Cignella Resort — Hotel in Unione dei Comuni Valdichiana Senese

Where to start… All looks good at first sight and the place does have a huge potential. The surroundings are beautiful, the view, the apartment was modern and spacious. Our family of four (children 7 and 1) spent 10 days here in Oct 2024. ||Here are however some problems we encountered (pls read the bottom, there is the biggest fault):|- Very bad cleaning: dust and (cat) hair everywhere, specially under the beds and sofas, dirty sofa and pillows. The cleaning meant that sheets and towels were changed (and only 2 times during our 9-nights-stay), but on our baby’s bed/cot the sheets were not changed, not once! The owen was dirty and made smell. After the second time of cleaning part of my clothes were thrown on the floor and our baby’s two new pacifiers were taken. So strange!!|- Cats (and cats’ poop) are everywhere, at least 6 different of them running around and laying on sun beds. Not a nice thing when you have a toddler learning to walk outside.|- Apartment (and the outdoors) needs overall better maintainance: broken door handles, broken shower door, drain was blocked, TV channels doesn’t work, the fridge had to be swiped many times a day because it had water in the bottom, the lawn and the swimming pool could not have been more messy. Couldn’t use the swimming pool at all, bloodsuckers at the bottom and very untidy. Way too little kitchenware, and for example the boilers were in very bad shape.|- The place is full with crawling and/or flying bugs, that had to be cleaned inside the apartment all the time, although we kept all doors closed.|- They arrange ”happy hour” at some nights, but no proper pricelist were shown and for us it meant that our 4 glasses of prosecco got pretty expensive. The waiter made us to pay extra from opening the bottle (I assume because we were the only customers that night): first glasses were 7€ per glass and the second ones were 5,5€. And as we have travelled in Italy for 20 years now, we are used to the common habit of aperitivo and that in many places they do give you chips/cheese/salami or something like that for free alongside with the drinks. So when in this place the waiter asked us would we like to have something small to eat with the drinks we of course were delighted. Never have we experienced this before that at the end of our stay we had to pay for the little snack (that was 3 slices of cheese and salami). The waiter should have atleast say beforehand that they are not free and will cost us 6€. Not a big cost but anyway, strange again! ||BUT NOW: The biggest problem at this place is however the unpolite reception staff and the lack of service and the most rude and hostile attitude towards customers.||We had originally booked our stay via booking.com. As our travel plans changed we then asked for the price of three extra nights directly from the hotel staff by messaging via booking.com app. I asked (in written) couple of times how much will the extra nights (3) cost and what is the total amount to be paid. I always got the same answer ”you will pay the same price”. We first of course thought it’s a bit strange, why would they give extra nights free but when I spesifically asked the ”total amount” once again and referred to the sum we were going to pay for booking.com, I again got the same answer, ”same price”. So OF COURSE we then made the reservation for extra nights as well and thought maybe it’s because of low season. Otherwise, if they have told us that the price will be the SAME PER NIGHT (over 200€) we would then have booked a different hotel for the 3 nights because we had a planned and fixed holiday budget. ||So you can imagine our faces when in the the last morning of our stay during the check-out the reception lady made us pay over 600€ for the last 3 nights..!!! We already have made the whole agreed payment via booking.com before our stay thinking that that’s it. But no, there was this excuse that WE have not understood that by writing ”you will pay the same price” they have meant price per night. Although I specifically asked the total amount of the whole 9 nights. Made us think that now we have been cheated! The written agreement that ”you will pay the same price” was a scam.||Unfortunately at this point we had no time to stay and try to solve this face to face because we had to rush to the next place. As soon as we left the residence we then got intouch with the reception by email and tried to get some understanding and a refund/compensation. The emails were soon addressed to the ”service manager” who then made us terrified by the tone of the messages and the total lack of understanding of what had happened. They refused to take any responsibility of their bad communication AND even threatened us with legal action if we tell this story public!! We would have been ok to get atleast some kind of refund and an apology, but no. ||Our dream family holiday in Tuscany was ruined: not just because of the lost money but because of the bad customer service that left...

Cignella Resort sits in a beautiful part of Tuscany—peaceful, scenic, and remote. The views are lovely, and the property itself is clean and well maintained. However, the remoteness that makes it picturesque also makes it inconvenient; a car or private driver is absolutely essential, as there’s no practical public transport nearby.||The apartments are large and comfortable, which works well for groups or families. That said, travelers should confirm all room and bed details before arrival. We booked a two-bedroom unit expecting two double beds, but one room had only a single bed. When we raised the issue, the initial suggestion was that an adult sleep on the sofa—something that really shouldn’t happen at a “resort” level property.||Breakfast was one of the few highlights—fresh, tasty, and served by genuinely kind staff. Unfortunately, dinner was consistently disappointing. After a few nights of bland and uninspired meals, we stopped attending altogether. The cooking class could have been enjoyable, but the instructor frequently ran his hands through his hair while handling food that was later served for dinner—an obvious hygiene issue that made the experience uncomfortable. It's also worth nothing that the class is simply a pasta making class, not a full meal experience. The pasta that each guest makes and touches will be combined and reserved as dinner for everyone which was a bit off-putting. ||As other reviewers have mentioned, bugs are an issue in the apartments. While some of this is inevitable in the countryside, more effort could be made to better seal or treat the units.||Our biggest frustration was communication, or rather, the lack of it. Before arrival, we sent multiple emails trying to confirm details about dinners, cooking classes, and winery tours, but received no response. When we arrived, we discovered that these events were pre-scheduled without input from guests—unfortunately clashing with plans we’d already arranged.||To her credit, Christy, the resort manager, did what she could once we arrived. She helped fix the bed issue and tried to adjust the activity schedule, though by that point most things were already set and the effort was unsuccessful. ||If you’re staying at Cignella—especially through a Travelzoo-type package—it’s best to set expectations low. Think of it as a clean place to sleep and spend time with your group, not a true resort experience. The property itself is beautiful, but the lack of communication, poor dining, and overall disorganization make it hard to recommend without...

Stayed at the Cignella resort whilst in Tuscany and overall, felt that it was the attention to detail that was missing and the place generally lacked some love. It wouldn't take much to make this place a whole lot better.|Positives first, we had a 2 bedroom apartment, which was spacious, modern and clean. 3 months travelling around Italy was nice to do some washing, cook our own meals and generally just have a chill out in the gardens.|Negatives - On arrival, you have to drive down a 1.2km dirt road that is very unkept, lots of potholes, overflowing rubbish bins etc (the pic attached of the bins was after a couple of days when most of it had been run over and not as bad). We had a brand new car, that we had just taken through Car wash, which wasn’t ideal and would probably not have chosen the property had we known this. It would take so little to put some gravel on the road and fill the many potholes. Once at the property, the parking is around 200-300 metres away from the room. The hosts sent a buggy to pick up the luggage but only had room for one person so they told one of us we would have to walk. When we arrived at the apartment, we were given absolutely no instructions on how to use anything, heating, TV, fireplace etc or information on local attractions, etc. This is the only property that has failed to do this out of the already 15 we have stayed in on this trip to Italy. They basically gave us the keys and we never saw anyone again until we checked out. The garden around the apartment (which you had to walk through to get anywhere), was very overgrown with weeds, which was not only unsightly and unpleasant if we wanted to sit in the garden but also a lot of bugs came into the apartment when we had the doors open. Plus, there were two doors out on to terraces and neither of them worked, we asked for the keys but they told us they were broken so we could not open (pic of the doors from the lounge attached). Finally, the property is a 20 minute drive to both Montepulciano or Sinalunga, both of which are towns with restaurants, shopping and food stores etc. This was probably a little far for our liking as we wanted to explore every day and had to drive the pot holed driveway, then another 20 minutes to get anywhere. Lots of other options...