Grande Albergo Sole - Palermo, Italy     

Coming off of a fantastic experience in Taormina, we were utterly disappointed in the service at this hotel. The location was fine, but the staff and amenities were sub-standard. The first room we were given had 2 windows with no view. They looked over the hotel alleyway and shaft. No sunlight, and lighting in the room was minimal. We asked to be moved and they quickly gave us another room. View was not great , but at least we had some natural light. The bathroom had hair in the shower tub. The telephone in the room didn't work, we were told it would be fixed the next morning. Didn't happen. We were told that this part of the hotel had problems with the phone and they had no plans to fix it. We could use the one at the reception desk. Very difficult to carry on a conversation in such a public area. The rudeness of the staff compounded the problem. They were not helpful and provided no assistance. We were charged 5 euros to use the internet for a half hour and it crashed after 7 minutes. The response was "you are not having much luck here" and they remained indifferent to our needs. I could go on, but it would take too long. On the plus side, the view from the rooftop terrace was beautiful and the breakfast buffet was very nice. Trust me, our vacation would have been wonderful if the service, staff and cleanliness were as good as the Hotel Villa Diodoro in Taormina. Do your research before staying in Palermo.

Following charming accommodation elsewhere on our trip, we had high expectations of this hotel, which, at least going by the cost of our room, should have been a class above our previous hotels. When we arrived we were flattered by the coolness of the reception area decor, if not by the coolness of the reception staff, and the room was spacious and clean.Suitably encouraged we headed upstairs for dinner. Unfortunately, this was very disappointing - the hastily defrosted and tasteless prawns and salmon were not what we wanted after a long, hot day on the road. We had dinner away from the hotel for the rest of our stay. Breakfast was not much better, with coffee that had not seen an espresso machine (in the land that invented it) and flabby-looking salmon making an appearance on the buffet every day (I hope it wasn't leftover from the previous night's dinner). Service was not particularly friendly or helpful. Reception staff with few exceptions were very frosty. We had persistent problems with our room key, which were dealt by reception efficiently but without a word of explanation or apology. In addition, when we wanted to use the bar one evening and indicated we wished to pay by cash, the barman told us he had "no change", which indicated to us that he couldn't be bothered to serve us. Surely not the appropriate response in an establishment that gives itself 4 stars!