Hotel Villa Diodoro

The worst hotel I have ever stayed at. Avoid it at all costs. Scheduled a lovely 2 1/2 week vacation to Italy with my family. While making all my arrangements, I asked my travel agent to book me two rooms at 4 1/2 star hotels. Unfortunately, as soon as we entered the property, it became clear to us that this was anything but a 4 1/2 star hotel. It was in COMPLETE disrepair. It was dark, smelly and dirty. The furniture was incredibly old and dirty as well. The rugs throughout the entire hotel were dirty and severely water damaged. The staff was scarce and those present were not friendly or accommodating. Upon entering our rooms we were horrified to find how dirty, old and broken all our furnishings were. There was severe water damage and mold on the ceilings and walls. I’ve included pictures. We spent our first night there only to find in the morning that ants had infested our sons’ room and their beds. We left immediately and did not receive any apologies. Thank goodness we were able to salvage the end of our trip by finding another hotel that truly was 4 1/2 stars.

Over the last thirty years of traveling to various destinations this is one of only a handful of poor reviews I have written. I purchased this 14 night holiday from TUI who advertise this hotel as a four star ‘plus’ establishment. The holiday was a joint celebration of my wife and I wedding anniversary and my 50th birthday. This is NOT a four start ‘plus’ hotel even when considering it against geographic variations in standards. I summarize the good and bad points with the caveat that my main complaint about my holiday is with TUI - who have misrepresented this hotel and then failed to act on my complaint. Good The hotel is in an excellent location to access Taormina, the beautiful public park next door and the bus terminal, where many of the excursions start from (albeit a slight uphill walk). The views from most of the rooms, the swimming pool and the bar are breathtaking, they look out over Naxo bay and Mount Etna. The shuttle bus to the ‘sister’ hotel called Caperena is reliable. The bus is a small people carrier with air con, Caperena has a nice beach and bar area where you can easily spend a day relaxing (Not sure why they feel they need to charge 5 Euros return - although it is worth it if it keeps the service going). Bad Room Our first room was appalling. It was poorly decorated, the air conditioning unit was filthy and made a grating noise when on. There was no sign of any cleaning under the bed area. I have attached pictures - the room number was 428, it was cramped and had no real facilities. No kettle, no tea coffee, the water in the fridge had to be paid for and the fridge hardly worked. Whilst Wifi was accessible in the room it was running at such a slow speed nothing meaningful could be done with it. There was no Iron - and no ironing facilities in the hotel at all (I ended up purchasing an Iron for 30 Euros). Communal Areas The carpets in the hotel are disgusting, they are stained, shabby and worn. The hotel smells musty as a result and everytime we returned to the hotel after an evening out, the general atmosphere was depressing. This was not helped by staff who were ‘approachable’ at best, nonchalant and rude at worst, particularly at the reception desk. The lifts were small and very slow, this may seem like a minor thing but for some reason it became really frustrating - perhaps it was the cherry on the cake! We were on the third floor and for most of our stay one of the lifts wasn;t working - On the top floor we discovered a dirty nappy on the veranda of the hotel - this remained in situ for nearly a week before being removed (this forms part of my unresolved complaint with TUI) Restaurant The food was hit and miss, we had a couple of nice meals however for the most part the best I can say was they were edible - they reminded me of school dinners with an Italian twist. On several occasions the fish was accompanied with tinned vegetables (peas and small carrots) - comical. The service in the restaurant was poor, the staff were over stretched especially where there was a function on, I got the feeling they wanted to provide a good service but knew that they just didn’t have the numbers to make it work. For these reasons we ate out most evenings - incurring costs I had not expected (another complaint with TUI). On one evening we sat waiting to be served for over 30 mins, we ended up walking out - (TUI did subsequently provide us with a £100 TUI voucher as a gesture of good will, but we won’t be using them again). The bar The service is rubbish. On several occasions I had to find the barman who was hiding in the back room even when we were the only customers. The most frustrating thing about the bar was the cheap and in most cases broken chairs and tables of very poor quality - I actually sat on one seat and the back fell off - when I raised it with the waiter he actually shrugged and laughed. It did make my wife chuckle so it wasn’t all bad. We stopped using the bar after a couple of visits, it was far better finding a bar in the city. The pool Great view - but closed at 1800hrs in the evening - and the staff were not moving from that! They started packing up at 1730 hrs and then administering evil looks to anyone who hadn't started packing up. It was however reopened for private events in the evening - no hotel guests were invited! Great view though…. Breakfast This deserves special mention - it is rubbish. It is buffet service with the normal croissants, pastries and some cheese and ham - most of it is stale. There is a very poor selection of fruit that didn;t change at all in our two week stay and forget a cooked breakfast the bacon and sausages were fatty and very poor quality cuts - it would be doing a disservice to good old comprehensive school dinners to make that comparison again!. Would I recommend this hotel? - not in a million years. Would I recommend buying a holiday form TUI? - not in a million years. The customer service from the app to the contact we have had on our return has been disgusting. We complained whilst in Sicily - and were offered 300 Euro compensation for the hassle of changing rooms. TUI did offer to move us hotels, ut they were in Naxo and completely different types of holiday (we were a couple and these were clearly family hotels) It appears that by accepting this compensation I cannot follow up on any of the above and the case is closed, that was not explained to us at the time. Would I go to Sicily again? - Absolutely! It is a beautiful place with lots of history, culture and great people.

This hotel surprised us...and not in a good way. When we booked, its website claimed "FREE PARKING" -- even the AAA agent said it had free parking. Surprise, surprise...they have SEVEN spaces that are first-come, first-serve AND the only way to park is to pay $20 EURO DAILY for valet. When I shared with their manager that this is not how they presented themselves when we booked, their only response was that "now, it is said on our website" -- great, but that doesn't help us. AND on the website, it still is misleading. If we had known there were only 7 spots early in our trip planning, we would have chosen a different hotel. In addition, they also deceived us (and others at the check-out counter who were complaining) by putting a bottle of water on our nightstand daily. No signs, no indication we would be charged for the very same bottle they gave away freely at breakfast...That is wrong. On top of it, the hallway to our room was extremely dirty/stained, and our door key didn't work properly. We told management who sent an engineer who kinda shrugged and said "well, it's an old hotel..." We get it...but...seriously? And we ate there one night for dinner, and the entrees were terrible. I took one bite of mine and couldn't stomach it -- I love fish, but this fish dish was very much expired. I didn't complain...I just didn't eat the dish. I am grateful because the kind wait staff -- without me asking -- saw that I didn't touch the meal and deducted it. Very sad that management -- when I contacted them about the parking -- basically said they could do nothing. I suggested they CLEARLY state the parking situation and be transparent about that and the water. If you book with this hotel, just be aware.