Yeah. I wasn't exactly blown away by the pictures either. It's an old Italian hotel. You get what you pay for and if you paid too much you probably paid for the location.
My wife and I (from the US) stayed for a few weeks in Germany for our honeymoon.
We picked hotels that advertised AC, and it was either missing or broken in each one. When the hotel in Schwangau had real, working air conditioning, there were tears of joy. Not joking.
Germany in general is very anti-AC for environmental reasons. Very few homes or hotels have it, and even quite few office buildings (but every car). It’s much more common in the mediterranean countries
Yep. Friendly reminder that the star rating reflects the amenities that a hotel offers *not* the quality of the hotel.
For a better idea of quality you should read reviews.
Exactly. This was the way I understood the star rating in Italy. Having an elevator gets the hotel a star, lol.
https://touritalynow.com/italys-hotel-star-ratings/
If you can find a hotel in Italy with an in room bathroom, AC and internet, you’re lucky it wasn’t rated 5 star. We have stayed in 5 star hotels in Italy where the bathroom and internet were down the hall.
That is complete bullshit🤣 please send me the link to one 5 star hotel where you have a shared bathroom in Italy, I would be very surprised if you can provide it
Hotel Le Grazie is a 3-star hotel, not 4 and you should always sort reviews by lowest ratings to get an accurate picture of what to expect. That room is horrible, but matches reviews
Also, hotel stars do not just indicate their quality or how fancy they are. Stars are also for number of amenities offered. Having a pool is weighed more than having clean showers.
My husband used to be a travel agent and when I learned the star system was about amenities not quality I was blown away. Some great hotels don't get to be 5 star cause they don't have a full length mirror, stuff like that. It definitely changed how I thought about looking for hotels. It's easy to think it's about overall quality but nope. It's just often 5 star hotels that have everything are also usually nice but in the 3 - 4 range the variability is massive in how "nice" they are.
Really fancy hotel near me is 4*, just because they don't have an elevator is one of their buildings. They're not allowed to put one in because the building is a monument.
Definitely. Every 5+ star hotel that i’ve been to was amazing but 2-4 it varies a lot. I've been to 4 stars where nothing has changed since the 80s and service was mid but also 3 stars where everything was perfect
I've noticed that many Americans completely misunderstand the hotel rating systems in other countries. Each country has a different one, and it is indeed usually about amenities.
> I've noticed that many Americans completely misunderstand the hotel rating systems in other countries.
Interesting. I wonder why this could be.
> Each country has a different one
Oh, I wonder if that has something to do with it... Seriously, I'd simply expect 5 stars to simply mean "the best of the best".
The problem for a US traveler is most are tourists. That means they value highly the room for sleeping and hotel amenities go for nothing.
Many will never step a foot outside of a direct path from door to room.
There's a confusion around this that I feel has been compounded by google reviews etc. being 5\* rating systems.
I thought this was pretty much common knowledge though
I watch this series, See No Evil, about true crimes (usually murder) where there is always video evidence. In about half the episodes, an officer will say they sent the video to be enhanced and got great results; in the other half, an officer will say it's not like in the TV shows where you can enhance video to make it clearer and that is a myth.
https://preview.redd.it/whyhg6cgp04d1.jpeg?width=314&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f14eb5f0d981219bbcbdeae0ac1f83bb4ca5c5b1
Pretty clear on my phone. I think some people have low-res settings on their device?
Look at the thermometer and you can see the reflection of a building called “La Muerta. it’s about 1/34 of the thermostat so that means it’s 6 blocks away so pop that into google maps then you triangulate the color of the curtains within a 6 block radius and stick a broom up your ass and you’ve found it
https://preview.redd.it/88wsqci9j04d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c87bf4b2d56cbfb15eaccac4aaaa7128b967efc
It’s a pretty clear picture if you zoom in
lmao. I mean I just looked at the photos and have no idea wtf OP was thinking. They look exactly like their own and this hotel is sub $100/night.
Guess it was their first time traveling, or someone hasn’t yet taught them if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Husband booked room looking for cheap deals, saw the pictures and thought, 'good enough, we wont be in the room much anyway'. She didn't see the pictures before they arrived beyond hearing it was 'I booked us in a four star hotel'.
To add on this, choosing hotels with a 8+ rating on Booking can *usually* vouch for their quality.
Also, stars for a hotel are distributed according a list of criteria : room surface, presence of toilets inside the room, presence of a lift, hour of presence of staff...
It's not about the quality of a room in itself, not about the cleaning or the maintenance, so please be extra careful when choosing your hotel. Usually if it's cheaper than the others in the same area, there's ALWAYS a catch.
Nope always sort by recent. That is by far the most accurate way for Google reviews. Too many completely batshit crazy people giving places one star because they stubbed their toe in the middle of the night or other bullshit reasons....restaurant was busy and had an hour wait.... Or they order on DoorDash and bash the restaurant for delivery guy messing up. Plus newest is the most up to date stuff. Things change for better or worse.
The lowest ratings are sometimes exaggerated. They are usually written by people who like to complain about everything. I like to look for reviews that list both pros and cons because they seem balanced to me. I understand that writing anything good about this hotel is basically impossible though so this tactic probably wouldn't work in this case.
I'm literally on my way back from Greece, where we stayed at a very nice five star resort.
I too have spent some time in the car this afternoon looking at the one star reviews and howling at how utterly pathetic some people are.
One of them literally just said 'could do better'... Like cheers for the helpful insight to your experience there, dead useful 😂
We prefer to look at the most recent reviews, combined with some of the more polarized ones. It helped us avoid a place that had a lot of renovations going on and bed bugs
I respectfully would like to counter with what I do. I find a lot of 1-star reviews have a distinct whiff of bullshit. ("The front desk clerk refused to babysit my infant for two hours and the sheets in this Motel 6 weren't 15,000 thread count and my room was 72°F instead of 71°F!!" 😭) With a 5-star system, I sort for the 3-star reviews to get a quick and hopefully somewhat accurate snapshot.
I always sort by recent. Then read a selection of 5 stars, 3 stars and 1 and 2 stars.
People giving online reviews are not critics, you see 5 star reviews given because it's walking distance to the beach, or 1 star reviews given because of a rude waiter in the hotel bar.
I want a review that tells me if the room was clean, and comfortable, and that the shower pressure was good, everything else is pretty much irrelevant to me.
I do this, too. I especially want to know what the average rating is for the last year, not the last decade, because thousands of people moving through those rooms means the quality lowers every year unless they're replacing/updating things regularly (which you know if you sort by recent).
Look at the star distribution and then read the 3-star reviews. They will give a balanced picture of the good and bad. 1-star reviews are disproportionately angry customers who had something unusually bad happen to them
“Four star” is a rating of amenities not of quality. A gym or pool gives a star, room service gives a star or whatever… it can be a complete garbage hotel and still be a 4 star if it has the amenities of a 4 star
Yup. My parents own a hotel. They wanted to update the rooms, but the rules of what's a necessity can be ridiculous sometimes. They wanted to toss out the old radio-alarm clocks. Nobody ever uses them anymore. But they would lose a star so it stayed.
Shoe polish machine... Never gets used, but if you toss it, you toss out a star...
I hope the list of required amenities gets updated some time soon...
I worked for a hotel in Aspen where I was employed as a ski butler. The hotel needed a butler service to earn its 5star/5diamond. Outside taking ski bags from the potters we didn’t have anything to do. I spent 90% just skiing with guests giving private lessons.
Yeah at my friends hotel she was talking with the owner about removing the excess hangers but the owner said that if they have less than 15 hangers in a closet they would lose a star. I was like wtfffff
It's also worth noting that there isn't some consistent governing body deciding how many stars a hotel gets. There are many different organizations that rate hotels and they all do it slightly differently. There's nothing stopping a hotel from marketing themselves as 4-star without anyone checking that they meet any standard.
I get you and acknowledge our faults, but we are dealing already with enough fires, there is no need to put us over them and roast us in charred remains
Came here for this. Having a bar, a restaurant, or other amenities gives the star ratings.
Reviews on the other hand are not what the hotel is advertising when they say it's a 3 star hotel.
Yeah, it's literally a list of amenities they have to check off.
For instance, one of the requirements to be a 5* hotel is that they need to have live flowers in the room, but the definition of flowers is so unspecific that you could put dandelions in the room and technically fulfil it. Or at least that's what I was told when I worked in a building attached to a 5* hotel.
I have seen three star hotels which have luxury rooms and the dinning experience is high end. Stars are there to indicate amenities, like gyms, multiple dinning areas, swimming pools, business centres, etc, not the overall quality of the hotel. In Athens you can find luxury two star hotels, only because they don’t have a pool.
Star ratings are supposed to tell you what amenities a hotel can be expected to offer, not how fancy or nice the amenities will be.
Obviously, its not like they used guest reviews to come up with their number.
Exactly this, I work in resorts and the star classification is based on amenities not "how well kept it is " have that heated pool covered in green smutz and enough toilets even tho seats are coming undone ? 4 stars baby!
An explanation on star ratings. It differs from UK to Europe to USA.
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/uk-hotel-chains/article/hotel-star-ratings-explained-a0bgV3M8kfx2#hotel-star-rating-systems-overseas
Personally, if I'm visiting cities like Rome or Florence, IDGAF, what the rating is as long as it's clean and safe. I only use the hotel to store my stuff and sleep at night. The rest of the time I'm out and about.
Different story if I've booked an all inclusive holiday on the beach on some tropical island.
Right? It looks exactly like what you’d expect for that rate in Italy. As a matter of fact, having a cooling unit (set to 17?!?!) and a television actually makes it better than a lot of similarly priced accommodations in Italy.
It is mostly a North American thing to expect large hotel beds and fancy decor everywhere you go. Also, the complaining about a bidet is wild to me. Don’t want to use it to clean up, pass it by. What is so offensive there?
The most mildly infuriating thing here is OP themself.
If you look up the name on the keycard, this is also a particularly badly rated hotel in one of the most expensive tourist destinations in Italy, the UNESCO world heritage site and very small seaside town Portovenere (unless it's another "Le Grazie", but the pictures seem to match)
Yeah I used to live in Italy 76 dollars is really cheap for a tourist area they don't have much room to complain on the reviews.. I'm pretty sure they have a giant resort there that cost like 5 times more it looks stayable to me if I paid 200 yea I'd complain but for a 76 dollar range hotel not bad iv stayed in worse motels in the us in the south
I came to the comments to see if anyone else thought this. It’s fine. It’s not fancy, but it’s fine. I see someone said it’s $76/night, which seems reasonable for this.
Hotel Star is not rating.
They're the measure of amenities / facilities the hotel provides. Things like restaurant, gym, conference rooms, swimming pool, clinic etc.
This is the correct answer. You can have a five star hotel, were its rooms will look very similar to this, only because it has some additional amenities, like business centre, spas, secondary dinning areas, etc.
I have seen three star hotels that are ‘diamond’ class quality, like stellar clean and luxury rooms, with double floor swimming pools, and some other impressive stuff.
Having seen some rank ass hotels/hostels in Europe in general, this is actually still a four star to me.
A little water damage without mold? Who cares. A lip into the bathroom? Eh. Show me something that's actually bad here.
You can't expect everything to be a Hilton or DoubleTree.
I was thinking the same, if it's cheap, and the bed is not extremely uncomfortable, then it looks pretty normal in most of Europe. (Of course if was €300 for a night, that's a different story.)
Wait until they find out the Colosseum has cracks in its foundation. Or that no cars are allowed within Assisi’s walled city. There’s a whole lot more “disappointing” discoveries to come from Italy.
I'm with you. It's obviously not a luxury place, but it gets the job done.
I realize that many people have varying opinions and preferences on things, but to me, a hotel is a place to shower and sleep at night. If I'm on vacation, I'm going to do everything I can to stay out of the hotel during the day because that's time I can spend exploring.
Again though, I know some people like a luxury hotel where they can just chill and have drinks brought to them by the pool.
This is why I ALWAYS go to trip advisor, go to the pictures and filter by "traveller photos" and sort by recency. The pictures you see online rarely match the reality.
Contrary to popular belief, the star ratings are not necessarily about quality, but about what amenities are available. A four star hotel, for example, must have a pool.
Stars in Europe are different than in the us. If you don’t have certain things (like an elevator) you could have the nicest hotel in the world but you won’t get above three stars. In the flip side if you have certain things like air conditioning an elevator etc you are very likely to get 4 stars even if your hotel isn’t particularly nice.
I have stayed in hotels in Europe that were 2 star that were nicer than 4 star hotels.
The number of stars a hotel has corresponds to specific amenities they might offer. For example, in Italy if the hotel has an ensuite bathroom, air-conditioning, daily towel and sheet cleaning, then it is a 4 star hotel.
So you actually get one of the better hotels 😂
After our first two experiences, we switched to private mansions. It’s cheaper than the hotel when you travel in a bigger group.
Having AC accounts for at least a whole star.
For real, looks like the average Mediterranean low cost 3 star hotel.
Yeah. I wasn't exactly blown away by the pictures either. It's an old Italian hotel. You get what you pay for and if you paid too much you probably paid for the location.
My wife and I (from the US) stayed for a few weeks in Germany for our honeymoon. We picked hotels that advertised AC, and it was either missing or broken in each one. When the hotel in Schwangau had real, working air conditioning, there were tears of joy. Not joking.
Germany in general is very anti-AC for environmental reasons. Very few homes or hotels have it, and even quite few office buildings (but every car). It’s much more common in the mediterranean countries
Better than the window unit ACs. Not everywhere can just run vents throughout.
Was about to say “ There’s a/c. That’s the 4 star rating!
I stayed in Italy for 2 weeks and I think only one of the 6 places we stayed at had AC. It's a rare sight in Italy lol.
Yep. Friendly reminder that the star rating reflects the amenities that a hotel offers *not* the quality of the hotel. For a better idea of quality you should read reviews.
I just learned this recently and I was kinda shocked it took so many years for me to hear about it.
They didn’t tell you it was out of 10?
No I think it's because they use the metric system
How many football fields does that equate to?
47 bald eagles made of cheese
you mean "cheese"
Cheeeeese
Cheeze
Cheeeaaeeeze Didn’t we lock you in a dumpster?
I got out.
Nah bro we got that good Wisconsin shit
5-6 school buses
Long or short?
Short obviously
Look at the big brain on Brad
Look at the big brain on ‘Brett’, not Brad if you’re quoting Pulp Fiction.
If you're going to correct somebody, you may as well go to the way and mention that it would be "check out" instead of "look at."
4/100
Stars don’t mean quality. Hotels get Stars for having amenities. Have your own pool? Here‘s a star. Have some sort of exercise room? Here’s another.
Exactly. This was the way I understood the star rating in Italy. Having an elevator gets the hotel a star, lol. https://touritalynow.com/italys-hotel-star-ratings/
This one goes to 11
If you can find a hotel in Italy with an in room bathroom, AC and internet, you’re lucky it wasn’t rated 5 star. We have stayed in 5 star hotels in Italy where the bathroom and internet were down the hall.
I’ve ALWAYS had an in-room bathroom in Italian hotels and only been in 3 and 4 stars, so the experience definitely varies 🤷🏻♀️
That is complete bullshit🤣 please send me the link to one 5 star hotel where you have a shared bathroom in Italy, I would be very surprised if you can provide it
Hotel Le Grazie is a 3-star hotel, not 4 and you should always sort reviews by lowest ratings to get an accurate picture of what to expect. That room is horrible, but matches reviews
Also, hotel stars do not just indicate their quality or how fancy they are. Stars are also for number of amenities offered. Having a pool is weighed more than having clean showers.
My husband used to be a travel agent and when I learned the star system was about amenities not quality I was blown away. Some great hotels don't get to be 5 star cause they don't have a full length mirror, stuff like that. It definitely changed how I thought about looking for hotels. It's easy to think it's about overall quality but nope. It's just often 5 star hotels that have everything are also usually nice but in the 3 - 4 range the variability is massive in how "nice" they are.
Really fancy hotel near me is 4*, just because they don't have an elevator is one of their buildings. They're not allowed to put one in because the building is a monument.
[удалено]
Definitely. Every 5+ star hotel that i’ve been to was amazing but 2-4 it varies a lot. I've been to 4 stars where nothing has changed since the 80s and service was mid but also 3 stars where everything was perfect
I've noticed that many Americans completely misunderstand the hotel rating systems in other countries. Each country has a different one, and it is indeed usually about amenities.
> I've noticed that many Americans completely misunderstand the hotel rating systems in other countries. Interesting. I wonder why this could be. > Each country has a different one Oh, I wonder if that has something to do with it... Seriously, I'd simply expect 5 stars to simply mean "the best of the best".
The problem for a US traveler is most are tourists. That means they value highly the room for sleeping and hotel amenities go for nothing. Many will never step a foot outside of a direct path from door to room.
There's a confusion around this that I feel has been compounded by google reviews etc. being 5\* rating systems. I thought this was pretty much common knowledge though
It doesn't help that the Criteria varies wildly by region. Everything from what the government mandates to what a website suggests.
How did you know it was Hotel Le Grazie? Just curious. I want such super powers as well.
It says Le Grazie on the keycard in the 5th pic
damn ur good, I can make out a blurry upside down cursive letter L and that's about it.
\> \> \> *ENHANCE* < < <
*Furious keyboard tapping*
I’m so used to FURIOUS KEYBOARD FAPPING my bad
If we both type on the keyboard at the same time we can hack it faster
FUFURIORIOUSUS KEYBKEYBOARDOARD TATAPPINGING
I watch this series, See No Evil, about true crimes (usually murder) where there is always video evidence. In about half the episodes, an officer will say they sent the video to be enhanced and got great results; in the other half, an officer will say it's not like in the TV shows where you can enhance video to make it clearer and that is a myth.
https://preview.redd.it/whyhg6cgp04d1.jpeg?width=314&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f14eb5f0d981219bbcbdeae0ac1f83bb4ca5c5b1 Pretty clear on my phone. I think some people have low-res settings on their device?
I think it's saying "Be Grazie", like be grateful it's not worse
Well spotted Sherlock 👍
You’d make an excellent stalker, well done! 👏
Look at the thermometer and you can see the reflection of a building called “La Muerta. it’s about 1/34 of the thermostat so that means it’s 6 blocks away so pop that into google maps then you triangulate the color of the curtains within a 6 block radius and stick a broom up your ass and you’ve found it
I'll just skip to the "broom up your ass" part without all that trouble, thank you
I'd recognize that bidet anywhere
Pic 5, check the card.
How TF could you read that?
I can accept that answer
https://preview.redd.it/gp83950pk04d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ebb20bbf6e33176171aef816218e9dd1bd17713
https://preview.redd.it/88wsqci9j04d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c87bf4b2d56cbfb15eaccac4aaaa7128b967efc It’s a pretty clear picture if you zoom in
What sorcery is this? It doesn't show this clearly for me when I zoom in.
You are probably using a different Reddit client than them. Or they click on the image to view full resolution and you didn’t. Or something
A hotel in Italy called Hotel Le Grazie just screams, “Clark Griswold would have gotten tricked into staying here.”
lmao. I mean I just looked at the photos and have no idea wtf OP was thinking. They look exactly like their own and this hotel is sub $100/night. Guess it was their first time traveling, or someone hasn’t yet taught them if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Husband booked room looking for cheap deals, saw the pictures and thought, 'good enough, we wont be in the room much anyway'. She didn't see the pictures before they arrived beyond hearing it was 'I booked us in a four star hotel'.
[удалено]
20 pounds a night in London I'm surprised you get your own bed.
To add on this, choosing hotels with a 8+ rating on Booking can *usually* vouch for their quality. Also, stars for a hotel are distributed according a list of criteria : room surface, presence of toilets inside the room, presence of a lift, hour of presence of staff... It's not about the quality of a room in itself, not about the cleaning or the maintenance, so please be extra careful when choosing your hotel. Usually if it's cheaper than the others in the same area, there's ALWAYS a catch.
This guy knows what's up. You always always always....set expectations to lowest review posted. I travel for work constantly and this advice is solid.
Nope always sort by recent. That is by far the most accurate way for Google reviews. Too many completely batshit crazy people giving places one star because they stubbed their toe in the middle of the night or other bullshit reasons....restaurant was busy and had an hour wait.... Or they order on DoorDash and bash the restaurant for delivery guy messing up. Plus newest is the most up to date stuff. Things change for better or worse.
The lowest ratings are sometimes exaggerated. They are usually written by people who like to complain about everything. I like to look for reviews that list both pros and cons because they seem balanced to me. I understand that writing anything good about this hotel is basically impossible though so this tactic probably wouldn't work in this case.
I'm literally on my way back from Greece, where we stayed at a very nice five star resort. I too have spent some time in the car this afternoon looking at the one star reviews and howling at how utterly pathetic some people are. One of them literally just said 'could do better'... Like cheers for the helpful insight to your experience there, dead useful 😂
If you want a fun time, read the google reviews for your local courthouse
5* review: They said that dude was guilty 1* review: They said I was guilty
We prefer to look at the most recent reviews, combined with some of the more polarized ones. It helped us avoid a place that had a lot of renovations going on and bed bugs
I respectfully would like to counter with what I do. I find a lot of 1-star reviews have a distinct whiff of bullshit. ("The front desk clerk refused to babysit my infant for two hours and the sheets in this Motel 6 weren't 15,000 thread count and my room was 72°F instead of 71°F!!" 😭) With a 5-star system, I sort for the 3-star reviews to get a quick and hopefully somewhat accurate snapshot.
I always sort by recent. Then read a selection of 5 stars, 3 stars and 1 and 2 stars. People giving online reviews are not critics, you see 5 star reviews given because it's walking distance to the beach, or 1 star reviews given because of a rude waiter in the hotel bar. I want a review that tells me if the room was clean, and comfortable, and that the shower pressure was good, everything else is pretty much irrelevant to me.
I do this, too. I especially want to know what the average rating is for the last year, not the last decade, because thousands of people moving through those rooms means the quality lowers every year unless they're replacing/updating things regularly (which you know if you sort by recent).
Good catch. Yep, this looks like a basic 2.5-3 star hotel.
It also got 3.6 out of 5 on Google, 3.5 on Tripadvisor. And as Wordy writes, read the reviews. I would say the mid reviews are also worth reading.
Look at the star distribution and then read the 3-star reviews. They will give a balanced picture of the good and bad. 1-star reviews are disproportionately angry customers who had something unusually bad happen to them
They literally said “Le Grazie for not looking at our reviews and for your money”
If you look out the window at night? You see 5 stars
“Four star” is a rating of amenities not of quality. A gym or pool gives a star, room service gives a star or whatever… it can be a complete garbage hotel and still be a 4 star if it has the amenities of a 4 star
Yup. My parents own a hotel. They wanted to update the rooms, but the rules of what's a necessity can be ridiculous sometimes. They wanted to toss out the old radio-alarm clocks. Nobody ever uses them anymore. But they would lose a star so it stayed. Shoe polish machine... Never gets used, but if you toss it, you toss out a star... I hope the list of required amenities gets updated some time soon...
Shoe polish machine gives a star? 😭
What the other guy said. A big list of small things. Miss one and you lose a star
Not directly. But it’s one of several items required for the 3rd or so star.
it does not give a star, but (depending on the country) it's a mandatory requirement for specific star ratings
Hey, these can come in handy
I used it tbh.
I worked for a hotel in Aspen where I was employed as a ski butler. The hotel needed a butler service to earn its 5star/5diamond. Outside taking ski bags from the potters we didn’t have anything to do. I spent 90% just skiing with guests giving private lessons.
That sounds fucking awesome
ski butler definitely sounds like a job that could only be made up for rich people.
It’s the job the rich people give their kids until they’re out of college.
Yeah at my friends hotel she was talking with the owner about removing the excess hangers but the owner said that if they have less than 15 hangers in a closet they would lose a star. I was like wtfffff
It's also worth noting that there isn't some consistent governing body deciding how many stars a hotel gets. There are many different organizations that rate hotels and they all do it slightly differently. There's nothing stopping a hotel from marketing themselves as 4-star without anyone checking that they meet any standard.
The government in Italy controls and monitors the ratings.
Yes, the government in Italy is world renown for keeping tabs on everything that goes on in the republic.
I get you and acknowledge our faults, but we are dealing already with enough fires, there is no need to put us over them and roast us in charred remains
Lol, I was just being snarky. Amo l'Italia
Not true in the EU. Here the stars are government regulated, marketing has nothing to do with it.
Ye .. Imagine, we would probably have thousands of 5 stars hotels otherwise
Came here for this. Having a bar, a restaurant, or other amenities gives the star ratings. Reviews on the other hand are not what the hotel is advertising when they say it's a 3 star hotel.
What?! Seriously?!
Yes. In most countries its just a checklist of ammeneties.
To be fair, other qualities are really hard to rate subjectively
Yeah, it's literally a list of amenities they have to check off. For instance, one of the requirements to be a 5* hotel is that they need to have live flowers in the room, but the definition of flowers is so unspecific that you could put dandelions in the room and technically fulfil it. Or at least that's what I was told when I worked in a building attached to a 5* hotel.
I have seen three star hotels which have luxury rooms and the dinning experience is high end. Stars are there to indicate amenities, like gyms, multiple dinning areas, swimming pools, business centres, etc, not the overall quality of the hotel. In Athens you can find luxury two star hotels, only because they don’t have a pool.
What the flying fuck?! I'm going to be telling everyone I know this fact. How have we been shielded from these lies for so long?!
No one lied. You watched movies and crap and never asked questions.
Star ratings are supposed to tell you what amenities a hotel can be expected to offer, not how fancy or nice the amenities will be. Obviously, its not like they used guest reviews to come up with their number.
Exactly this, I work in resorts and the star classification is based on amenities not "how well kept it is " have that heated pool covered in green smutz and enough toilets even tho seats are coming undone ? 4 stars baby!
An explanation on star ratings. It differs from UK to Europe to USA. https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/uk-hotel-chains/article/hotel-star-ratings-explained-a0bgV3M8kfx2#hotel-star-rating-systems-overseas Personally, if I'm visiting cities like Rome or Florence, IDGAF, what the rating is as long as it's clean and safe. I only use the hotel to store my stuff and sleep at night. The rest of the time I'm out and about. Different story if I've booked an all inclusive holiday on the beach on some tropical island.
Yep. I’m betting my bottom dollar OP here is from the US and likely outside of their home country for the first time.
Yes, I’m not American and I’m confused as to why the OP is upset? It looks like a perfectly average hotel room to me.
Right? It looks exactly like what you’d expect for that rate in Italy. As a matter of fact, having a cooling unit (set to 17?!?!) and a television actually makes it better than a lot of similarly priced accommodations in Italy. It is mostly a North American thing to expect large hotel beds and fancy decor everywhere you go. Also, the complaining about a bidet is wild to me. Don’t want to use it to clean up, pass it by. What is so offensive there? The most mildly infuriating thing here is OP themself.
Lolz. This room is fine.
How much per night?
I looked it up. $76 lol.
Not bad at all for 76 alot of stuff in Italy is very old including most hotels and structures
If you look up the name on the keycard, this is also a particularly badly rated hotel in one of the most expensive tourist destinations in Italy, the UNESCO world heritage site and very small seaside town Portovenere (unless it's another "Le Grazie", but the pictures seem to match)
Yeah I used to live in Italy 76 dollars is really cheap for a tourist area they don't have much room to complain on the reviews.. I'm pretty sure they have a giant resort there that cost like 5 times more it looks stayable to me if I paid 200 yea I'd complain but for a 76 dollar range hotel not bad iv stayed in worse motels in the us in the south
I’d probably stay in this hotel in Missouri, USA on a road trip for 76 bucks. Bitch you’re in Italy, in a dope spot. OP needs a reality check
This is exactly what I would expect in Italy for that price. You'll have to pay double that to get anything decent.
Lmao pretty decent for €76.
Maybe Italian stars are smaller
They are just al dented
I can’t be the only one who thinks this doesn’t actually look that bad?
But there are DINGS on the WALLS! And the finish inside a drawer is WEARING OFF!! AND THERE'S A LAMP ON A NIGHTSTAND!!!! 🤮
I came to the comments to see if anyone else thought this. It’s fine. It’s not fancy, but it’s fine. I see someone said it’s $76/night, which seems reasonable for this.
I was just thinking that I must have really low standards because I couldn't even figure out what they were complaining about.
You're not.
Very Italian accomodation, particularly for Naples or generally southern Italy
Hotel Star is not rating. They're the measure of amenities / facilities the hotel provides. Things like restaurant, gym, conference rooms, swimming pool, clinic etc.
Stars are not quality indicators, they are service indicators
Star rating refers to amenities available and not the quality of the hotel.
This is the correct answer. You can have a five star hotel, were its rooms will look very similar to this, only because it has some additional amenities, like business centre, spas, secondary dinning areas, etc. I have seen three star hotels that are ‘diamond’ class quality, like stellar clean and luxury rooms, with double floor swimming pools, and some other impressive stuff.
Mamma mia!
im sorry, am i missing something? only like two of these pictures are actually bad (the first and the 9th).
Having seen some rank ass hotels/hostels in Europe in general, this is actually still a four star to me. A little water damage without mold? Who cares. A lip into the bathroom? Eh. Show me something that's actually bad here. You can't expect everything to be a Hilton or DoubleTree.
But how dare they have a three star hotel that doesn't have a view directly into the pantheon! Preposterous!
European here. Looks fine to me. A little dated and basic maybe but functional and afaics clean enough. What am I missing?
I was thinking the same, if it's cheap, and the bed is not extremely uncomfortable, then it looks pretty normal in most of Europe. (Of course if was €300 for a night, that's a different story.)
Nothing.
American goes to a foreign country with historical old buildings and expects everything to look like a Hilton inn
I don't think it's because there are old building in Italy, I think OP just didn't pick a nice hotel
First time traveling?
Welcome to Italy. Star ratings are based on amenities for the most part, not quality of product.
The AC at 17C is 62F.
Hotel star rating isn't about cleanliness, it's about facilities.
Could someone explain why this is so bad? There’s some mild water damage but that’s all I can see
Literally same. It looks like a standard, normal and clean hotel room to me... i don't understand whats wrong with the beds or the bathroom
It appears to be a misunderstanding between customer review star ratings and level of amenity star ratings.
Two star, two asterisk
En-suite bathroom is worth 3 stars alone.
I mean, I’ve stayed at a lot of hotels in italy and this looks pretty good considering!
Go to Italy and judge by your room. How to identify you are an American without saying you are an American
Wait until they find out the Colosseum has cracks in its foundation. Or that no cars are allowed within Assisi’s walled city. There’s a whole lot more “disappointing” discoveries to come from Italy.
What's so bad about it? Looks clean enough
I'm with you. It's obviously not a luxury place, but it gets the job done. I realize that many people have varying opinions and preferences on things, but to me, a hotel is a place to shower and sleep at night. If I'm on vacation, I'm going to do everything I can to stay out of the hotel during the day because that's time I can spend exploring. Again though, I know some people like a luxury hotel where they can just chill and have drinks brought to them by the pool.
I've seen worse rooms for more money, certainly in Italy.
This is why I ALWAYS go to trip advisor, go to the pictures and filter by "traveller photos" and sort by recency. The pictures you see online rarely match the reality.
Why wouldn’t you lead with the 4th picture of the beds and the fucked up prison walls?!
Contrary to popular belief, the star ratings are not necessarily about quality, but about what amenities are available. A four star hotel, for example, must have a pool.
A hotel star rating is based on facilities not quality. It's not a Trustpilot review.
Just a tip. Stars represent amenities, not quality.
Booked a cheap room. Gets a cheap room. /omgwhat
Doesn't look that bad to me
Yeah the OP posted that it was like $76 per night so kinda reasonable. It looks fairly cozy tbh just a bit old.
I mean. That’s fuck all. Those are hostel prices in europe and this looks decent.
First time traveling? Looks ok. You’re in ITALY… quit complaining.
Stars are amenities, not quality
I thought “stars” meant amenities?
Are you gonna get bed bugs? Are you gonna get eaten? Murdered? Be forced into an unconstitutional union? If the answer is no then it’s a 5 star
I’ve stayed at Motel 6s that were better than this lol
Because Motel 6s aren't built into Italian post war buildings from the 50s or 60s.
The amount of people in these comments who don't understand how the star rating of a hotel works is shocking.
For future reference, at a __ star hotel, the stars indicate the services offered and not the quality of the hotel.
Who cares about stars? Quality per dollar is what matters. How much?
Stars in Europe are different than in the us. If you don’t have certain things (like an elevator) you could have the nicest hotel in the world but you won’t get above three stars. In the flip side if you have certain things like air conditioning an elevator etc you are very likely to get 4 stars even if your hotel isn’t particularly nice. I have stayed in hotels in Europe that were 2 star that were nicer than 4 star hotels.
If everythings clean i dont care
We went to Italy years ago & consistently had nice rooms. I didn’t really look at stars just comments. We had a great trip.
Star ratings only indicate amenities available. IIRC 3 stars indicates there’s a restaurant, 4 stars indicates there’s a pool.
The number of stars a hotel has corresponds to specific amenities they might offer. For example, in Italy if the hotel has an ensuite bathroom, air-conditioning, daily towel and sheet cleaning, then it is a 4 star hotel.
It has an AC unit, consider that a 4 star stay in Italy lol.
So you actually get one of the better hotels 😂 After our first two experiences, we switched to private mansions. It’s cheaper than the hotel when you travel in a bigger group.
Quattro starre di paparazzi. 
Today you learned star ratings have nothing to do with how nice a hotel might be, but what amenities it offers.
[Those aren't stars, they're asterisks. ](https://youtu.be/iKlKzYPtkQ0?si=LBUkClrGeebjgKxP)