Semiramide Palace Hotel in Castellana Grotte

A disappointing experience, unfortunately.
We stayed two nights at the Semiramide Palace Hotel, and from the moment we arrived, our impression was not positive. We got there on Friday around 8 p.m., and we immediately noticed that the hotel looked old and poorly maintained.

The first room we were given had mold on the walls, and the bed linens smelled musty, as if they had been stored away for too long. When we tried to take a shower, we found that the showerhead was broken and wouldn’t stay attached to the wall. We called the front desk, but they told us that the technician would only come the next day, and there was nothing they could do in the meantime.

We asked to be moved to another room. Two staff members came to try and fix it, but not only were they unable to solve the problem, they also didn’t speak either English or Italian, which made communication very difficult.

In the short time we were in the room (about two hours), we also noticed that the toilet flush wasn’t working and that the toilet would get clogged. We had to insist quite a bit before they finally moved us to a room next door, which was adapted for wheelchair users.

Although that was a step up, problems persisted: the mini fridge wasn’t working, and the air conditioning—being central—could only be adjusted by the reception. Even after asking them to set it to 18°C, we felt no change in the temperature; the room remained uncomfortably warm.

To make matters worse, when we called the front desk several times to request a room change, they hung up on us more than once, which added to our frustration.

On a positive note, breakfast was the highlight of our stay: it was varied, plentiful, and served in a very pleasant outdoor area with live music.

Overall, however, the hotel falls far short of what one would expect from a 4-star establishment. Urgent improvements are needed in both infrastructure and customer service.

Ample parking for cars and larger vehicles. The lobby, bar area and ballroom are nice enough, but the rooms…. Oy vey!! Old, tired, dirty and poorly maintained. The valve for the toilet wouldn’t operate properly. The plumbing for the bathtub has been leaking for a long time! Enough so that the wood molding is rotting and the carpet is stained; we had to use all of the towels in the room to soak up water on the floor. It might have been a four-star hotel many years ago but it is presently a one-star hotel by US standards. There has to be better options in this otherwise wonderful little Italian town.

Let's start with the "good" stuff! Location was Ok to visit Monopoly and Polignano Al Mare, breakfast was decent, some of the staff try to be attentive but probably due to management rules, their efforts are in vane because the most important stuff the hotel do not have, hygiene. It was not clean and the bathroom was the most dirty I ever found in a hotel, it was not just dirt, it was mold, we seriously felt our health was on danger showering there. I attach photos to warn others. Worst Hotel we saw in Italy, never to come back!

We booked this hotel for 2 nights, the lack of hygiene was surprising, mold everywhere in the bathroom, the shower broken. The room they put us in should be closed. When we complaint they said hotel was full and that for that night we could not be moved to a different room until the next day. We had to shower here in the first night, I don't recommend it to anyone, worst hotel of our stay in Italy.

Horrible! A large number of young people rumning around, screaming and having a party inside and outside hotell all evening and all night on hotell properly and staff doing absolutely NOTHING about it. They need to learn how to run a hotell and how to do their job. And front desk had to be called twice to fix tv in room.