Best Western Grand Hotel Guinigi — Hotel in Lucca

Ok, where to start? All based on the room type and price/night, as this should not have been a 2-star motel. Checkin: Probably the longest checkin I had since 2010. All information were given by directly booking through the website, but it seemed like the staff had to type in all again. Simple payment by card took 5minutes. Not unfriendly, but extremly slow/long. Room: Had the "suite", which was in the style of the 90s (so far so good), but lacked any standards of an average room anywhere else. No coffe machine, "Mini-bar" (yes it was called like this) contained 2 small bottles of water which were actually charged (!!!) and not refilled automatically. So no water at all provided... The shower was badly sealed and so small a normal person could not move in there (again, a suite was booked). Bathroom itself was big though. As it got cold in the night, an extra blanked would have been needed. Extra pillows were available, but no blankets. Service: Beside the long duration, the simple request to order a taxi for a certain time, was only possible with multiple calls. The taxi company does not accept pre-orders? Well then the staff should set a timer to call the company the right time. "Service" would be to make sure the guest get`s the taxi at the wished time, independent of what the taxi company requests. (And not call 3 times that they will order it now, it will arrive in 10min and it is there. Last one fine, but if there is a request, the rest is obvious) Also it would have helped to mention the avialbaility of bicycles to go into the city (not the taxi replacement for a trainstation transfer, but standard use). Weird heating and do-not-disturb system. Heating could not be activated or deactivated by the inhabitant (it got down to 7-degrees celcius at night). Do-not-disturb seemed to be deactivated when outside the room? Gym: No water (and again the basic water in the room was charged, absolute no-go), no towles. Otherwise also very basic, which is ok, the few things avialable worked. Wifi: Not really working in my room, despite claimed full connection.

Over all this would have been worth a 2-3 star stay for 1/4 of the price, but not with the existing conditions.

Oh and location is not really good, as it is a bit too far outside the old town. After the first night, I discovered the electric, rentable bicycles, which the staff should have recommended. Otherwise one would need a car.

The rooms terrace was a +, as well as the requested room placement...

Arrived to learn we had an upgrade to an apartment which was great but the happy times ended there. Went to dinner at 7:30 to be told it was full and we had to book. Not one person in reception told us we needed to book. Eventually got to the restaurant at 8:15 and got served two very average pastas at 9:40, a one hour 25 minute wait. Next day after a return from the old city of Lucca at 1pm we went to reception to book a table for two for dinner that night. No the restaurant is full. It was raining and the day before reception told us there was a pizza restaurant 15 minutes away, not ideal. We went to our room and came back to the bar a couple of hours later where we had a big discussion with the restaurant manager, who tried to justify the situation. We explained that as a couple who paid good money to stay they had an expectation to provide us with dinner if we wanted to eat there. He then told us about another restaurant five minutes away that none of the reception staff mentioned, which was welcomed. He then bought us a drink as a peace maker which was gratefully accepted, we then went to the restaurant nearby and had a great night. With the exception of the restaurant manager and one of the reception staff who tried hard to help, we found all the others including restaurant staff unhelpful, dismissive and at times terse. They only seem interested in dealing with the large tour groups and not couples. During this current trip we stayed at Best Western Dead Sea Jordan and it was incredible, I would never stay again or recommend to friends and family to stay at Best...

How this can be advertised as a 4 star hotel is incredible as it is no better than a reasonably priced budget hotel. At first glance the outside of the building and the ground floor reception area looks quite impressive but don't be fooled as the bedrooms, whilst quite large are dingy, dull and very austere with limited space and facilities for clothes storage. Additionally there are no USB points for gadget charging and the location of all the plug sockets means scrambling on the floor on hands and knees to plug anything in. This includes the kettle if a hot drink is required. This constitutes a huge Health and Safety issue and is an accident waiting to happen particularly for the more elderly guest. Other points to note include a lack of any sort of bar facilties till 17.00 which means that when we arrived at 11.30am we could not obtain anything to eat or drink until a few disgusting sandwiches and crisps were reluctantly rustled up by the bar manager. The room we were served breakfast in also leaves much to be desired as it is situated in a basement area and more resembles a works canteen than a comfortable eating environment .The fare on offer itself was less than adequate as it was very basic with an extremely poorchoice of either hot or cold food. All in all we were extremely disappointed with the hotel facilities and we're pleased to move out...