Relais Della Porta

All perfect: location, amenities, services, cleanliness

I reserved a room here about 4 months in advance based on the recommendation of a travel blog and favorable reviews. Huge mistake! On arrival, I was told I had to stay in a nearby sister hotel. I had reserved (and paid more for) a room with a view and a balcony. The room I was switched to did not have a balcony and looked out into a dreary interior area with a view of an elevator. And the hotel refused to offer me a reasonable excuse for doing this or a partial refund or discount. And I had to stay in this room for 3 nights, they made no effort to accommodate what I had paid for. In addition, it was impossible to figure out how to access this "hotel" (which in reality is just some rooms on an old office building) in the evening. If some people who were staying there had not come along, I have no idea what I would have done that evening. Slept in the street? You have to enter codes in a hard-to-see in the dark little panel, then listen for a click to push open a tiny door embedded in a larger door (hardly big enough for my suitcase), then walk through a dark courtyard area to a small and rickety elevator, then climb stairs, to encounter another panel to enter more codes in, before finally making it to your room. And there is no concierge or any kind of typical hotel amenities. And after a long day of traveling, I asked the person who let me into my room if there was a decent place to eat nearby, and he suggested something 15 minutes away (if I didn't mind walking he said) and it is now 10 pm at night and I am alone?? The best I could do was backtrack my way through all that mess of getting into the building to come back with 2 limp slices of pizza. And the worst part of this, is that I paid approximately $680 USD for the "pleasure" of all this. And then find out the next day a couple I ran into was staying for the same amount of time in the same type of room for half the price?? The owners/proprietors of this "hotel" should be ashamed of running such a miserable operation. The only tiny good thing was the location in a central area to be able to walk to most attractions. But the neighborhood itself is not good. Do yourself a favor and book something on or near the water for a much more pleasant experience of Naples.

Almost everything exceeded expectation. In the middle of everything, but sufficiently well insulated from the hustle and bustle of the vibrant streets. The accommodation and service were first rate, as was the breakfast. The only tiny quibble was we weren't staying in the more ornate part of the establishment, so the experience felt more functional than we had hoped for. However, other than that, it was faultless.