Hotel Casa del Pellegrino — Hotel in Padua

This is historic hotel in an excellent position in the old city and could be a pleasant place to stay but is spoiled by a number of factors, predominantly poor management. After booking to ensure that my disabled partner would not be affected by distant parking, i emailed the hotel to verify the availability of close parking. This I needed to do in Italian 3 times after the first 3 messages in English were ignored, before I finally got a one liner reply.|The room was average or below, but was curiously equipped with both air conditioning and forced ventilation. The air conditioning had two sets of controls, one analogue traditional and one new digital screen which was impossible to comprehend. It was entirely unclear which had precedence over the other and why there were two separate control systems. However after huge trial and error I managed to turn off the air conditioning, however the forced air blast continued to enter the room. This caused coughing and a low room temperature finally forcing us to call the night manager at about 3:00am to turn it off. He did not know how to, and in fact came to conclusion that the forced air ventilation was on by default and was not controllable or removable. This is extremely poor and made the room difficult to adjust to.|Finally getting to sleep by about 5:00am we did not wake until after 9:00am and rushed down for breakfast. The staff ticked the list to ensure that we were charged for breakfast but it appeared that breakfast service, according to the details in the room, would close within 15 minutes. I asked if they could allow us 30 minutes, so with that commitment we were shown the table. As we sat down the food started to disappear including one particular incident where all of the hot food was decanted onto a trolley which I physically blocked the exit of with my foot in the corridor until I could grab plates and physically help myself and partner to scrambled eggs and other food. We sat down to finally eat this then the staff turned off all the lights, so we sat in semi darkness. I collared a waiter and asked if he could bring us back some of the bread that they had taken away but he refused point blank and walked out. This is not exactly what I look for in a hotel.|These incidents and several others lead me to feel that the hotel needs something of a service revolution in terms of looking after its customers, answering their messages, addressing their concerns and trying to make them feel that they are something other than...

I was left a bit perplexed right from the start when I checked in at Casa del Pellegrino. I was staring at a large, old-fashioned key rack behind the reception staff: not so much for the traditional metal keys (instead of electronic cards), but because hospitality studies tell me a rack like that - in plain sight - is contrary to all security and privacy rules. My room was pleasantly quiet, but its decor as a whole appeared to be coming straight from a film from the 1960s, and what was noticeable was only the downsides, not the vintage feeling. The desk has no electric socket anywhere near... unless you are keen on starting to shift furniture around. The shower curtain was to narrow and left gaps on either side for the shower water to make a mess around it. I found the position of the safe to take the cherry of incongruous stuff: initially I thought it was not even available for the room, but then I discovered it at the very bottom of the wardrobe which, I imagine, is not ideal for people over 55 or so, or with a less than flexible back anyway. The staff, on the other hand, was helpful and polite, but that was hardly enough to make up for the weaknesses of a hotel which - thanks to its marvellous location - could be...

I was left a bit perplexed right from the start when I checked in at Casa del Pellegrino. I was staring at a large, old-fashioned key rack behind the reception staff: not so much for the traditional metal keys (instead of electronic cards), but because hospitality studies tell me a rack like that - in plain sight - is contrary to all security and privacy rules.|My room was pleasantly quiet, but its decor as a whole appeared to be coming straight from a film from the 1960s, and what was noticeable was only the downsides, not the vintage feeling.|The desk has no electric socket anywhere near... unless you are keen on starting to shift furniture around.|The shower curtain was to narrow and left gaps on either side for the shower water to make a mess around it.|I found the position of the safe to take the cherry of incongruous stuff: initially I thought it was not even available for the room, but then I discovered it at the very bottom of the wardrobe which, I imagine, is not ideal for people over 55 or so, or with a less than flexible back anyway.|The staff, on the other hand, was helpful and polite, but that was hardly enough to make up for the weaknesses of a hotel which - thanks to its marvellous location - could be...