Excelsior Palace Hotel — Hotel in Rapallo

This hotel was spectacular. It was wonderfully, if not decadently and palatially, furnished throughout its lobby, in the hallways, in its dining areas, and when I opened the door to my upper level room with a water view and terrace, I was stunned. The room was not the largest, but it was furnished beautifully and thoroughly with every amenity, including a writing desk, lovely bathtub, plenty of storage, and more. The bed and other furnishings made me feel like a princess, which was the reason for this trip--to celebrate a milestone birthday.||The view of the sea and coastline was stunning from my room and around the property. The breakfast buffet was special as was the ambience in the dining area. You could sit inside or outside on a large terrace overlooking the sea and cliffside coastline communities. Cute little bar off the lobby.||I booked a massage (reasonably priced); however, two construction workers on the other side of the massage room refused to comply with management's request to cease operating loud machinery. The disturbance was so great, the therapist spoke to the front desk on my behalf, and the fee was waived. However, I would definitely stay at this property again.||I walked along the coastline to Santa Marguerita and back in about 30 minutes each way. A convenient train ride to Camoglia (highly recommended) and up the Portofino Coast as well as south to Cinque Terre.||The hotel was reasonably priced for the amenities. However, there were two negatives: menu prices were exorbitant, although I enjoyed eating out on my excursions. The other is the hotel entry is up a steep and winding path/driveway.||Another visitor asked if I knew an alternative to get to and from the property. I inquired from the desk and was told there was no other way. I didn't mind the walk as it is close to the train station. But my arrival toting a suitcase and backpack up that path was quite formidable. I would have taken a taxi had I known. I took one...

This hotel was spectacular. It was wonderfully, if not decadently and palatially, furnished throughout its lobby, in the hallways, in its dining areas, and when I opened the door to my upper level room with a water view and terrace, I was stunned. The room was not the largest, but it was furnished beautifully and thoroughly with every amenity, including a writing desk, lovely bathtub, plenty of storage, and more. The bed and other furnishings made me feel like a princess, which was the reason for this trip--to celebrate a milestone birthday.||The view of the sea and coastline was stunning from my room and around the property. The breakfast buffet was special as was the ambience in the dining area. You could sit inside or outside on a large terrace overlooking the sea and cliffside coastline communities. Cute little bar off the lobby.||I booked a massage (reasonably priced); however, two construction workers on the other side of the massage room refused to comply with management's request to cease operating loud machinery. The disturbance was so great, the therapist spoke to the front desk on my behalf, and the fee was waived. However, I would definitely stay at this property again.||I walked along the coastline to Santa Marguerita and back in about 30 minutes each way. A convenient train ride to Camoglia (highly recommended) and up the Portofino Coast as well as south to Cinque Terre.||The hotel was reasonably priced for the amenities. However, there were two negatives: menu prices were exorbitant, although I enjoyed eating out on my excursions. The other is the hotel entry is up a steep and winding path/driveway.||Another visitor asked if I knew an alternative to get to and from the property. I inquired from the desk and was told there was no other way. I didn't mind the walk as it is close to the train station. But my arrival toting a suitcase and backpack up that path was quite formidable. I would have taken a taxi had I known. I took one...

I would like to start this review by saying I have never written a negative review on a hotel or restaurant in my life. The reason I decided to share my experience is because of how disappointed I am with this hotel and I felt I should let others know before they decide to go about staying here. Last month I was traveling around France and Italy for my honeymoon. My husband and I wanted to stay in nice hotels that were not over the top expensive. We also wanted to be close to Portofino that’s how we came across the Excelsior Palace Hotel. Since it has 5 stars I thought this would be a promising stay. We arrived and the outside was nice and looked like an old building but it wasn’t until we got inside that it was very clear the entire hotel needed a huge renovation. The minute we walked into the lobby it looked very outdated. We proceeded to check into our room and the minute we got into the elevator is when it got bad. The smell was horrible. Then we got to our room and the smell continued. We also had what looked to be an adjoining room and we could hear the people next to us having sex the minute we walked in. It was 3 pm. If that was our only complaint we would have just asked to switch our room but considering both my husband and I were very grossed out we decided we couldn’t stay. We went down to the front desk immediately to tell them our concerns. They were not apologetic or helpful. They charged us two nights out of the 3 we were booked for (we stayed in the room less then 15 minutes). We were very polite telling them our concerns and explained it was our honeymoon and this is not what we had expected from the hotel. They did not seem to care. I hope this review is helpful for future guests. It’s not usually my style but I thought it was necessary considering the representation of this hotel is...