Having stayed in the Centrale in June, my first reaction was that I was not all misguided by the various people who awarded it the highest accolades. I have recommended it to many people where they will sample the wonderful personal service provided by Giacomo and his family. It was so nice to have someone run the hotel who had a long family connection with both the hotel and the town. His stories of the places and people around the area were both interesting and amusing.

I read 'Warsaw's' comments and it is sad that he didn't see the experience quite as we, and the vast majority of other travellers to the hotel, did. It is odd for him to recommend other hotels when he hasn't stayed there, or complain about not being registered, even when the hotel did apparently find him a room. I guess the real test of a hotel is how they deal with a situation, when something doesn't exactly work out. It was a bit rude, however, to suggest that they needed to be taken over by a bigger hotel group. For me this misses the whole point about the Centrale - its personal touch!

I guess the World is a big place and everyone can never be pleased, but we had a wonderful time and will return again sometime.

I would have no hesitation in recommending the hotel. It is a true personal, family experience on Lake Como.

We stayed just one night in the hotel and the price was perfect in a very touristy area. The hotel is small and quaint and the staff was friendly. The location of the hotel is excellent, right in the middle of town and close to the pier. Breakfast was simple, but nice in a room with lots of windows.

We had a room on the second floor with a terrace, however the terrace is very small and there was only one chair, but we did not spend much time in our room anyway. The rooms are very simple, but clean and as the hotel is not so expensive, it was a good value for the price. The only drawback is that the walls are very thin and everything can be heard, so if sleeping is a big deal and the neighbors happen to be noisy, ear plugs would be good to bring along.

We stayed here for 3 nights in August 2009 as part of driving tour of Italy and Austria. We are two adults and a 6yr old daughter.

I think it is a little misleading for this hotel to be #1 in Bellagio. What it is, is a relatively cheap, decent enough, family run hotel. There's no question you can find better hotels in Bellagio but you might be paying €100 a night extra, obviously a lot more than that in Villa Serbelloni. Having said that, we checked the prices of the hotel Metrople that stands right on the lake and their prices were not that much more than the Centrale. No idea how good the place is though. The Belvedere for example, currently #2 on the list, appears to be far better but with an associated higher cost. So, you need to take the reviews here with a pinch of salt, this hotel is okay for the price in what seems to be an expensive resort, not much more than that - in our opinion.

Watch out when booking. We had a mail saying we should send credit card details to "confirm" the booking. We did that and yet when we arrived we did not have a room and were not expected. The problem is with their "voucher" system that seems to be a bit erratic. A voucher number is essential and without that you don't have a room, even if they have credit card details. We were not sent a voucher and did not see it is important as we had already "confirmed" the booking, so we thought. We were wrong. They quickly dealt with the problem, fortunately, but this resulted in us sleeping three in a bed for the first night and possibly never getting the room we should have had having booked well in advance.

I'd say in general, everything about this hotel was adequate but could be better. The only staff aside from cleaners are the family. This is nice and personal but does mean that levels of service can only ever be as good as the family can handle. This hotel "could be" an excellent small hotel in a great location in Bellagio but it needs investment, imagination and possibly fresh blood & ideas. I think it needs either buying by a hotel investor or handing over to the younger generation of the family along with a large bank loan.

My wife and I stayed at the Hotel Centrale for part of our honeymoon and loved it. The rooms were clean and nice, and the hotel had several very enjoyable common areas. There is a beautiful terrace on the roof of the second floor and a nice courtyard at the entrance. The staff wads extremely helpful and the owner was very friendly and had lots of good advice to offer. The location is very nice, just 62 steps above the main road that borders the water and less that a 5 minute walk from the ferry. All in all, this was my favourite hotel from the entire trip. HIGHLY RECOMENDED!