Villa Cimbrone — Hotel in Ravello

TRAVELLER: AVOID THIS PLACE!

We booked a two night stay at Villa Cimbrone in a Junior Suite, for the princely sum of €1,090 (US$1,300) per night. So it’s not exactly what you’d call cheap, at least not in terms of their pricing.

In their confirmation email, they made the bland statement “Events could take place on our premises (gardens and Villa); therefore, entertainment music could be playing until 00:30a.m.”. They make much of this vague-sounding general statement in an effort to excuse what is completely inexcusable.

When we checked into our fancy, overpriced suite, they certainly didn’t tell us that they had also planned a large wedding party in the space directly below our room, featuring loud (and alas, not very good) music, going on until midnight. If they had been honest with us about their plans, we certainly would not have accepted the room, at any price. Of course, they knew that too, so they chose the commercially expedient route which was simply to conceal their intentions from us.

Starting about 1:00 pm in the afternoon the next day, the wedding festivities started up in the hallway right outside our room, where the wedding party took photos of everyone involved, prettied up the bridesmaids, and conversed with each other in loud voices through the entire afternoon. We finally fled the room at about 3 pm to get away from the racket. After dinner, the dancing and shrieking part of the party started up, with a loud DJ set up right below our bed – maybe 3 meters away. A bit before 10 pm, when we finally complained to the Front Desk, they explained that they were personally very sorry we were being inconvenienced. Somehow it didn’t seem like much of a consolation. They offered to move us into a different room, in an inferior category, but in a hotel with only 16 rooms, none of them was really much better.

Those five stars Villa Cimbrone is sporting relate strictly to the real estate, which is certainly very nice. Being a paying guest there is not so nice, however. In addition to running a large-scale commercial wedding mill on the premises, they also take in daily large swarms of tourists to view the gardens, who wander around from 9 am until 7 pm, at 7 Euros apiece. The problem with Villa Cimbrone seems to be that the management is bent on wringing every last possible centime of revenue out of this property, no matter what the impact is on the unfortunates who are paying through the nose for the dubious privilege of staying here.

Our advice is: spend 7 Euros to tour the Villa Cimbrone’s gardens, and stay somewhere else. For a whole lot less than $1,300 a night, you will have plenty of good options. There are lots of great hotels to have a comfortable, peaceful, quiet stay in Ravello, where the management actually cares about its regular paying customers. But the Villa Cimbrone definitely isn’t...

This hotel, its grounds, and its views are absolutely gorgeous. We paid for and were excited for what we thought would be a much-needed quiet, private, romantic escape that did NOT happen. The hotel is a British and US wedding destination hotel now and we learned from staff (although the front desk denied) they have 90 weddings in 92 days this summer. There were 4 weddings on property during our 3-day stay and the noise each night was awful! I called the front desk the 1st night, exhausted from international travel, and were disappointed to learn all weddings each night are allowed to party until midnight. The receptions are on the lawn below the rooms with loud bands, DJ's, and singing/hooting guests, some with light displays, that can be heard and seen from great distances - no chance of not being impacted by these! We stayed in suite 25 which had a broken toilet seat, clogged shower drain that overflows with each shower, and squeaky bathroom door. The bathroom quickly flooded during the 1st shower and we called the front desk who said a plumber would be right up that morning and they would call when fixed. Never happened - at 6pm we went to front desk and said couldn't shower until plumber fixes and they sent someone up who faked a repair, but did nothing. We learned after the shower has been clogged for years (see past trip advisor reviews about room 25) and I'm guessing it's still not fixed today. During the day, many wedding guests were loud, some obnoxious, several in bachelor/bachelorette party mode. The next day is a new batch of these. That's cool, happy for everyone to have a turn at this, but I believe the hotel has an obligation to let potential guest know what kind of environment you're heading into. We felt like and may have been the only guests there not affiliated with a wedding. If loud wedding music until midnight each night and a bunch of hung over and partying it up wedding guests are what you're looking for - this is your place. We have stayed at many 5 star resorts in Europe and in Italy and this is not a 5 star hotel. We were at the pool one afternoon for over 2 hours and were told drinks and food would be offered but the staff never made it all the way around the pool to service the few people there even one time.At check out when we shared our issues with the front desk (again) they offered absolutely nothing except we that we should come in May or October when its not so crazy (it WAS may and wedding season was in full swing) Hope these details help future potential guests know what to expect - traveler beware! We would never have chosen this hotel for the typeof experience we were hoping for had we known about the noise and poor care of rooms. This hotel needs to update their website to let people know this has become a turnover hotel...

First - we were never told about the parking situation. After a brutal drive to the hotel from Paestum we pulled up to where Google Maps told us to drive to. NO HOTEL THERE AND NO SIGN. So we call and they tell us to go park in someplace that is like a town away?!? HUH?? We do not understand this and end up driving thru the tunnel into the town square (FOR 100 EURO FINE). Both of these things are done by hundreds of tourists a year trying to find their way to Villa Jibrone - per numerous conversations after the fact and in reading the reviews online. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT VILLA JIBRONE! We ended up parking at the Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium which was a LIFE SAVER! THEY WERE GREAT THERE and it reminds me to write a wonderful review about them. Thank god for them as we handed them our keys and our luggage completely blindly and walked away in dire need of a cocktail!||Second - there was no empathy at the front desk at all for the $hyt show created. They were so over dealing with their guests and that could clearly be seen. There were high maintenance Americans dealing with a wedding that were stressing them out and they had the program to a science. Go sit down below with a welcome prosecco and wait for us to call you. They were just cold as ice and completely clueless as to how the front desk should be run at a high end boutique hotel. We went down to the pool on our own and ordered lunch and the pool worker was so much better than the front desk staff - he clued us in to getting changed and enjoying the pool while we waited. The food there was good and the atmosphere was chill and nice down by the pool.||Third - the room was just so below average. The hotel itself is exceptionally nice but the room we got was just crap. I have stayed in hundreds of amazing hotels and we had just been on Amalfi at a wonderful hotel and the room was as disappointing as the whole parking situation. ||Fourth - the hotel is part hotel part sightseeing destination for the general public. That was our next surprise - as we sat and had lunch any idiot that had paid the admission to the park would walk in and take pictures of the pool and the hotel. So you have that to look forward to as you lie out at the pool - like a monkey in the zoo.||Fifth - departure is as stressful as arrival as we needed to catch a flight out early in the morning. But I have to leave you, my reader there, as I have vented long enough. If you have gotten to this point and have read this much you will perhaps find out on your own the departure procedure (especially if it is early am!) GOOD LUCK - Or as they say in Italian -...