Hotel Villa Carona

This is a tough review to write, but hopefully helpful to its readers. This place is visually stunning and has so much more potential. The pros: The garden is absolutely stunning! It is such a beautiful place and the pool is a perfect add on - the vibe of the little town, the views, the old building/villa. Amazing! The cons: The service. Especially one staff member (short hair, heavy eastern German dialect) was very rude to us on multiple occasions. Not sure why, maybe it’s just that person way, but this has nothing to do with hospitality. The audience. Not sure why this hotel lets large family groups with multiple small children book, but the tranquility of the hotel and surroundings was completely destroyed and it felt more like a visit to an amusement park. It’s just not the right setting for that (we weren’t the only people annoyed) and the prices are much too high for this type of Experience. If you want to make it family friendly, at least establish ground rules with the guests, so that the other paying customers can still enjoy their stay. The restaurant. The staff here is much better than in the hotel itself, but the prices are outrageous for the quality of food provided. The beef tartar had a very unusual color and consistency (and taste), which was almost rude to serve. The sauce served with fish was a thick, overly-creamy paste which would’ve been a better fit for a home improvement store rather than a restaurant - this dish alone was 42 CHF, we’re talking Zurich prices in a small town that most people haven’t heard of. Overall: Would love to return to the area, but will definitely check out an alternative for the next time.

As lovely as the town, garden, and charme of this place are - can’t recommend it, because the staff simply came off as arrogant and pushy, again and again. Maybe it’s going so well that they do not need to be nice to guests anymore, but not sure what that has to do with hospitality. Can’t imagine that anyone working there (including the owner) has any prior experience working in a hotel or restaurant. The restaurant staff was really nice, but it’s a bit separated from the main hotel and it felt like they were all Italians. Different mentality, I guess. Prices were over the top, though! You’ll feel like ordering food in Monaco!

WORST HOSPITALITY EXPERIENCE. The nice location does not compensate for the awful hospitality experience we had at this location. We were in Ticino for the wedding of our friends, who made a two-night reservation for us at this hotel. Since we were not able to stay for two nights, ONE MONTH before the wedding, after written communications with the hotel, we phoned it directly restating our situation and confirming the intention to stay one night. They very kindly said that they would have taken care of making all the necessary modifications to our reservation and, upon our request, that it was not necessary for us to send them an email on this. Long story short: when we arrived at the hotel (after clearly staying just one night and with no heads-up whatsoever from the hotel), the manager pretended to charge us with two nights (with breakfast for both days), arrogantly claiming that even if we had that phone conversation 1) they had NOT changed the reservation; 2) essentially implying we had been foolish to only trust their word by phone; and 3) following our complaints, threatening to CHARGE THE SPOUSE with the extra night we did not want to pay. We have never been more shocked for the rudeness and complete lack of accountability on the hotel’s behalf. On the other hand, we heard that the other guests of the wedding had wonderful experiences with super available hosts in equally beautiful nearby hotels. ** To the answer below: again, it regrets me to see that a few clarifications are still required. At check out, we were only presented with the check, which the manager very quickly clarified specified “two nights”: no questions were ever asked on our staying or whether we experienced any particular issue, and we certainly did not rate our experience positively. Also, all the written emails we exchanged with the hotel clearly stated we wanted to keep the booking for one night only. Mistakes in the management of a reservation may happen. But the stubbornness of the hotel not to take ownership for its own disorganization and unload its consequences on its customers was a truly never-before-seen situation, and frankly not acceptable.

The view from the hotel is pretty nice, however, there are a few issues with this hotel: 1. It was impossible to sit outside due to bees and wasps 2. The room was big, however was extremely hot with no AC and only one small fan. 3. The beds were old and bumpy — it won’t hurt for the hotel to purchase new beds I hope the hotel will do something with these issues, as it has great potential!