Hotel Villa Diana - Lipari, Italy 

The room was very clean and comfortable and the terrace was a great place to relax, but the reception we got was cold and sometimes unpleasant. Several pointers: - the staff were always cold and detached - one particular unpleasant staff member would not let us have breakfast late in our room, even though the previous night we had climbed to the top of Stromboli, got back late and were exhausted. This same staff member also told us off for doing washing in our room (even though the cleaner had hung all our clothes on the terrace repeatedly!), but this was not mentioned to us. They also do not offer a laundry service, which means you need to cart your clothes 10mins down to the main street - very inconvenient. Nor do they mention this on their website. - the cleaner kept throwing out our soap everyday for some unknown reason - the staff could not understand "reverse charges" even in their own language written in a phrasebook - the hot water takes at least 10 mins to become warm - staff would not tell us the time, saying "they do not offer that service"!!! If I were to visit Lipari again, I would personally choose to stay someone closer to the main street with friendlier service.