Splendido Bay Resort

Our family of two adults and one child stayed for 2 weeks at Splendido Bay Luxury Spa Resort in August, having booked a year in advance. Upon arrival, our welcome was quite cold and impersonal, lacking warmth and hospitality. We were shown to a garden room that was less than ideal, with the lounge area converted into a makeshift bedroom and a bathroom that was tired and not clean. After documenting the issues and speaking with the manager, it was clear that the hotel didn't quite meet a five star standard. However the management did eventually resolve the problems by providing us with 2 separate, newly refurbished rooms, which were much more comfortable. The pool area was outdated and had safety concerns, the indoor spa was mostly out of service with an empty hot tub and closed steam room, the grounds felt that they had given up on the manicured feel and while breakfast was excellent with friendly staff, dinner and lunch service often felt pretentious and on occasions rude. Additionally we were surprised by the "coperto' (cover charge) of ???7 per person per sitting, which added to the expense. The resorts remote location means that renting a car is essential as there's not much to do within walking distance. We did enjoy exploring the area around the lake like Limone, Salo, Desenzano (Where we took mostly all of our evening meals), Peschiera, Lazise and Malcesine so definitely required a car. The one stand out member of staff for us was the lovely lady on reception with the leopard skin glasses, so sorry we forgot her name but she was a star and deserves recognition. In summary, Splendid bay has potential but it needs improvements to truly meet five-star expectations.

There were some great things about this hotel: - the view, the access straight to the lake where you can go swimming - the breakfast, dinners and wine were amazing, we tried all the restaurants and we had a great meal at each one - the pool was a good temperature and the area around pool was nice, be aware that there can be gusts of wind that knock over the umbrellas - we had a suite and it was a very nice modern room, comfy bed and really nice outdoor terrace area - the indoor swimming pool, sauna and steam room were good (the hot tub was broken for the whole of our 1 week stay) There were some drawbacks: - location - there isn???t much around within walking distance, not even a local shop - the lunchtime food by the pool bar was awful and not worth the money, poor selection and quality of food was poor considering the other meals were exceptional - it took a long time to get service by the pool, even when it wasn???t busy, be prepared to wait for a long time even once you???ve ordered - room wise there was limited hanging space because of the design - when the rooms were cleaned the doors were left open, meaning occasionally a small lizard would come in, on one occasion the maid had stepped on one under our bathroom sink and not noticed so we had to dispose of it - the cabanas around the pool always had a reserved sign on them but most days were never used It was our wedding anniversary whilst we were out there and there wasn???t any acknowledgement which was a shame. Overall we would stay here again but definitely more for an R&R holiday rather than exploring the lake.