Baglioni Resort Sardinia — Hotel in Santu Diadòru/San Teodoro

Let’s start with the positives. The physical set up of the hotel is very nice. It’s got a great location near the shore. The architecture is modern with a sleek design. The grounds are beautifully landscaped. The rooms are clean and comfortable. They have a private beach club, which is about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, but it is not a problem. The beach is well-maintained and the water is very pretty. The hotel has employees at the beach to help you get your beach chair set up. There is no food or drinks available at the beach, but one can go up to the pool bar and bring something back if they desire. The pool area is also very nice and full service. The hotel has a safe and comfortable feel to it.||Parking is convenient, safe, and complementary.||The property is very quiet with no nearby traffic. One can really rest well here.||Here are the negatives:||We were escorted to our room upon check-in, but received no tour of the room in regards to adjusting the air conditioning, the safe, etc.||The way they have their Internet set up is troublesome. They will only let you connect three devices per room. If you’re traveling with a family and everybody has a couple of devices, that can become problematic. ||We are unimpressed with their aperitifs before dinner. On occasion, the pours were very stingy. Also, traditionally when one orders an aperitif in Italy, is it accompanied by an array of little snacks. At this hotel, you might get a small taco about the size of your thumb or some other morsel that would be considered an amuse bouche in a restaurant. Some olives, some cheese, or even some potato chips would be appreciated. Keep in mind, these drinks are coming with a €25 price tag. Also, when we got up to take our pre-dinner drinks into the adjacent restaurant, nobody offered to help us. Don’t get us wrong, we can carry the drinks ourselves, but in a hotel of this caliber, one of the staff usually comes over with a tray and takes the drinks into the restaurant for you.||After arriving at the restaurant, our empty cocktail glasses remained on the table our entire meal. They should’ve been taken away when they were empty.||We had a long wait to order at their more casual restaurant. We had to ask for bread. When I went to order wine, the sommelier suggested the two most expensive wines on the wine list. We got the sense that the staff have been instructed to upsell clients. We ended up ordering a bottle of wine for €80 that went for €25 retail. Nobody poured the wine for us. They suggested a €50 pasta dish with truffles. Unfortunately, the dish had no taste of truffles whatsoever. They kindly took it off of our bill because it was tasteless. Such a dish should’ve never gotten past the chef. At the end of our meal, we asked for a dessert menu and never received it.||The gym is not manned, and the first couple of days I went there, there was no water. There is no shower in the gym. There was no spray to clean off the machines the first couple of days, but that was rectified later. Otherwise, the gym is nice. They had apples in the gym as a healthy snack some of which were mealy and clearly had been there for a while.||We noticed an empty cocktail glass on their upper Terrace one morning. We were surprised that it was still there a day later. It’s almost as if nobody’s walking the grounds to make certain that the place is orderly. ||On the floor of the bar, one night, we saw some french fries, which had been dropped by a previous client. They must’ve been there for a long time because they were covered with ants. ||The chairs, both in the restaurant and on the terrace of the room were cheap plastic chairs with no cushions.|| While an evening turn down service was offered, no little mats were put next to one’s bed, and no chocolates or other treats were left in the room at the time of the turn down. Once again, people can live without these perks, but at this price point these things are considered the norm.||The biggest disappointment was truly our meal at their Michelin starred restaurant gusto, we’ve been to many Michelin restaurants, and simply don’t understand how this one made the cut. It was truly the most forgettable meal of our three weeks in Italy. While the staff was very nice, they also appeared to be well coached on the art of the upsell. The bill for this meal was north of €600 and I truly don’t remember anything about it. ||There are very few five star hotels in Sardinia. If you wish to visit this part of the island, this is a clean safe and comfortable option. I do recommend it with reservation. I would not recommend dining there, however. There are some perfectly decent restaurants within a short, driving distance...

Major Disappointment at Baglioni Resort Sardinia Reception: Adequate but Basic We arrived at the Baglioni hotel at 3 PM and were greeted by a crowd of guests in the reception area. There was no welcome drink, only a bottle of water, which is surprising for a hotel of this category in a resort area. Check-in: Disorganization and Waiting We were initially told that our room would be ready in a few minutes. After a 30-minute “guided” tour, we were informed that the room would not be ready for another 40 minutes as it had only just begun to be cleaned. We were promised a text to notify us and offered a ticket for a drink, limited to liqueur or house wine. Not exactly what you’d expect from a 5-star establishment.

Room: Poor Cleanliness and Inadequate Value

After waiting 1 hour and 45 minutes, we finally received our room without the promised text notification. Giancarlo, the arrival manager, seemed clueless and unprofessional. The room, while decent, was absolutely not worth 1000 Euros per night. Worse still, the toilet had remnants from the previous occupant—an unacceptable detail for a hotel of this category.

Bar and Drinks: Good Service but High Cost

The drinks at the bar were excellent, and the service was satisfactory, despite the high prices (20 to 30 Euros per drink).

Service and Reception: Lack of Professionalism

The General Manager (deputy) we encountered did not even apologize for the inconveniences. The receptionist could have made more of an effort to improve the situation. The welcome drink was an honest prosecco, accompanied by an interesting small dish. The promised welcome gift turned out to be a second bottle of the same prosecco, worth 12 Euros. A poor compensation for a 2-hour delay.

Dinner: Exceptional Wine but Disappointing Food

The choice of wine for dinner was excellent, with a superb Sardinian wine. Thank you to the maître d’hôtel for this discovery. However, the prices of the dishes were very high (20 to 35 Euros per dish). The starters and primi were well presented but lacked depth and richness. The secondi was a disaster, consisting mainly of fat. There was no reaction from the servers, except for one waitress who stood out for her professionalism.

Breakfast: Mediocre Service and Modest Buffet

In the morning, at the breakfast buffet, the server forgot to inform us that we could order specific dishes. After requesting our drinks, we had to ask the maître d’hôtel again. The buffet was modest and unpretentious, correct but nothing more.

Beach and Pool: Lack of Facilities

The beach is very beautiful but windy, which was unpleasant (not related to the hotel). The pool was a major disappointment: for a hotel with many rooms, there were only 22 stations near the main pool. Result: no available spots for us. The main pool was not heated in June, making swimming cold and unpleasant.

Positive Point: Late Check-Out

As a support measure, the hotel called us to confirm our departure time. I requested a late check-out of one additional hour, which was accepted without charge as a compensation measure. Although it was not initially offered, I appreciate this gesture!

Conclusion: Overall Disappointment

Poor quality service Unheated pool for June in Sardinia - cold Limited pool facilities (one main pool and two children’s pools) Inferior breakfast Totally unacceptable value for money Lack of personalization in apology messages Lack of leadership and follow-up from management Openness to improvement

Having traveled to numerous 5-star and luxury hotels around the world, this establishment falls well below expected standards, with an exorbitant cost for what is offered. However, in defense of the hotel, this seems to be a phenomenon throughout Sardinia. There appears to be a surcharge of 20 to 30%. In July or August, there is probably a wow factor absent at this time of year.

Note: Unrelated to the hotel, Sardinia in June is cool, which is not ideal for a beach trip as known in the Pacific or...

The worst resort I have ever stayed at. It is not worthy of a 5-star or even 4-star rating. The resort is not new, as they advertise. The pictures, videos and marketing material does not match the reality of the resort. It is an old resort from the 80s, or earlier, with a new coat of paint. Unfortunately, we made a reservation for 7 days and it was clear by day 2 that we had been scammed. We had such a bad experience that we left early and were assured we would be refunded for the remaining days. However, we still have not received the refund.

ROOMS: We changed rooms 3 times because they were so bad. First, we were taken to a tiny room at the back of the property that had a strong smell of mould, a loud humming machine noise coming from the bathroom, and no privacy in the courtyard from neighbours or passers-by. We were moved to a room next to a young family and woken up at 8am by screaming children. Finally, we were moved to a room which was quiet but our courtyard was filled with overgrown weeds, and the exterior wall had a massive hole in it.

SERVICE: Regarding service, it was NON EXISTENT. Marilena the Guest Relations rep was not able to book a single activity for us. We were not given any information about Sardinia such as nice beaches to visit, restaurants to try, or activities to book. I resorted to my own research on Google Maps and Instagram.

We tried to book their private luxury yacht which states in its PDF that it goes to La Maddelena, however we were told that La Maddelena was too far and we could only visit local beaches and islands. They quoted 2000€ for their boat and when I contacted another agent that manages the same boat I was quoted 1400€.

MAIN RESTAURANT: The service was terrible, and the food was so boring that we lost weight for lack of desire to eat. The menu given to guests says "Lunch”, but they give this out at dinner also, which implies they've given up on their dinner menu. Each night there was a lounge singer standing awkwardly in a dark corner of the bushes, singing off-key to a bad backing track on a laptop. One of the most painful things I’ve listened to. If Baglioni had a Bose sound system and a Spotify playlist it would save them money AND make guests happier.

FINE DINING RESTAURANT: Upon check in we were told that Gusto was closed due to “damage caused by a storm”. Gusto reopened on Night 5 of our stay and when I approached the staff to make a booking, they did not come out to greet me, they stayed inside the restaurant, and shouted that they were fully booked. The guest relations staff should have told us it was reopening and offered us a table.

GYM: Gym is small with basic equipment and a view to guests dining at the restaurant. Awkward.

BEACH: No service at all at the beach. Old stained and threadbare towels given to us to use on the sun beds. When I walked to the beach hut to ask for the lunch menu I was told, “today, no salads, no sandwiches, no fruit platter. Only pizzas and toast”.

POOL: We were told not to use the 2 smaller pools because the water was green. 2 of 3 outdoor showers beside the pool are broken. No service offered at the pool. Had to ask the lifeguard for bottles of water. Had to walk over to the bar to ask for snacks. Guests were returning finished plates to the bar themselves instead of staff coming to collect. The bathrooms were filthy. No background music playing at the pool, or anywhere on the property.

MANAGEMENT: We expressed our overall dissatisfaction 4 times via email and several times in person, yet the general manager never came to see us.

We moved to Hotel Pitrizza in Costa Smeralda, experienced the best service of our lives, and stayed an additional 5 days. We will return to Sardinia, but...