Hotel Marina Riviera

Arrived here on Monday for 4 nights part of the final leg of our holiday. We arrived early and didn’t expect to have our room ready but the wonderful receptionist told us that our room was ready and waiting and took us straight up to our room. The room itself was basic, no kettle but they did put one in our room on request. The view - wow! A beautiful balcony overlooking the harbour. Absolutely stunning! During our stay we have used the pool (again basic) the location of the pool could be better, nearer the front of the hotel and glass windows overlooking the harbour would make the pool area a ‘wow’ area. But it was a nice place to take a dip and have food and drinks. The pool staff were fantastic, always friendly and couldn’t do enough to help you. Breakfast was lovely, a wide range of options and a menu you could order from. Again, the breakfast staff were brilliant and the view is perfect. Special mention to the housekeeping/cleaning staff. They work so hard, non stop. Constantly out on the halls making sure everywhere is spotless. Thank you to all the staff for making our stay so welcoming.

Although this hotel gets high ratings, my husband and I have a different opinion. The positive is that our room had an amazing view of the sea, beach restaurants and the center of the Amalfi landscape. However, our disappointment started with dining in their restaurant the first night we were there and were told at check in that we needed reservations...not sure why, since it was not crowded. We appeared on the dot at 7:00 p.m. for our reservation time. A female appeared and, without a smile or greeting, asked if we had reservations. We were then shown to a table, and wouldn't you know...she was also our server. Just our luck. She continued to be unfriendly throughout the meal. To top it off, the food was terrible. My husband's lamb ribs were overly cooked and contained mostly gristle. My entree of ravioli consisted of five little pillows in a mediocre red sauce. I was still hungry, so I ordered the Assortment of Gilato and Sorbet for dessert thinking that was the order. Server then asked what flavors I wanted? "Well, I don't know...the flavors aren't mentioned." She replies, "chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and lemon." I replied Okay, that's fine. She continued on "do you want all flavors mixed? The lemon with the others?" I'm really getting frustrated. I just want what's on the menu. Why is this so hard?? The buffet breakfasts were satisfactory, although it was not until my husband and I went through the array of offerings did a male server hand us a menu of egg options...after the fact, I'd say. Breakfast staff was usually young males and another young female. Again, no smiles or friendliness. The female server (a different one) being the least friendly. On one breakfast occasion, a black hair was on the side of my coffee cup and was barely touching the coffee itself. At first I thought it was a crack in the cup. Nope...a hair, and clearly not mine. I flagged a server over, and a male server took it away and brought me back a clean cup...without a refill of coffee, but just an empty cup. No apology...not a word. Our rating is now down to three stars. The final blow: Our room was previously paid for, so we had the expense of the only dinner to sign for. Imagine our shock, when the clerk asked us if we wanted to add a tip. Tip? For what? We tipped housekeeping and the porters, so what do we have to tip for? (Italian restaurant servers do not expect a tip unless there has been superb service, which obviously, we never received." The clerk used his arm to make a half circle and said "for the rest of the staff." What????? Insulting. I slapped $30 US on the counter, at which time, he tried to back track his request. View or not, we'd never subject ourselves to this animosity or recommend this hotel in our lifetime.