Relais Santa Chiara Hotel - San Gimignano, Italy     

As we hardly can sleep on small double beds, we booked a superior Room at 220 ? a day, as was the only that carries King size bed as we need to sleep confortable we expected a room with view as we have seen than lower category (classics and small) had balconies, however we were not warned that they did not had a superior with view available. So we were asigned an interior room (superior) with King Bed (really two 1 mts single bed joined as King). We claim for a change upon arrival and as they said we did book on a web site and not with the hotel web site they were not able to warn us about this problem. I said I am not paying 220 ? for an interior room here, do you have even a Classic Room? Finally they arranged to move us to a Classic with view and our rate was fixed to 205 ? wich in my reservation initially I would have been able to book for 175 ? but we did not have more options at that time and the hotel charges full rate which I think was nor right on their side, while the room was smaller and certainly needs some renovation on carpets, paper, etc. The bedding was Queen (two 80 cmts joined as a queen) and the room was small, outdated on the TV set, carpet, paper and curtains, but fine at the end , a strong problem was the Air Conditining that with 35C was a must and even the fridge did not cool the drinks at all, so if we had paid 80 ? for the room the hotel would have ben very nice as the location is good. But it does not worth 205 ? as the air conditioning does not work fine, the fridge does not cool the drinks, there is not ice available on the rooms, etc. The town of San Gemigniano is about 700 meters and you have to go walking as the car is parked in the hotel, which is not a nice walk under Toscana sun at 30-35 C, but can be handled to go one or twice a day. The breakfast area and swimming and sun area are excellent and quiet as they have a nice view of Tuscan valleys and Vernaccia Wine region. In summary, the room does not worth 205 or 220 a night even the hotel is nice it needs a renovation mostly on rooms, also this is a contemporary hotel and may be shoudl be nicer to stay on a more Italian style Tuscan villa as there are some other options aroung San Gemigniano and you can go to the city with your own car walk less and left it on the public parking which is rigth at town entrance (about 700 meters less walk than from Santa Chiara).

Overall, the hotel met our expectations (clean, friendly, comfortable) with the only drawback being the small size of the room (the terrace was almost as big as the bedroom). We had a standard double which faced the back. I will recommend upgrading a room level or requesting one with a view of the mountains as they were beautiful and i was envious. However, we were not too bothered with it, as we were rarely in the room anyway. Free parking outside the hotel was a plus, as was the swimming pool and adequate breakfast. San Gimignano was a lovely town and I will definitely recommend it to anyone planning a trip to Tuscany