ADLER Spa Resort THERMAE — Hotel in Unione dei Comuni Amiata Val d'Orcia

Cons:

Adler Spa Thermae falsely advertises on its website and third party booking platforms that the rooms have air conditioning. Instead, the rooms are heated and cooled using irradiation panels in the floor and ceiling which were limited to increasing or decreasing the temperature by 3 degrees celsius from a 23 degree celsius starting point. It is an interesting concept, but the room did not cool quickly and I was too hot when going to bed. Luckily, the front desk provided a portable A/C unit, but it required us to keep our ground floor slider door open all night for the hose and vent to go outside. If I would have known that the rooms did not have air conditioning, I would have booked somewhere else as this is a mandatory requirement for me.

The spa does not have very good customer service. They sent an e-mail to me prior to my stay to ask if I wanted a personal consultation before my visit to go over the spa menu. I responded asking for one, but they never e-mailed or called me back. They encourage you to book spa treatments in advance, but then they have a an inflexible cancellation policy. One one of our days we decided in the morning around 10am that we didn't need our 5pm massages anymore, but they wouldn't allow us to cancel them and ended up charging the full amount to our room despite us not receiving any massage services.

We had a noise issue with the floor above us. They were stomping around their room late at night which made it hard to sleep. We called the front desk at midnight and they said they would call the room above us to ask them to be quieter. I would recommend the top floor for anyone concerned about noise.

There was a random fire alarm at 3:30am on our last night due to a system malfunction.

Pros:

The front desk staff is amazing. They are very friendly and helpful and helped to resolve issues as they came up. They literally saved our stay by providing the portable A/C unit and helping us get a refund from the spa on massages they wouldn't let us cancel.

The half board is very affordable at only 25 euros per night per person which gives you an all inclusive access to a very classy dinner each night. We didn't realize this was more of a formal attire dinner place, so make sure you have some nice dining clothes with you. We saw a lot of suit jackets/ blazer and nice dresses.

If you get the half board package you will never be hungry as you will get breakfast, afternoon desserts and dinner every day. You could buy lunch at the restaurant on site, but we never needed to because we were so full.

Suggestions to the hotel:

Clarify on your website and third party booking platforms, that the property does not have air conditioning. I would suggest labeling the air conditioning as "other" and provide the description of what it actually is.

The spa customer service could be improved. More flexible cancellation policies would make the stay much...

The positives: Good location, situated amongst beautiful natural surroundings and scenery

The negatives: extremely dated buildings and facilities. For example, fixtures and fittings throughout the property are worn down, rusting, many guest amenities such as lounge chairs are broken, mouldy cushioning. The hotel states it was built in 2005 and this definitely shows. lacks basic essentials such as in-room dining menus. To order food the staff have to verbally tell you by phone what the options are, which are limited to about 2 starters or main dishes each. rooms do not have air conditioning! This is for a property that claims to be 5 star, and based in Tuscany where the weather can get very hot during the summer months. There is no way to cool rooms down, at all. we had a constant humming noise in our room, which only came on at night, making a restful sleep impossible. We reported this the first evening we arrived, and it was never repaired at all during our stay. rooms are not cleaned properly. On several occasions we found half eaten fruit in our rooms after they had been cleaned. poorly stocked mini bar no options to view or order any in-room entertainment, for example films. The 30+ tv channels are all either in Italian, German or French and the only English option is one news channel. Not exactly the choice during a holiday. We were told by reception there was a way of watching some of these channels in English, however this did not work when we tried. very archaic reservation system, it’s not possible to reserve online - you have to request dates and then wait for someone to respond by email! Even then, this hotel has limited options for example Mondays to Weds, or various configurations - you can’t just choose the days you want. Very bizarre.

In summary if you’re looking for a modern resort, given the prices this place charges do...

if you want to learn what Renaissance means, go to the cathedral at Siena and look at the floor: Socrates has a Bible in his hands. If you want to see Etrurian culture, go to Saturnia. These places are nearby. But the risk is high that you will stay at the hotel, The swimming pools are heated by thermal water, you may fool around, relax or hide away behind the stones taken from the cave that used to be here. You may walk over these stones to the sauna or to the scenic Philosopher's cave with candles and a hammam inside. Or just sit down and look at the heart breaking beauty of Tuscan landscape. The restaurant is working with a zero kilometer politics, with very friendly staff offering revelations on Tuscan and Italian kitchen. I could not get enough of the bread (at least in Northern Italy usually they have no idea of what the word means). They even managed transforming the notorious Schüttelbrot from South Tirol into something nice, flat and crispy. The staff at the Reception is very friendly and clueless. You will find the Kid's playground on your own. They do not know that the outdoor swimming pool (the serious one, 25 meters) even in winter has the perfect temperature for swimming (about 20, I guess), but you will find out. Similarly, the cozy gym with a view on the landscape has trainers somewhere, but they will not consider your presence in there. If you need them, maybe shout. Rooms very spacious and nice. Lacking a bath tube, ok, but I appreciated having a bench in the bathroom where I could sit down and do things necessary and not. Beautiful shower. Near perfect hotel in an overwhelming landscape. Beware going there by car when it is dark. Long, narrow country roads without illumination|, but with hot farm boys who drive like crazy. Beautiful by day, but stressful in...