Hoteles cerca del Lido Sabbia d＇Oro, Specchiolla

To start I want to make it clear that the staff were very friendly & helpful, and I am not commenting on the rooms in the main hotel as I did not see them. This review refers to the 'country' rooms and the pool. We arrived in your hotel as agreed on the evening of September 30th and were shown to the smallest hotel room I have experienced (14). It had a shared ‘patio’ and no windows…..plus the safe was locked, not that that mattered as it wasn’t attached to anything so anyone could have walked out with it. The bathroom was perfect for a slim person but being a little portly, it was a challenge. A genuinely large person would not have been able to get into the bathroom!! at all. It was tiny and not comfortable to use. The decorations were fine and the room was clean. To say that it was small was an understatement. I had to go outside to change my mind!! We immediately complained and the next day we were moved to a larger non-refurbished room (5). Whilst larger it was unmodernised and still had no windows. The room was in poor condition with cheap furniture and a separate bed in the ‘entry room’ that was not exactly clean. There is no way that this was 4* accommodation. It reminded me of the Australian soap called Prisoner Cell Block H (we immediately christened the room as such!!). It was like a cheap motel and warranted 2* at best. Like I said, I am commenting on the 'country' rooms only. Breakfast was very basic and the 'chef' seemed genuinely shocked that someone might want an omelette. The coffee was awful but the bottled fruit juices were a nice touch. The final issue was that when my wife enquired about pool towels, she was told that they would be €10.00 per towel and that if we wanted to change it when dirty we would need to pay another €10.00. Bearing in mind that the plastic beds by the pool were filthy, this would have been cost of €20.00 per day. The pool itself was okay but you had to wear a swimming cap to use it...which of course they charged for!!! I have never stayed in a hotel where you were charged for a pool towel and this should certainly not be the case in a 4* hotel. This was denied by the hotel after we walked out but my wife absolutely validated the information. In addition, the wifi was utterly useless, even in the main building. We left on Saturday Sept 2nd as we had simply had enough of staying in the 'country' rooms, which did not meet 4* standards in any way.

This is a decent hotel for a few days, rooms are on the small side and basic but very clean. We had a nice view of the sea in the distance. Convenient stay in Ostuni if you have a car as they offer free parking and the hotel is outside the city so outside the ZTL. You will need to walk up the hill to access the city sites and restaurants. The first night it seemed like a bit of a grind but we quickly got used to the hike, it’s not bad at all and there are lots of lovely bars and restaurants to reward you. Breakfast was included and was perfectly adequate. Staff at this hotel were not overly friendly but if you persevere and use a bit of Italian they will come around. My impression of the restaurant staff was that they were young, a bit shy and not too experienced- fair enough, they’ll learn. The young woman on the front desk was very helpful in booking us a beach club one day and it was much appreciated.