Grand Hotel La Pace

Yes this place may have been 5-stars 20 years ago, when the staff were still young and the pillows were still fluffy. Nowadays it could use a top to bottom makeover, from the stinky vestibule, to the stiff beds and rough linens. Everyone is grumpy, the bus drivers, the front desk, especially the old night shift. Staff entered our room unannounced on the daily every morning, with us still sleeping in bed. Towels were thin and dirty, I had someone's hair or makeup on each new towel I received. Front desk is rigid and unaccomodating, and the night shift just stares at you grumpily. Most importantly, they don't like anyone lounging in the lounge area, we got kicked out with a wagging finger twice. This place is overpriced for the rusty hardware, unfriendly staff, and the rockhard pillows you get, plus the furniture is just hideous. Lastly, not a single sidewalk in a one-mile radius, this place is NOT walkable, matter of fact, you'll be risking your life getting around without a ride. The pool is nice, but my family will NOT be returning to enjoy it, because it's not open long enough in the evening. Honestly, I just felt like I was back in grade school, being watched and chastised constantly. Sad and spoiled vacation.

The hotel has very impressive lobby if you like lots of gold, pastel leather seating and marble, but the award of 5 stars should not depend on the amount of marble on display! The restaurant was extremely disappointing - the evening menu really limited and the quality just mediocre - and the breakfast was decidely ordinary. The location turned out to be a 15-minute trek uphill from Sant Agnello train station - not such a problem if you're agile, but the 3 daily set times for the free shuttle bus into and back from Sorrento were dreadful and simply did not reflect the needs of a family with young children. In a week, we didn't manage to be able to fit in with it once and I suspect a lot of others were in a similar position. I also thought that, for a 5* hotel and bearing in mind that Sorrento is only 10mins away, they could have had a much more frequent service. Also, bizarrely, they asked us to pay for an organised trip with cash and only after extreme persuasion did they go through a convoluted process of obtaining a manual credit card slip from the operators for us to sign, when they should have just added the cost of the trip to our hotel bill! Not the 5* experience we're used to - where one of the reasons you pay extra for that type of hotel is to make things easy. That said, the complementary sparkling wine and fruit at the start and the chocolate on the pillow every evening were nice touches, but sadly, not enough to influence us to recommend it to anyone else.