Masseria Santa Lucia — Hotel in Matera

For our stay in Matera we wanted a cozy place not too far from the center with a swimming pool. Masseria Santa Lucia seemed to be the perfect place. We booked a room with living room and kitchen for three nights. Upon our arrival we were escorted to our room. The first thing I noticed was that the room had a very strong foul smell as if it hadn’t been used for a long time. It took a day and a lot of airing up the room to get rid of the smell as well as the intervention of the cleaning lady to clean up the coffee machine which had rotten coffee from previous residents and the tray full of residues. This in combination with very cheap furniture’s (IKEA type) with a bed that creaks at the least movement you make and paper thin walls which allow you to hear what happens in the rooms around you are not the best start. And when you want to take a shower, you really need a lot of patience because there is zero pressure. The staff also seems not to be very enthusiastic to be there, the guy at the pool looked like he had had a very long bad night. All this is a shame because the Masseria really looks fabulous, the pool area is fantastic, the terrace with the breakfast area is gorgeous, the gardeners do an incredible job, I have rarely seen a property as well maintained as this one with grass that could only be found in an English garden. My recommendation to the staff, get someone to do a final check on the cleaning and fix the plumbing in the showers and ask your staff to smile, that part doesn’t cost any money because at nearly € 200 a night I have a difficult time recommending this place...

This Masseria is located at about 10 min driving distance from the city center. It’s a convenient location, with supermarkets and gas stations nearby and close to the highway too.|The place is great, an old building with lots of history behind that was renovated and converted into a hotel/guest house, with a beautiful outdoor pool and garden.|Unfortunately, I found the management very inexperienced - except for Enzo at reception, who went above and beyond our expectations from the day we arrived, offering plenty of good suggestions for places to visit, restaurants and shops and always ready to help and make us feel welcome.|The rest of the staff is either very young or does not seem prepared for the task they are up to. |They also have a restaurant inside, managed by other owners, where we did not have a good experience at all.|We had dinner there one evening. The food options were very limited (and did not reflect that was on the menu), the food was average and the service seemed improvised. |When we paid the waiter summed up our bill with a manual calculator and couldn’t even remember the prices of the dishes in the menu (he was looking at a hard copy of it) - something I found hilarious and have never seen before! |Also, bad price-quality relation - you can get something much better for better price in Matera.|Overall, OK rooms and apartments, although not perfectly clean, and OK breakfast too. |However, I would not go back to this Masseria as I am sure there are better places in Matera for the same price. A pity considering the beautiful...

Our stay at Masseria Santa Lucia was okay. The accommodation itself is very nice. We booked the Deluxe Suite and were amazed by how nicely newly decorated it was, with high ceilings, lovely bathroom with luxurious shower and comfortable bed. The swimming pool looks equally stunning with modern beach chairs. However, that experience got overshadowed a bit by the unfriendly welcome. The lady who welcomed us was clearly not in the mood to give her guests a warm welcome. That’s a pity for the quite high price we paid. The rest of the staff was nicer, yet not to the level of other accommodations we booked for our Italian trip and where we paid much less. Furthermore, I asked two times in advance via the booking platform how I could book the guided Matera tour they mention in their services, but didn’t got any response, although they contacted me via the same way for check-in. The breakfast is served in the patio, which is a nice spot, yet very warm the moment we were there (mid August), making us feel very sweaty already from the breakfast on. Last but not least, the hotel is situated somewhat in the middle of an industrial area, which doesn’t add to a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Luckily we had a car, making it quite easy to visit Matera, otherwise a taxi would be needed, I think, since we didn’t see any dining options in the...