Grand Hotel Portovenere

This is not a 5 star luxury hotel. From the outside it looks nice and may indeed be the nicest hotel in Porto Venere, though The Hotel Belvedere is nearly adjacent and looks just as nice from the outside (at a fraction of the cost). The Grand Hotel has absolutely no amenities and the actual hotel is in desperate need for renovations. But the worst part about the hotel was the service and you will be treated even more poorly for not booking directly through the hotel (which they pointed out). When we checked into the hotel we were told we should head to their “private beach” for lunch and we were thrilled. This wasn’t their “private beach” but they had a few chairs reserved for guests which are in the back row at a beach club which is accessible to the public. We did genuinely have a good day there until we were checking out and the Grand Hotel tried to charge us for the chairs - at a rate that was €10 above what we would have paid directly at The Sporting Club. In addition to this we had asked about renting a boat to Cinque Terre the following day which the front desk kindly offered to research and plan for us. They had an entire day to do so and didn’t. We had to remind them on two separate occasions and they came back to us with an option for a boat for €1,000 when we were able to find a private tour in matter of 30 minutes for €200 for two people. Don’t waste your money here. There are loads of Airbnb’s with balcony’s directly in Porto Venere or Hotel Belvedere is directly next to this hotel and is at a much more reasonable rate.

Service was outstanding as expected from a Grand Hotel. Nevertheless I want to mention that every single person from staff was highly motivated and trying to support us in every way, appreciated! The breakfast had been very good (compared to italian standards); hint: always order italian coffee and forget the american coffee. Small remark, regarding my personal expectations regarding room size: as I booked Executive room type I paid the price and I did expect some room with at least 30 squaremeters; finally I think it was something around 20 squaremeters, which is pretty small. Would be good to clearly mention this in advance; I could not see any room size in my original booking via trip.com. The bath was very modern and good. Sea view and small balcony included, super nice! Free parking included was great (and really necessary; small old streets which are crowed with parking cars, to pay hourly + ongoing street works all the time) We did hike to Quinque Terra (to the next town Remaggiore); hotel was perfect starting point. I would come back again, but next time book bigger room.