San Marco Hotel

The “hotel” welcomes his visitors through a corridor that they call ‘a hall’. The reception is a small desk on one side of that short and claustrophobic corridor, and that’s it, that is the hotel entrance, Everything around you screams “made a mistake this time!”, but you prepaid, so must see it all. The receptionist, a man in his fifties waiting for his guests smoking a cigarette at the entrance, a tiny aperture in a peeling wall with this lying 3 stars sign on top, is probably the slowest computer typer of this world. There is an inefficient air conditioner in the “hall”, unable to bring the temperature below 28: you wait there good 20 minutes for your passport data to be typed into the system, one finger down every 10 seconds. There is no breakfast area, you realise, and no wifi. The best facility you can see is a vending machine for soft drinks stealing further space off the same tiny corridor. You finally get your keys (just one per room, two would be luxury), and go use the lift to reach your room. The lift is for no more than 2 people + luggage, so your family of 4 must split the journey in 2 waves. The lift door opens up and you’re sort of hit by a flush of hot air like from an oven: there is no air conditioning, and July 2023 is a very hot summer in Naples. You get to your room through tiny corridors with old and stained walls and carpets. There is air con in the room, fortunately, but it’s as noisy as a helicopter during take off. Impossible to sleep with that machine on, and impossible to sleep when off, it’d be too hot. There is no wardrobe as such, it’s just an open frame made of cheap wood. The bed is a tubular frame with no headboard. The bathroom must be 40 years old, the shower box with plastic doors probably more. Disheartened, you leave your two teenage girls there wondering “is this place safe? What kind of guests can a place like this, in the centre of a city like this, would have?” and go with wife to see your room (not on the same floor, for some reason it wasn’t possible, despite the hotel being unsurprisingly empty). The lift door opens on the third floor and you just see stairs going up or down: no rooms. There is an extra 6 or 7 steps to do before you can see the entrance to the rooms area. You lift your 3 luggages, reach your room already sweat, open the door. Here the final gift: the room was still uncleaned. The bed undone, floor dirty, the white neon lights all on. It looked like there was still somebody inside, you even shouted “is there anybody here?”. It was 10.30 pm but, supposedly, the hotel doesn’t have enough cleaners to keep all rooms ready and clean at all times. You wonder about how clean the cleaned room would actually be. You look at your partner and decides to just try to find another hotel and lose whatever money you already paid. The same guy (the Slow Typer but, I must admit, polite man) apologises for the mistake about the room and promises to talk to the “administration” for some partial reimbur

Pros: - Close to the metro and very convenient to the train station, the airport shuttle bus stop and the ferry terminal. - Close to the Spanish quarter and the shopping street Via Toledo Cons: - Staff has limited understanding of English - WIFI was not working properly before guest check-in although it was resolved the next day. - Certain single rooms were very small and uncertain if the linens are clean - Walls along the hallway need updating, certain areas have mold.