Hotel Villa Carlotta Taormina — Hotel in Taormina

Hotel Villa Carlotta is a nice hotel. However having stayed there for three nights in May 22, booked to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, I cannot help feeling rather disappointed. We are lucky enough to have stayed in hotels all around the world. Apart from a luxury all-inclusive private game reserve in South Africa this was the most expensive hotel per night that I have ever visited and herein lies the problem. It is nice but at this price point I expected it to be even nicer. It’s hard to actually identity where it falls short but it simply does not give off the ambiance I expected. The hotel is decorated in bold rich colours, typical ‘boutique’ and pretty stylish. Our room was described as a Deluxe Suite with Sea View on the booking site but referred to as Mini Suite Deluxe by the Hotel. It consisted of a bedroom area with large comfortable bed and an adjacent sitting area with sofa, small stand for the kettle, TV and a smallish bathroom with twin hand basins. No space for a bidet. Although clean and obviously recently refurbished I was not a fan of the chocolate brown theme. A small terrace outside had room for two sun-beds plus a small bistro table & 2 chairs. It was shielded from the adjacent room by a rather high plain brick wall. For a hotel in this bracket there were a number of details which were not right. Nothing that could have been rectified by reference to the front desk but for example, there was no writing desk or anywhere to sit and write or type (despite this being listed as a room feature). The only socket available to use for charging laptops, camera batteries etc, unless I wanted to do battle with an extension cable already bulging with adapters was near the floor next to the door. The laptop had to be left on the floor whilst charging. TV - International channels were advertised but I could not find any, no streaming services nor any way of streaming to it from one’s mobile device etc. No full length mirror. A free standing shaving mirror was provided, however there was absolutely nowhere that it could be stood to use whilst shaving. No turn down service was offered. Self-serve breakfast was OK however the hot selection was limited. Clearly a number of the offerings were leftovers from the previous evenings dinner service. On our final morning cold roast potatoes in small dishes were as I discovered a bad idea. We did however enjoy a nice evening meal in the restaurant. The hotel is situated on the side of a a steep hill facing east. This meant that whilst our balcony got full sun in the morning, it, the garden and the pool deck all went into shade by about 1630. We had a nice sea view from our room balcony if we looked straight ahead or to the right . If we looked left the view was dominated by the rear of an ugly looking hotel slightly further down the hill. The view from the garden? There isn’t one unless you like the look of the plain brick rear wall of a church which sits just below the hotel, the wall being about 5m in front of the sun bed. The first night of our stay coincided with the end of a few days of rain showers, making the room feel just a little cool. After unsuccessfully attempting to rectify this using the room control I contacted the front desk. They advised that whilst they could stop the fan (which wasn’t actually running) the system had been set to ‘summer mode’ and could not be adjusted to provide even the slightest amount of heat. After a short unnecessary stand-off a portable heater was brought to our room and plugged in. This however required unplugging the kettle! The heater did the trick and was not required for the rest of our stay as the weather warmed up significantly. Parking €25 per day. Some may consider the points I have raised minor and in many ways they are, however I would not expect to find issues of this kind in any hotel at this price. Nice hotel yes, good value no. I won’t...

My husband and I booked Hotel Villa Carlotta for our honeymoon expecting a luxury experience, but it was deeply disappointing. We were placed in a “garden room” that was not properly described online—it was completely detached from the hotel, required navigating 40 steps from the main property, and felt more like a dated motel room than a 4-star SLH property. The room smelled musty, and when we got to bed the AC unit above the bed leaked water onto my husband all night, and staff couldn’t relocate us. There were other issues—the shower, though large, did not drain properly. There were also no blinds for privacy, if we wanted any natural light or the “sea view” we needed to completely open the windows which meant people outside could see in.

After returning from the pool the next day, we discovered the bathroom lights didn’t work—after trying to figure it out while we were cold and wet, we called the front desk who told us we needed a keycard we were never given when checking in. Then when getting out of the shower I realized our towels, which were clean and hanging, were removed and not replaced, leaving me to dry off with a used bathrobe. We even found a snake outside our room as we were checking out!

While most staff were polite and understanding, our repeated issues were brushed off and met with little sympathy from the manager Claudia. Unlike other hotels on our trip, there was no honeymoon acknowledgment or congrats, which added to our disappointment. The restaurant/breakfast and location were the only highlights. A partial bill reduction was appreciated, but the overall experience did not come close to justifying the...

It's hard to know how to rate this hotel as the facilities deserve a four star rating but the customer service is lacking and probably deserves a two star rating. I don't know how to better explain it, but the staff upon arrival were awkward in communication and lacking in welcoming us into the hotel. The staff did not expect us even though our name was under the reservation and did not explain that our room was not in the main hotel but rather in an apartment up the street. The apartment / hotel room we are staying in is very spacious, beautiful and fully stocked with desired amenities. But unfortunately the staff have overlooked certain elements of the apartment. For example, the freezer has been fully frost bitten and is covered in ice (no room to store anything, see photo below), the hinge of the bathroom door gets stuck half way through opening the door, the shower door doesn't close fully and etc. Upon asking for more coffee and laundry detergent, they told us to check the apartment harder instead of trusting us at our word and providing us with our needs. Our experience at the pool was similarly awkward and unprofessional. It opens at 9:30 and upon arriving at 10:30 there was no employee on site, no means to obtain pool towels and still dirty bottles and glasses from other guests the evening prior. The staff and hotel are lacking in small details that create an exceptional experience. Unfortunately I would not recommend this hotel considering the average...