Grande Albergo - Sestri Levante, Italy 

We paid £800 to stay for a week at this hotel on a B&B basis. This hotel was advertised as being 4* with its own "private" beach. When we arrived, we found out that the "private" beach was "private" and owned by another company. Of course, because it was owned by another company, we were then told we would have to pay £75 ($150) for the week to use the beach. I found this a bit of a cheek (to say the least), but when we then found out the hotel parking was a similar amount....The roof top pool which they advertise has a bar (but nobody tending it), so you're on your own up there and its five floors down in your bathers to get a drink (no phone either) It was the beach thing that really made me annoyed. When we had the cheek to complain to the arrogent manageress, we were treated appallingly. We told her that it was unreasonable to advertise a 4* hotel as having its own private beach and then charge paying guests of the hotel to use it!! The hotel restauarant menu was very limited and, like ALL the nice restaurants in Sestri, 90% of it was fish. This is fine if you want to have a starter and main course of fish every meal, but not so great if you don't. So, we decided to leave. When we told them we wanted to cancel our stay, the manageress told us we'd have a 2 night penalty charge for the room and told us we had to get out in 30 minutes or we'd face a 3 night penalty charge! She told us the penalty charge was to compensate the hotel for not being able to let our room at such short notice. When we asked if we could stay that night (so as to give us time to find alternative accomodation for the week), we were told no, this despite the fact we were effectively paying for a further 2 nights! So, if you like fish (a lot) and you don't mind being made to feel a mug (by being charged to use the hotels "own" beach and you like being treated like [--] by staff for having the cheek to complain, then by all means go to this hotel. Me? This has put me off ever visiting Italy again, I'm afraid to say.

sono stata recentemente con mio marito al GrandeAlbergo di Sestri anche dopo aver letto le recensioni su Tripadvisor.L'hotel è appena stato ristrutturato e ... sa di nuovo . Purtroppo le camere sono abbastanza impersonali e piccole e comunque di prezzo sproporzionato . Le ragazze alla reception sono gentili ma assolutamente impreparate a rispondere alle domande che il cliente pone. Inoltre è la prima volta che sento dire che il telo per la piscina o la spiaggia viene noleggiato a 5 Euro al giorno ! Nell' insieme la sensazione è che non ci sia una direzione presente e che gli arredatori si siano poco impegnati . Il tempo buono avrebbe consentito di usufruire per la prima colazione del bel giardino antistante che è rimasto sempre chiuso. Sarebbe stato un ottimo 3 stelle , con i prezzi da 4 però.