Hotel Ansitz Plantiz in Merano

I booked and fully paid for 2 rooms months in advance. We arrived at 12 and were told check-in is at 2….I have stayed before but no welcome back or kind greeting. We went out and returned at 5pm to be shown our suites….1 suite was like a smokers den! Upon walking in the receptionist said “yes it’s so bad but we had a guest who smoked in here for 7 days”!!!!!! We asked to have a different room but were told no rooms of the same category were available. They offered to give us the room our friend had (as a single traveller it was a large room) and basically downgrade us both. I spoke with the owner and asked why someone was allowed to smoke for a week, he said “what should I do, call the police”….! Eventually they moved us to a standard room. The receptionist lied repeatedly telling me that her colleague was wrong and the regular room was not a downgrade from the 2 room suite with private sauna on the terrace . The 2nd night they moved us again, this time to an upgraded suite No apology was offered at anytime. No gesture of even a glass of wine was offered at anytime Upon checkout no refund was offered for either the downgrade, the inconvenience or the bad experience. I explaIned I had not been provided with what I had paid for and a downgrade 1 night, an upgrade 1 night did not work. The owner begrudgingly gave us €100 discount on a room that cost €1800…… he did however acknowledge that the first night was a downgraded room, thereby confirming his receptionist had lied It is a very nice looking hotel but the owners, the receptionists and the wait staff are awful. No one smiles, no one is helpful. For the price you pay you get a 17yr old doing spa treatments, they have no experienced cocktail bar staff (they make cocktails using a recipe book, we tried several, only 1 tasted decent), there is no turndown service, 1 single carafe of water in your room and you get 1 towel each. The dinner and breakfast buffet isn’t refreshed so you need to be early! As a repeat guest you get 2 mouldy satsumas in your room…..without even a welcome back card The owner and his less than charming receptionist, insisted that they enforced no smoking. We found the no smoking sign in all the rooms we had, hidden in a cupboard…..together with a handy box of matches. They enforced it so badly that the housekeeper insisted on bringing an ashtray into the room for us even though we said no!!! All in all a dreadful experience. No apologies at anytime and a general sense that all they care about is getting as much money as possible out of guests. Avoid this hotel unless it changes ownership. Many wonderful hotels in the area. Stay at Maiena, Hotel Therme Meran or Weinegg if in the area….

It‘s a beautiful and well maintained hotel close to the center of Meran. We booked a junior suite and got a nice spacious room with a balcony which we ended up not using much. The hotel management especially Mrs. Guffler is keen to ensure the guests without kids are not getting disturbed and their needs for relaxation and quietness are placed over the needs of the guests with the small kids. We were told by Mrs. Guffler in a rude and unfriendly way that we were noisy and there were complaints. We were looking forward to spending 8 days holidays there however we didn’t feel welcome with our 2 kids under 4 yo and spent as much time as possible outside the hotel.
I would recommend to the hotel management to openly communicate upfront that their hotel is rather adults only oriented to avoid disappointment. A few days after our stay we noticed that it was written on a flyer in our room that the kids are welcome at the pool between 13h and 15h which is a classic nap time for the small kids.
The personnel in general was friendly however the way how Mrs. Guffler communicated wasn’t acceptable and ruined our stay there. I wish I read the feedback of other guests and the responses of the hotel to them - it would have been clear that the poor way of treating families with small kids has become a standard there.
Conclusion: not recommended for the families with small kids. We are obviously not coming back.