B&B Il Vigneto — Hotel in Riomaggiore

My girlfriend and I visited Cinque Terre for several nights. We were on a trip through Europe and booked what we needed as we went along. This allowed us flexibility to stay in places we liked for longer at the cost of a slight premium.||||We came upon this place through Airbnb. After messaging the host, and finding out it was a legitimate business, we decided to make the booking directly on their platform as to avoid the additional fees through Airbnb.||||Prior to making the final booking, we had a lengthy conversation about if the room was indeed available. Airbnb showed it was available for part of our stay but Andrea, the son of the owners, assured us that he had an extra apartment that could accommodate. We agreed upon a price and details and made the booking.||||We had a very rough trip coming in, taking over 9 hours on several trains to reach Manarola. We were very fortunate to just catch the last bus that takes to Volastra. This was the first thing thing that we missed and wish we had better looked at but it’s at no fault of the B&B. Volastra is a tiny village that cannot be walked to. The last shuttle bus that goes there leaves at 10 PM. If you are carrying any sort of luggage, you will regret every ounce of it. The hills and the bus just don’t accommodate anything but yourself.||||Upon arrival, we found that between the 3 phones we had with us, none of them had service. We struggled to find the B&B and realized that we also had no check in instructions nor code to the WiFi. We spent another 30 minutes walking around until we could get a signal and message Andrea for the code to unlock the door. The lack of check in instructions is a huge ding. If you don’t have 24 hour reception, at least provide us instructions prior to arrival so we know how to access our rooms!||||At this point, we made it to our rooms and slept the night with no fan or AC. I have never slept in a room with such still air. To make matters worse, Andrea was messaging us about paying extra money (he never mentioned any of this) and about needing to swap rooms 3 times (who the fudge wants to swap rooms every night while on vacation). I had to silence my phone and try to sleep before I blew a gasket. ||||In the morning, we were woken by the sounds of other guests eating breakfast. We got up quickly so that we could eat as well (we were never told when breakfast was served so we didn’t want to miss it). We came to join everyone else (we even took our seats) and instead of being greeted with a “bonjourno”, the lady who does all of the cleaning and “cooking” said to us, “I need your passports and then I can give you breakfast”. I don’t know what planet these people come from but that’s is so disrespectful and rude. If it was that important to you, why did you not greet me at arrival? Why do you have to make a scene in front of the other guests and more importantly, stop me from eating breakfast just for my damn passport?!? Unbelievable.||||FYI, the breakfast is just toasted slices of bread, yogurt, and burnt coffee. Make what you will of it and decide if it’s worth extra.||||After that ordeal, we went back and forth with Andrea about how we would handle our stay. Initially, he wanted to charge us more money for breakfast and more for the apartment despite our prior agreement to just booking ONE accommodation and breakfast. I had enough bull crap, so I offered to pay the initial price we agreed upon (mind you I had an email copy) on my credit card or I was packing our bags. The talk of a credit card frightened him and eventually he settled on charging 2% more and wanted the whole payment in cash. He also said it was okay if we pay during anytime during our stay including the day before our last. He also agreed to limit our moving from 3 times to just once, the morning where this poop show happened.||||Every morning after that was a disaster. We missed breakfast the next morning because we “came too late” even though they still didn’t tell us the time for breakfast yet! Conveniently, we were also hounded for the cash payment. I’m not stupid, so I refused to pay them yet. Given the little respect we were shown, and how much I had to fight for everything, I knew that I had to hold onto my money until ALL services were rendered. The next few mornings we managed to make breakfast and just sat through our daily “do you have money” lecture. On our last breakfast, I made the payment in full.||||Fellow travelers, make what you will of our story. Maybe Italians, or even Europeans, are used to being treated like this. 0 respect, no customer service, and just view each other as walking ATMs. I for one have to much self respect to be treated as such. I will never return to this place and probably not Cinque Terre because these people were all scammers. If you do stay, be smart and protect...

Amazing stay in beautiful part of cinque terre. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. The hosts were friendly and helpful and made us feel very welcome. The owners make their own wine and kindly sold us some - it’s very tasty, would recommend! ||The room itself is fairly basic but all as described and clean so no complaints here. There was a fridge which was great for keeping stuff cool. There wasn’t any AC which wasn’t ideal but with the windows open and shutters shut it wasn’t too hot at night. The terrace was beautiful and a real selling point, with beautiful views for miles around.||Breakfast was served on the terrace every morning and while the food was generally quite basic it was tasty! ||Volastra itself is a beautiful little town, close to both Corniglia and Manarola. The bus from Manarola - volastra was regular but you can walk up and down the hill easily enough. ||Overall I would highly recommend visiting volastra and B&B Il Vignetto. Thanks for a...

We arrived late in the afternoon and checked in ourselves, there are no restaurants open in the evening in Volastra (in November) as the owner had informed us previously. The room was spacious and clean, the bed was comfortable and nice hot water was available. It was easy to find the B+B (simple and easy instructions given to us upon reservation), the location was very quiet (we were theonly ones staying!) and in the morning we were treated to a delicious breakfast on the terrace with stunning views over the surrounding hillsides/vinyards and sea. Patricia was an excellent host, she gave us very useful information about the footpaths to follow and we had an excellent walk the following day from Volastra to Corniglia, stunning views and wonderful countryside! Grazie mille!||Thankyou for a lovely stay, Sophie and Antonis from...