sterilising them in the dishwasher. The staff there try to clean behind his back because they are afraid of getting infected. ||• There are zero measures in place against Covid-19||||Dining:||• The owner also cooks.||• Same items for breakfast every single day, lowest possible quality served. It’s appalling how bad it was. Every morning there were 2 slices of Prosciutto Cotto of the lowest quality available, 2 slices of cheese, 2 bread slices and a shrivelled brioche, a bit of jam and butter, the worst coffee my mother has ever tried. And they are in Italy, the land of coffee lovers. The breakfast items never changed in 10 days my mother was there. After 3 days my mother refused breakfast and dinner. The owner still insisted that the staff asked them every morning if they wanted breakfast. I don’t know how or why my mother bared with it.||• For dinner they had without fail reheated pasta, only the sauces were changed. My mother strongly suspected that it was actually the same pasta.||||The only reason my mother stayed on in this hotel, was because it was very close to the beach. She will never recommend this hotel to anyone and the owner's erratic and unfair behaviour at the end soured the whole experience...

I strongly advise to avoid tihs place. The owner was impolite and is not following hours which he defined on booking page. On booking check-in is marked from 8-12. We specially travelled all night and wanted to rest and he refused to let us in at 10 o'clock saying that if we don't want we don't have to be here. He has terrible attitude and he takes your passport for whole stay saying it is to make sure you pay... This is against laws of data protection and RODO. Food was not fresh. Be carefull with juices - all of them will make you sick. No elevator - you have to take your luggage up on 3rd floor. Parking - you have to pay 5 EUR/day and is on the other cost (15 minutes...

Ad agosto abbiamo soggiornato presso questa struttura, che a inizio 2023 ha cambiatto gestione (quindi occhio a non basarvi su recensioni relative alla vecchia gestione).|I punti forti di questa struttura sono sicuramente la posizione, i servizi inclusi e la gentilezza.|L'hotel è fronte mare, esci e dopo qualche metro sei con i piedi sulla sabbia, e andando in direzione opposta in 2min sei all'inizio della via pedonale centrale, cosa si puo volere di piu?|Inclusi nel costo della camera c'e' un ombrellone con 2 sdraio per camera, posto auto gratuito nelle vicinanze e dietro una sbarra di cui ti forniscono il pass (altrimenti per 1settimana si spenderebbero 80-100euro...), bici gratuite quando si vuole (altri hotel le propongono a 2euro all'ora) e ingressi presso una piscina nelle vicinanze.|Il personale, tutto molto giovane, è gentile e sorridente, si percepisce l'affiatamento del team.|Reception h24 che fa comodo e da senso di presenza e sicurezza.|Per il ferragosto hanno anche offerto un brunch, molto gradito e ben riuscito.|Buono il buffet della colazione, con salati (uova, bacon, salumi, etc) e dolci di qualita', che è molto bello consumare nella veranda vista mare.|Purtroppo ci sono anche alcuni punti deboli come l'assenza di ascensore (che pero' se non si hanno problemi di deambulazione non è un grosso problema, parliamo comunque di massimo 3piani), il bagno un po' piccolo, l'assenza di frigo in camera (di questo si, si sente la mancanza) ed in generale la necessita' di una ristrutturazione sia dello stabile che degli arredi (tuttavia la pulizia è ottima, e questo è fondamentale).|Visto il costo non eccessivo, la posizione ed i molto servisi inclusi, se non si hanno aspettative eccessive, allora sicuramente VillaFranca è una buona scelta...