Bibione Palace - Bibione, Italy 

OK, I?m gonna be brief: The Bibione Palace Hotel is a fairly new hotel, opened back in 2005 and maybe this is why I was so disappointed to find a property that offered so little of a contemporary hotel. Bibione by itself is special in that there are no international hotel chains, but rather small Italian companies owning and managing the hotels - which need not be detrimental to the quality, as other hotels just blocks down the same road - think Savoy Beach Hotel - consistently deliver. So the subject of this review, the Bibione Palace Hotel, even though fairly new, fails to deliver any of the standards I would expect from a four-star-rated house, even by Italian standards. Lets start with the arrival: The underground garage is very poorly lit, dark and very narrow even for small cars. To make matters worse, there are no signs announcing direction of traffic or exits. Between the parking sections, there are fireproof gates that are often closed for no apparent reason, so you and your vehicle end up right in front of a closed gate with no opportunity to turn around, all you can do is put the car in reverse and try to navigate your way back, backwards ! Once you managed the parking issue: The arrival to the lobby. Apparently, the hotel interior is a design attempt gone horribly wrong, they aimed at contemporary, clean-cut design, but what they got was a minimalistic impression of early 1960s frat houses. Whilst the check-in was uneventful, there was a severe lack of bellmen or even a concierge, so good luck fitting your luggage into one of the tiny elevators. Oh, talking about the elevators: When was the last time you encountered a property with 6 stories, 30 rooms each, with just 2 tiny elevators? It felt like we spent a good share of our vacation waiting for the elevators. Then, the room key: Odd chip-card design, and the door opens with a very loud, very annoying clicky-sound. Once in the room, three impressions start to settle: 1) the tiny dimensions of the room 2) the REALLY BAD interiour, think 60s drug halluzination, and 3) its freezing cold. After the first shock, we discovered that there were no blankets and just one tiny pillow per person. There were no bathrobes, even though there are two pools, a beach and a wellness centre? Also, there were no room slippers. Which would be no concern, were it not for the tiniest bathroom I have ever seen with the ugliest choice of cheap tiles I have ever encountered, even more freezing without any means of heating it up- we chilled our water bottles in there ! On went the horror: The hotel booklet proudly stated that internet connections would be available in the room using the connection cable offered by the front desk. After consulting back with the front desk, apparently and contrary to the information given in the in-room-guide there was no internet connection in the rooms, only in a business centre on the 4th floor, but that was not in service yet, so no internet at all. Dinner: Again, lets not discuss the interior. Dinner was served in the Sala Mastroianni, who must not have been very popular around Bibione as the decoration, you guessed it, just did not make any sense. There is one thing I hate about restaurants in general: Tables that are too small - again, the Bibione Palace hotel managed to disappoint in that respect, too: The supposed seating for four would not even suffice for one lonely guest, and the tables could have easily qualified as the smallest restaurant tables I have ever seen. The dining room featured around 60 tables, all tightly arranged next to each other. Apparently, the 60 tables featured a grand total of 20 salters. So good luck getting your hand on some salt should you need it. I will spare you the horror that is the food selection. They present you with a xeroxed sheet offering todays menu selection, made up of Italian-sounding names you have never heard of, so they can serve whatever scran they currently spare to the tune of you not knowing what you ordered anyway. The staff is attentive in that if you order still water, there?s a 80% chance your water will be carbonated, and in that you leave your wine bottle in the cooler after lunch, they make sure it is gone by dinner time. I was also shocked by the fellow guests, who were very rude in general, but also lacked social skills in that no one seamed to care about seating and sat where they pleased - we entered the dining room numerous times only to find our table taken by a gaggle of sleeveless twenty-somethings clearly enjoying food that gave no possible reason to be enjoyed. Oh, and I dont know about you, but if I talk to my dining companions, I face them directly and lower my voice. Apparently, the guests of the Bibione Palace Hotel didnt get the idea: they turn away 130 degrees from the person they are talking to and shout directly at your table, for minutes ! Beware of using the sun deck on the 6th floor: The door opens to the sun deck, but you can?t get back in. Once you?re locked outside, the only route is seven stories down the fire stairs only to re-enter the property. On the positive, I cant find anything, honestly. Oh, wait, there is a LCD TV in the room, which should come as no surprise as there are no longer CRT TVs in production, but they seriously messed that up, too: The few programs they feed are delivered analogue, in very poor quality and with several channels just delivering static. I have a very attractive recommendation to anyone considering Bibione Palace Hotel: Don't. Seriously, do not go there. Bibione might not be the place for world-class-accomodation, but you will be pleasently surprised by the Savoy Beach Hotel, just blocks down the road, and no, I am not affiliated. They just seem to do everything right each time, the rooms are spacious, luxurious and the views are spectacular. What astounds me is that two properties so diverse share the same location and even similar pricing.