Palace Derossi in Trogir

1 star - AVOID at all costs - violent physical assault by the owner. If zero stars were possible, I would give that.

The room and location were good, but everything else was overshadowed by what we witnessed: the hotel owner physically attacking a young and defenceless hotel guest, dragging her by the hair across the floor during a heated argument about a fee that hadn’t been clearly communicated in advance (also a cause for concern). The parking ticket had been offered the night before, and at no point was it mentioned that this parking ticket cost money. You can even read in prior reviews that somebody else experienced the same scam. Upon check out, needing to rush to the airport, we were told about the fee, and naturally were upset - we wouldn’t have ever agreed to taking the hotel’s parking ticket in the first place had we known. Instead of understanding our concern, the man we spoke to called his manager over - instead of listening to us, she just started hitting the female guest! Hitting and yelling at her ‘GET OUT OF MY HOTEL’ at the top of her lungs. If only there was CCTV footage available to show - never have I in all my 25+ years of global travel, in hostels and good establishments, witnessed such behaviour! Of course at that point, we knew we had to leave, this woman was not to be reasoned with…

And just to add: at NO point did the guest become physical, although she raised her voice out of frustration.

It is the responsibility of hotel staff - especially management - to de-escalate tense situations, not respond with violence. There was no apology, no accountability, and no sign that the behavior was viewed as unacceptable by the hotel. The only hotel staff who seemed remotely concerned about stopped this violent attack was a young Asian woman (who had been cleaning tables in the background when this erupted) who tried to calm her boss down, almost as if this had happened before/she has anger issues. Don’t take out your anger on a paying guests or resort to violence no matter the situation.

This was a shocking and deeply unsettling incident to witness. No matter how nice the amenities, a hotel where violence is used against paying guests is a place to AVOID if that’s how they solve problems.

A shame to have ended an otherwise lovely 2 week holiday in Croatia on such a note. The rest of the holiday was gorgeous. Avoid!