Grad Štanjel house — Hotel in Upravna enota Sežana

The Owner Is the Real Problem — Arrogant, Absent, and Completely Unfit for Hospitality

We had a truly awful experience at Grad Štanjel House, and I’m sharing this to warn others — especially anyone considering it for a wedding venue or booking a stay. The setting may be charming, but the owner is the real problem — completely absent, arrogant, and unfit to be in hospitality.

We paid €240 per night, expecting premium service and a professional standard of accommodation. What we got was the exact opposite.

Upon arrival, no one was there to check us in. The restaurant staff were confused and had no idea we were even coming. Eventually, a young girl tried to help — it turned out it was her first week, and she had no proper training or information. She did her best, but was clearly left to deal with guests without support.

We were taken to the property and just left on our own. The sofa bed wasn’t made, there were no pillows, no bedding, and no explanation. Around 9 PM, a chef — who looked uncomfortable and clearly just following orders — dumped some cold breakfast food and bedding on us, with the explanation that the property would be closed the next day, so we’d need to make our own breakfast. This was never mentioned in advance. At this price point, this is completely unacceptable.

The property was also unsuitable for families — it has steep internal stairs (not shown in the photos), no air conditioning on the ground and first floors, and was uncomfortably hot. We had two elderly parents and a child with us — it was simply the wrong place, and the photos don’t reflect that.

We booked this stay specifically to trial the venue for a wedding, with a planning meeting arranged the next day. But when we raised our concerns, the owner — who never once showed her face or offered help — cancelled the meeting behind our backs. No conversation, no apology, just passive-aggressive, dismissive messaging that made my wife feel awful.

The worst part? There was another property next door sitting empty, and they didn’t even offer it as an alternative, despite our complaints and the fact we were looking to book a full wedding here. We weren’t treated like guests — we were treated like an inconvenience.

Before arriving, another wedding planner had warned us about this venue, saying they no longer work with Grad Štanjel because the owner is so difficult. We now fully understand why.

This was hands down the worst hospitality experience of our entire Slovenia trip. At €240 a night, this place should be setting a standard — instead, it was a complete disaster from start to finish.

Do not stay here. Do not book your wedding here. Avoid...

Management: not fit for purpose, incredibly arrogant and rude. I have never seen such bad service, especially as the manager. Staff: at check in at the restaurant were unaware of any accommodation on site. Manager of course was not present during the whole stay and hard to contact.

Accomadation; Extremely Overpriced. False advertisement of AC in property. There is a fan on the top floor of 3 rooms. The bottom two rooms cook. Extremely cramped house and very steep stairs not safe for kids or older people, there is 2 flights too! NO WIFI. they then tried to blag us by saying we connect it to next doors router, you literally have to stand downstairs in the living room next to the wall for it to work. The sofa bed wasnt made and the chef (who was clearly totally embarrassed) dropped off our bedding in a bag for it along with the next days breakfast at 9:30pm in evening. Imagine!!! Then when made it its uneven and my daughter was going to bed super late after long day travelling.

Stanjel town is very charming we wish we had known there are other accommodation options within the town walls not related to the restaurant Management.

Please check other accommodation options and do not book here you'll be...

Krasen ambient sobe in terase z lepim razgledom. Kar poslabsa oceno je zelo hrupen ventilator v kopalnici, ki ga ne mores loceno izklopiti in se ugasne sele nekaj minuto po tem, ko ugasnes luc, kar je predvsem motece ponoci. Nezadovoljni smo bili tudi s storitvami- recepcija je zelo slabo odzivna, na potrditev nocitve cakas po cca 24 ur, kar je sploh pomembno, ce isti dan nameravas tudi nociti pri njih. Prav tako je postrezba ob zajtrku izjemno pocasna, na postrezbo prve hrane zajtrka smo za mizo sedeli vsaj pol ure. Kljub vrocemu soncu in praznimi mizami v senci so za nas predvideli mizo tocno na soncu in nato bili preseneceni. Postrezba je na splosno delovala nezainteresirano in malce vzviseno. Naslednjic bomo sli rajsi v kako drugo prenocisce na Stanjelu, ker price performance tukaj slabe...