I have stayed at the Mazzaro' Sea Palace a few times now, and it never disappoints. My only complaint is that I haven't been there in the summer (but that's no fault of the hotel). Everything--from the staff, to the rooms, to the breakfasts and dinners--is first class.

This is a great hotel. Rooms clean and comfortable. Plenty of toiletries. Restaurant is excellent with a superb breakfast buffet. Reception staff were very helpful at all times. Restaurant staff were very professional. It has a nice private beach and is well located for easy access to the town via the cable car. Due to its position right on the coast, the railway line runs behind the hotel through a tunnel but did not cause us any inconvenience (i.e. loss of sleep)

The hotel was very cheesy - think Austin Powers movie, very 60's. That would have been fine if it weren't for the staff. They were rude, dismissive, and never smiled. We were told the first night that we couldn't have dessert with an after dinner drink on the balcony because the piano player was playing. OK, so we went to the store across the street and bught a bottle of wine for $10.00, sat on our large balcony and enjoyed the view. The hotel lost a lot of money on us because we would have bought drinks at an expensive price every night and would have had dinner at the hotel if we wernt treated so rudely.We were there for 4 days and never saw anybody at the bar or drinking outside with the piano player. I can understand why. We were shocked at the attitude of the staff. When we met the manager, we understood - think Nurse Ratchet!
I have to say that the views from the balcony were outstanding, one the best we have ever had. The balcony was huge and it was beautiful during the day and in the evening. If you don't mind rude staff, the ocean view rooms are exquisite. Personally, we would not return to this hotel.

We booked this hotel through Citailia who had it rated as a 5 star deluxe. We had a Jumior Suite, with Sea View. First you should be aware that a railway track runs through cut and then tunnel close to the Southern end of the hotel and consequently you can hear the trains quite clearly if you are at this end of the hotel. There is also a beach cafe adjeacent to the southern end and this plays music loud enough to be heard in the room we occupied at first. Having complained, we were moved to another room nearer the north end of the hotel. This brings me to the second thing you should be aware of. The hotel appears to allow dogs. Having moved rooms, the people in the next room arrived in the early hours of the morning and proceeded to shut their dog out on the balcony where it whined and cried for the remainder of the night, and then barked from about 6.00am.
We complained to our Citalia rep, Luisa, at this stage, and she was very helpful and following this we were moved again and upgraded to a Deluxe Suite at the far North end of the hotel. This was more quiet and quite nice but none of the hotel is what I would rate as 5 star deluxe, which I expect to be perfect. So for example I am fussy about bathrooms; the shower (which was in the bath) in our first room, leaked. The shower door to a quite small free standing shower in the "Deluxe Suite" would not close properly and hence flooded the bathroom floor when taking a shower.
The beach towels provided for use on the beach were generally thin and worn.
Staff were mixed, some were brilliant and could not do enough for you (a Mauritian waiter at breakfast did more to make our stay pleasant than anyone else, perhaps with his level of care he should be running the hotel!!) whilst others seemed quite offhand.
The buffet breakfast was quite good, plenty of fresh fruit and great cakes and pastries, but if you like cooked breakfast I found it below average).
A major shock was that there is no parking at the hotel and cars are taken offsite to a nearby car park and are brought back on request - the cost of this service is 30 euros PER DAY! Not something that Citalia mention in their brochure.
Other people have mentioned the jelly fish in their reports and they can definitely be a problem in the bay, making you nervous about swimming in the sea. However, having been stung on my arms and stomach I was not affected adversely for more than 1/2 day.
In summary this is a reasonable 4 star NOT 5 star deluxe hotel. If you like crowds and noise its ok but overpriced, if you like peace and tranquility and a very high standard of accomodation - give this one a very wide berth.