Il Convento - Pistoia, Italy 

My husband and I booked this hotel as the pictures show a nice quite pool with lots of loungers, ideal for the country break we were looking for. Upon arrival we found out that the pool is open to the public, this meant that when we strolled down to the pool this morning we were greated by a queue of about 50 local teenagers and familes who were waiting for it to open, needless to say we didn't get one of the 17 loungers they actually have, we could not even lay around the pool but were allocated a small space on the grass two levels up! and the pool was far to crowded to swim in, we counted 50 people at one point. I went to complain to the manager about this, and the fact that fruit at breakfast was mouldy, only to find him rude and unhelpful. He explained that he only speaks Italian and French and nobody else in the entire hotel can speak English, despite stating on their website that they are multi-lingual. I have also overhead lots of other people complaining about various things, all of whom were treated just as badly as I was. This is a shame as the hotel has great potential.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice building with comfortable rooms, in quite a nice (and certainly quiet) location quite some way out of Pistoia (nothing else around - so make sure you book their restaurant if you don't want to drive). It has a 'big', albeit not very spectacular view of the valley below. BUT... we booked two nights through Tripadvisor/Venere arrived with our confirmation, the owner said no, we only have a booking for one night so tough and not his problem and basically told us that we should not have booked through Venere. He reluctantly let us use his computer to try to find a hotel for the next night. The hotelier seemed more interested in his local business crowd as the hotel was full of suited businessmen so we felt that we may have been 'bumped' out of our second night's booking - if this is his core trade then well, it's his business, but bear it in mind if you are booking and don't expect the usual warm Tuscan welcome if you are a mere tourist. Also the pool looks inviting from afar but up close it was filthy and full of wriggling worms - needless to say we didn't go in.