Hotel Regina Palace

We are a family of 5 and we stayed in this hotel for my sons 10th birthday, just a couple of nights. We had an interconnecting room that looked out across the lake and the view was amazing. Our rooms were clean and typically regal. The showers were pokey with little water pressure which was frustrating. Staff at the front desk were pleasant. No one helped us with our bags and we eventually got them in and up the tiny lifyt. I enjoyed my stay here although it was very pricey. We wanted somewhere typically Italian looking and we got it but for the price I probably wouldn't stay again. Staff at the breakfast buffet looked hungover or not interested in the least. Mostly young uni students / travellers by the look of it. Lovely ballroom, not great food.

I stayed here for a couple of nights in late September, parking behind the hotel is free and conveniant (if a bit dark and damp) The building looks impressive inside and out, however on closer look the flowers everywhere are all plastic and the furniture and decor all very bling. I know it's the style but look in the Grand hotel 100m away , similar style but much more tasteful. The room was small but ok , the bathroom very small. The internet could be very slow. I didn't eat in the retaurant apart from breakfast. The big restaurant had a fixed menu (with no price) that is used for the tour and bus groups that mostly seem to fill the hotel. The other restaurant was empty and etremely expensive, the nicer places in the town are about 40% cheaper. Breakfast was ok ,as independant guests one is seated at the window end of the huge restaurant, thankfully at 9am most of the bus groups had eaten and gone . Food was about ok (no great quality) I spent a few hours in the bar the first night , drinks are more expensive than the 5* Grand ! On check out no one asks how your stay was , seem totally disinterested. I stayed at the Grand a few days later, yes it costs a bit more but the whole experiance is so much nicer, esp. the friendly staff.

On the surface this hotel looks like a very grand hotel. It is decorated both inside and outside in a grand style and all the staff wear uniforms. The hotel is well located being only a 5 min walk from the centre of Stresa. The room we stayed in was of an OK size with a small balcony. There was free underground parking which we appreciated. There was a large variety of food at breakfast although the quality of the food was only average. On the way to the hotel (from Lugano) we had inadvertently driven on a toll road with no cash booths. We had tried paying the toll online but we were not having any success. Valentina, in reception, was very helpful, even ringing up for us. We really appreciated her help. Unfortunately Valentina was the exception. In fact the thing that really made this hotel stand out from any other hotel we have ever stayed in was the attitude of the staff. The staff in general were not at all helpful. Giampaolo, in particular, seemed to go out of his way to be unhelpful and argumentative. Two examples of this are as follows: 1. When we arrived in our room the air-conditioning was not working. I rang reception and informed them. About an hour and a half later, no one had come to look at it, so my husband rang and again informed them. The service man arrived shortly after. He came back multiple times and even came with his ladder to look in the roof. He told us it was not working. Following this, my husband rang reception and asked if we could move to a room with a working air conditioner. He was informed, by Giampaolo, that the air conditioning had been turned off and was not working anywhere in the building. My husband asked if we could have a fan. The serviceman promptly delivered the fan. A short while later when we left our room, it was obvious that the air-conditioning was working in the corridor so Giampaolo had not been honest with us. We spoke to Giampaolo at reception on the way out and questioned why he had told us that the air conditioning was turned off when clearly this was not the case. His attitude was absolutely disgusting. He did not want to listen, he talked over us and was extremely rude. In the end, he undertook to look into it. When we returned to our room later that evening, the air-conditioning was working. Whilst we appreciated the fact that it was working we certainly felt that it was unacceptable that we had to ask so many times before something was done and being lied to in a 4 star hotel we believe is disgraceful. 2. On our second day when we returned to our room it had not been serviced. The same sort of thing as happened with the air conditioner – multiple requests, being spoken to rudely again by Giampaolo - I won’t go into all the details because this review is already too long but suffice to say our room was eventually serviced sometime between 6.00-7.30 pm. We certainly didn’t expect to have to ask multiple times just to have our room serviced – in a 4 star hotel they should have processes in place to ensure this happens. I would like to add that although I have written in excess of 200 reviews, I don’t recall ever naming anyone for their lack of service. However, Giampaolo does not seem to understand even the very basics of customer service, including common politeness. I could go on but I think I have given enough information for you to get the idea that this hotel does not care about customer service. Needless to stay, next time we visit Stresa we will not be staying here.