Hotel San Valentino in Ischia Town

I stayed at Hotel San Valentino in Ischia, and unfortunately, my experience was disappointing in almost every respect. The property features outdated, neglected furnishings, with no attention to aesthetics, immediately giving the impression of a hotel stuck in the past. The staff consists mainly of very young people, who clearly struggle to keep up with the pace and demands. This is not due to lack of effort, but rather because they are obviously underpaid and undervalued. Watching them work hard without proper recognition leaves a bitter impression and inevitably results in disorganized and approximate service. Even more unpleasant is the behavior of the owners, who stand out for their arrogant and provocative manners, often intrusive and disrespectful towards guests. It is difficult to feel welcomed when those running the hotel show such a lack of professionalism and courtesy. As for the dining service, the quality of the food is acceptable, but the offering is monotonous and repetitive: guests end up eating nearly the same dishes every day, with little variety or creativity. Overall, Hotel San Valentino falls far short of the standards one would expect from a hospitality facility in a tourist destination like Ischia. A serious renovation is needed, both in terms of the structure and the management, along with a far more respectful and professional approach toward guests and staff.

The food is good, but the service is bad: they don't change the towels, the shampoo and soap in the bathroom, they don't dust the room or clean the floor, they leave the door of the room unlocked !...
The driver of the shuttle to the beach is a complete moron (besides "proudly" not understanding or being able to utter a word in English !) he just does NOT think, he's rude and he crams people into the shuttle as if they were luggages (he wants to seat 5 people on 3 seats)
The room is small, almost monastic, shabby, the furniture is ugly and old (not antique), there is no hanger to hang a jacket/hat, the archaic window frames are non-functional and far too noisy. In this millennium, our century, they still have keys (heavy, noisy, large and not-reliable) everywhere : the entrance door, the safe box, the wardrobe, even the electric switch at the entrance that serves the room lights, etc. The window latches do not close properly.
They do not have nets on the windows therefore you cannot ventilate without your room being filled with flies and mosquitoes.
Parking is not included in the room-price and access to it is only possible by calling the reception.
Another "plus" (apart from the good food) is the balcony, as big as the room but really beautiful and equipped with sun loungers, table, chairs and especially with a splendid panorama to the east, the sea and the Aragonese castle. Unfortunately, the delimitation to the neighbors deprives you of any intimacy, only through some gratings..
The hotel reception is very large and shady but absolutely incomprehensibly crowded with a lot of ugly, heavy furniture, vintage cars and motorcycles; we were explained that the owner is a collector but unfortunately the appearance only gives the feeling that you have entered the space of a HOARDER who does not treat himself...
The outdoor pool is very small and crowded, as if you are bathing in a "retired person's - pensioner's" bathtub. The indoor pool is not even worth mentioning.
And "ring over the head" ... or the icing on the cake :
when leaving, as a breakfast to go, they gave us 2 tiny croissants and 2 cubes of honey, almost mocking us ! I let them eat them !...
Conclusion: the hotel does not fit IN NO CASE for 4* ! Maybe only 2-2.5* at most

Problems from start to finish. Not only do they refuse to answer emails, but hardly any of the staff spoke enough english to communicate properly with. Seeing as every restaurant and business we went to (even a little electronics shop) had people that all spoke very good english and were all so welcoming and kind, this was surprising. We had a parking ticket and the lobby told us to go to the local police station, which was incorrect as in reality we had to go to our rental car company, so we wasted hours of our few days trying to figure out what to actually do with it. The room felt like it was only half ready. The walls were poorly painted (felt like it was just primer with no paint, which did matter because it felt like sandpaper if you rubbed against it at all), the beds were very uncomfortable and way too short (I am 184cm and barely fit, I didnt fit if I moved down the bed at all), the beds were also incredibly old and run-down, the pillows were just terrible and hurt my neck every night, there were only 2 plug sockets available in the entire room (4 if you unplug the tv and the bedside light), the bedroom light switch just decided to not work halfway through our stay, the wifi simply didnt work 50% of the time, the mini fridge kept turning itself off randomly and its handle on the front had broken off, the shower handle constantly fell off almost crushing my toe at one point, the "shower gel" provided was cheap hand soap in a squeeze bottle, the loo didnt flush properly, the bed itself was actually falling apart (the end of the bed kept disconnecting) but more than anything else, the air conditioning was shockingly bad. It was not cold, maybe just luke warm, and made a horrible noise while it was on. I could forgive the rest of the issues if we had a cold room after being in the unbearable heat all day, but it was terrible. The best thing this hotel did for us was provide us with a relativley powerful standing fan after being asked about it, which saved us as without it, we would have had to leave. I am under the assumption that every hotel on the island has this issue with "centralised air conditioning", but that doesn't make it ok. You need individual AC units in every room, especially for over 100 euros a night on an island that often gets into the 30+ degrees. I wish I had taken more photos of the room, but only remembered to get a pic of the shower handle.
The positives are that its in a good location on the island, the staff were ok, the lobby was very spacious and calm, they had a beautiful baby grand piano in the lobby as well, the breakfast was good, it was generally very clean all around and there is onsite parking for scooters and cars (for €8 a day though). That is it unfortunately, and no where near enough to say its a 4 star hotel in 2023. Honestly the best thing about this hotel was the piano and the cleaning staff, who were excellent and very sweet.
I want to be positive about this as we had an amazing time on the island, but this hotel just isn't enough. It wasnt a peaceful stay, it was full of problems which added up over and over again. Nothing just worked. Save yourself the hassle.

Also, finally I get a response after leaving an honest review, though I am being told I am lying about my stay and that I am only leaving a bad reveiw for a refund, which is absurd. I couldn't care less about a refund, though it would be nice since we didn't stay our last night. I have never dealt with a business like this before. There were a few things about my stay which were great as i mentioned, but overall it was unnacceptable and to recieve such a rude reply when I was being as honest as I can is unbelievable. I recognise running a hotel is very challening, but I really hope you take on board what I have said and try to fix them for your next customers. I almost broke my toe in your shower because of the handle for gods sake!