A quaint little Tuscan town in a valley surrounded by towering mountains, the enclosed city must have more churches and towers per capita than anywhere else on earth...and the same goes for the number of good restaurants and paticcerias. Not a lot of Michelin stars...just good, soulful food made fresh local area sources. The hotel landscape varied from guidebook to guidebook, travel site to travel site...Here's what we found out.
Hotel Busdraghi.
Clean. Hard beds with scratchy sheets. Hard foam pillows. Off the main street -- which is good for people watching and bad for sleeping. Nice staff...exceptionally nice with good service. Value received is right on with pricing. Breakfast is included and it is really good.
Hotel Noblesse.
A five star so our expectations were that of a five star. We rented a junior suite. Spacious, well-appointed, clean and comfortable. Great artwork. Great sheets. Wonderful room bath with spa tub and nice cosmetic products. Super nice staff. Most expensive cocktails in town and yet missing a professional bartender. In Italy, bartending is an honored profession -- as it should be. We consider the talent in the country to be some of the best in the world...but it was missing here. Hotel lobby is claustrophobic with a dysfunctional layout. Restaurant and lobby decor in need of help from design to lighting to music (awful). Mediocre breakfast and no option to exclude from pricing. Our room -- while very comfortable -- filled with smoke one night from a chimney within the building, so we felt like we were sleeping near a barbeque. Room 24 has the morning trash pick up below it...so unless you need to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning on a regular basis, ask for another suite. Nickel-and-dimers when it came to the wi-fi add ons. Value? One of the best rooms in Lucca without the smoke and the early a.m. noise. Wonderful staff. Not much to do in Lucca, so not much to recommend. It was the little things that just took away from this truly being a five star rated choice.
Hotel Lucca.
Nice value. Wonderful lobby. Wonderful rooms. Comfortable. Clean. Amiable staff. A real bar. Great breakfast. Amazing value.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Basics
The purpose of Hotel Hound is to present a level playing field of criteria and feedback for lodging expectations and the experience. The following are the basics:
1. Cleanliness
2. A bed you can actually go to sleep in
3. Nice people
4. Good value -- Truly get what you pay for
5. If there is a bar in the hotel, then it should have a bartender that knows what they are doing
6. No nickel and diming -- i.e. add on charges for things like wireless or internet access.
7. Water
8. If there is food service, then the food must be edible.
9. No gouging
10. Recommendations come from experience or good sources.
So there we go. First class should be what is says it is irrespective of hotel size, price, or group ratings. We will comment on hotel amenities as appropriate to the individual hotel. We love hotels and often spend time checking out other options in a town even though we have already checked in.
Lodging choices reflect a little bit of an individual's character -- or perhaps who we'd like to be someday. They allow us to dream and "play house" in a new environment. They represent new waves of design that reflect the energy of our present state, as well as allowing us to revisit eras of the past. Architectural talent is given a forum to explode at high-profile habitats, and at the same time an intimate design in more humble quarters allows an innkeepers personality and taste to shine through.
Sweet Dreams. Hotel Hound
1. Cleanliness
2. A bed you can actually go to sleep in
3. Nice people
4. Good value -- Truly get what you pay for
5. If there is a bar in the hotel, then it should have a bartender that knows what they are doing
6. No nickel and diming -- i.e. add on charges for things like wireless or internet access.
7. Water
8. If there is food service, then the food must be edible.
9. No gouging
10. Recommendations come from experience or good sources.
So there we go. First class should be what is says it is irrespective of hotel size, price, or group ratings. We will comment on hotel amenities as appropriate to the individual hotel. We love hotels and often spend time checking out other options in a town even though we have already checked in.
Lodging choices reflect a little bit of an individual's character -- or perhaps who we'd like to be someday. They allow us to dream and "play house" in a new environment. They represent new waves of design that reflect the energy of our present state, as well as allowing us to revisit eras of the past. Architectural talent is given a forum to explode at high-profile habitats, and at the same time an intimate design in more humble quarters allows an innkeepers personality and taste to shine through.
Sweet Dreams. Hotel Hound
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)