Il Melograno

Booked this through SLH and actually wanted to review on their site but it seems impossible to get to a review section on SLH for past stays. Anyways , first things first to not confuse anyone : the hotel staff at breakfast and dinner are very very kind and friendly , nothing is too much and this is just the Salento friendliness we know from other places in the area. However , the place is a little past its glory , and could need some refurbishment . Room insulation is simply not existent , meaning you simply hear everything. Also the wedding parties that are held in a section of the Masseria. But also people talking in nearby rooms , phone calls made , you hear everything. Room service not always to expectation , bath linnen not always clean, bed not made up at 19:00 etc??? once you ask for correction everything is done but the Service level, equipment ( the usual 20 year old halos hairdryer that breaks down after 3 minutes :-) for a so called 5 star is simply not there. Other places in Puglia and other Italian areas come much closer to the mark . After all the daily rate is well in the 5 star marker ??? the pool holds not enough deck chairs for the number of people that want to use it . It is cramped in a small area of the hotel and one wonders why the ample space of this Masseria is not put to better use for this. So all in all, surely no cigar for the management of this hotel group. The connected beach club, once again has lovely staff but the setup does again not meet the grade marker they like to attribute themselves. So in the end it feels way too expensive for what you get .

Zero service. Definitely not luxury hotels of the world? Where to start? No introduction to the hotel, no showing where things are. No shown breakfast location. Lawn not mowed, furniture battered and tired. Looked like it was out of season from 10 years ago. Room overlooked the bins. No explanation how to order a beer. You???d think requesting two beers would be simple? They looked a bit confused and shoved a piece of paper with a code on it in front of us. (They spoke English). I was to go back to my room, get my phone to scan the code and order the beers? There were no menus. No pool service. At breakfast the same cheese and pizza bread was served two days running from the previous night buffet meal. Had to ask for scrambled egg, to which waitress told me it shouldn???t have been empty and told me to look. I assured her it was. We were then served scrambled egg with bacon ( we are vegetarians)