Relais La Lanterne in Cagliari

I booked here because of location and price/value, but caveat emptor: you don't get what you pay for. The management is unpleasant to communicate with. They hide the fact that if you arrive after 9PM they will only let you check in if you pay them 30 euro CASH fee (not detailed in policies) and if you protest (as I did), they will cancel your reservation and attempt to charge you a 100% cancellation fee from your booking site. Should you actually make it in time to be checked in (I did not as my flight was delayed at no fault of my own) they require a 499 euro deposit on your credit card (!!!) and there is a long list of possible ways they could retain part or all of your deposit, so read the fine print. Read the other reviews, they're not wrong!

Rooms are nice but thats about it, unfortunately

Things I do not appreciate:
- no reception, had to wait 2h to check in
- very poor service and communication: very unpleasant and arrogant to talk to physically and over the phone
- they took a 400 EUR deposit for 3 nights. Even 5 star hotels do not charge that much
- to reach our room, we had to go through 5 flights of stairs without elevator, with our luggage
- cleaning ladies clearly cannot clean
- when you ask for anything, the weird excuse "oh but this is not a hotel, its an Airbnb" : riiight, but you charge more than hotels

Terrible experience! It didn't even start as it ended with a shameful exchange with the owner who deliberately lied about the possibility of being able to perform a free cancellation from booking to make a date change and went so far as to ban my number!!!!
I strongly advise against booking in this place where tourist reception is seen only as mere profit without paying any attention to the customer. Luckily in Sardinia not everyone is like Mr. Alessandro, but tourism is about true hospitality! He deserves all the terrible ratings!!!!

We had stayed in 2018 in one of the structures managed by the two gentlemen of the Relais Lanterne. We had made the reservation through Booking.
We were satisfied. We had appreciated the enthusiasm and passion with which the two gentlemen managed their facilities. We return to Cagliari this year and decide to book directly, without Booking. We notice an abysmal change: lack of attention to the customer forced, in addition to paying for the room, also to give a credit card as a guarantee for any damage (as if it were a car rental). We are also told not to throw toilet paper down the toilet and to put it in a bin. All this with rather rude tones. We will never go back!

The service is the worst...the rating is too high on booking. There is no reception! First of all they asked for time of arriving, after arriving we waited outside half of hour even if I sended arriving time. I called to tell that we are at the entrance but receptionist told that he is busy in other place and his colleague will meet us in 15 minutes. Whrn we met the receptionist we asked to show us the room, but First of all he asked documents and credit card, he was very rude and told us if we don't want to stay, we can go and showed us the doorway and told that we can cancel the booking and we will pay a tax of refuse. He told us again that there are steps we have to proceed, if we are not respecting them we are free to go. I never met such welcome in Italy. Also he asked to freeze on the card 250 euro for deposit. The room was OK, it's close to the city center but because of this rude service I will never come back again. I don't recommend at all...

I wish I could have given a full review but sadly I couldn't even book. You only need a credit card, which is unclear, it doesn't matter if you go in person and give your documents or an advance, if you don't have a credit card you're screwed and can't book, and they lose potential customers. This is a very big flaw, very disappointed.