Il Palmento Hotel Relais

Firstly I cannot fault or find issue with the hotel, it’s stunning, nestled in the hills, quiet, secluded, spacious rooms, clean, helpful and friendly staff and lovely views. So I would like to give that all the stars possible… I have to also give a special mention in the dining experience, which was like something out of a romance novel. Eating dinner surrounded by ancient olive trees and under grape vines while was quite special and a super experience. However, and here is the bits that I think I found a bit jarring and did take the shine off a perfect visit…. We have come in the hottest part of the year, 30 degrees + every day. The air con (which is quite important in my view) is just not up to cooling the rooms. So be prepared to sweat and feel uncomfortable. The service around the pool is slow, but it’s not the staff that are the issue, just the distance they have to walk to put the order in. So if you are hungry or want to order drinks be prepared to wait. There are a lot of mosquitoes around and talking to other guests, quite a few got bitten. If (like us) you are not driving yourselves around, taxis are expensive, even to get to the nearest town, so we ended up weighing cost vs outings a lot of the time. Also, the complimentary coffee provided at breakfast (that is in the large metal cafeterias) is awful and I would suggest asking the breakfast staff be to make you some. Anyway hope that helps!

Our second visit to this hotel, the previous occasion being 5 years ago. Situated in the countryside about 5 miles from the nearest towns on a quiet country road making it the perfect tranquil location. The rooms consisting of a series of modern Truli buildings across the immaculate grounds, we were near the pool and a few minutes walk from the restaurant and reception. However on this occasion our stay was a little disappointing. Firstly when we went into our room (15) we noticed the bed cover was torn around the bottom. My wife decided to have a bath before going to dinner but unfortunately there was no bath plug ! So whilst my wife had a shower I had a look around the room and noted that the coat hanger next to the entrance door was hanging off the wall and loose. Going into the bathroom the towel rail by the sink was also hanging off. The hotel staff were helpful and found a bath plug the next day. The room was cleaned to a high standard every day. The breakfasts were quite good on the whole but there was no fresh orange juice during our stay. Evening meals with the half board arrangement had a very limited menu that changed only twice all week. The starters were basically the same every day and the main courses were just a variation on a theme . The English translation of the menu was not accurate and on one occasion was totally wrong which caused a huge fuss in the kitchen. The main courses were often served with no salad or veg, just a piece of fish or meat and not much more. I understand the hotel has changed hands in recent years but there are signs of costs being cut in certain areas, i.e. room maintenance and meals. However these are areas that shouldn't be skimped on and it took the edge off our stay this time. We have done the whole area now and the hotel is well situated to do so but we are unlikely to return again.

Enchanting venue. Everything was so beautiful and the hotel staff could not have been nicer. Only gripe is that the fridge didn't work and despite raising with Reception every day it was never fixed. Location is isolated so car hire essential.

This is nota 5stars hotel.the place is nice.good location.but…at breakfast you have to drink form plastic cups ….the breakfast is only average…..the rooms are nice but vey simple.the bathroom is very small ,the shower is very simple,no conditioner or body cream ecc….5stars hotel??? They had a party and we had to escape from the place,because people were sitting on our front door….not what we expected

We made a one week reservation from April 5th, directly with the hotel. Ten days before arrival the hotel notified us they have to move us to another hotel for the first 2 days. It turned out, from a mail exchange, that the place is much cheaper, no half board plan and there are stairs inside. We turned down this offer but asked for renewed confirmation for the 5 remaking days. Il palmetto’s response was they are cancelling our reservation . An outrage and totally uncalled for and unacceptable! I can supply the evidence from the mail exchange between us.