Pros: spacious room, modern bathroom, great terrace with hot tub, nice sandy beach, quiet, can reserve at the Grotta restaurant, helpful English speaking staff you can contact via WhatsApp.
Cons: poor air conditioning strength - room never got below 26C, warm mini fridge, no beers in fridge, no coffee in room, small breakfast buffet, best order directly from kitchen. No shuttle to other hotel in town but those guests can get a shuttle to the beach and you can’t even sit in the empty leg back to town. Expensive taxis - €50 for a car to Monopoli, tuktuk slightly cheaper but still expensive, uncomfortable and unsafe. No hotel pool but there was a pool in the old hotel before they took over. No gym.
The beach is nice but not private and exclusive to the hotel, shared with another hotel and beach club. Avoid Italian school holidays as very crowded with noisy children. Hotel room was high tech but in all the wrong areas - I don’t need an iPad to control lights, I want good air con, a cold fridge and a coffee maker. I like a nice spacious shower but no need for a huge rain shower with 5 settings - put a double sink in the bathroom and hooks for towels. Cleaning seem to miss small toiletries like I used cotton pads every day but they were never replenished every day after they had seen I had used them even after I asked for more the first day.
It’s like they had ambitions for design but ran out of money. We might stay again for the right price, at the right time and hire a car.
