Hotel Poiano

The property seems to be locked into a 1980's time warp. There's still a Maitre 'd wearing a white tuxedo in charge of the restaurant as if old European royalty were about to drop in for dinner; rather than the package tour guests who were there! As a resort hotel the location is wonderful, looking down over Garda. It's spread out over a lot of land, so even when full it didn't feel that way. The best things were the wonderful 50m pool and pool snack bar, the easy access to Garda, with a free shuttle service, and the friendly and helpful staff. The space in the Junior suites was marvellous, with lots of storage space for the three of us. The not so good things were the horribly dated rooms, which are in definite need of a renovation to 21st Century standards. It is not acceptable to have bathrooms where the toilet cistern never shuts off but keeps gurgling throughout the night. Also, the shower over the bath always managed to flood the floor, no matter how the curtain was positioned. And whose idea was it to place the toilet roll holder so that you needed to be a contortionist to reach it when using the toilet? Worst of all was the air conditioning. The temperature and fan speed could only be controlled by reception! Sometimes they would switch the system off or change the temperature and fan speed, without asking us. On one day the chambermaid decided not to clean our room and change the towels. It took a lot of phone calls to reception just to get some clean towels. Although the free shuttle was great, why did the last one back to the hotel leave town so early in the evening? It was difficult to judge the food due to the Covid restrictions. Breakfast was served at your table from the buffet so everything you ordered came at once and the hot food was only lukewarm. And if you have the first sitting for breakfast at 07:30 why do you keep guests waiting in a long queue until 07:40?? The cost of dinner for the half board basis was considerably more expensive than the restaurants in town so we ate out every night, with a much wider range of choice.

This was the second year coming back to the Poiano. Yes, the hotel is a little dated but the view and the pool area more than make up for this. Breakfast was a bit of a battle at times this year, but understandable given the Covid situation. Go for the early breakfast to avoid queues for coffees. We didn't eat here in the evenings but made use of the lovely restaurants and the free shuttle into Garda. Reserving of sunbeds by some of our European friends is nowhere near as bad we've experienced elsewhere, but does happen. It would help if the hotel removed towels from any sunbeds not used after 30mins. Problem solved. Don't let this put you off this resort however. Bar prices had increased since last year and 6 Euros for a beer from the pool bar seemed a little excessive. However, still a great hotel and would definitely recommend.