First the good:
My husband and I traveled to San Felice for 4 nights in October. The hotel property was beautiful. The rooms are very clean and the decor is keeping with the Tuscan charm. The resort is isolated on a hill top overlooking the region, but it is very convenient to Radda in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti and Siena by car. If you are looking for a quiet, charming resort this is your place! If you are looking for night life and being within walking distance of anything do not stay here. For us the location was perfect! We rented road bikes, which San Felice helped us to arrange, and we road between 60 - 70km/day visiting all the local towns. The roads are hilly and winding and at times you feel as if you are the only person in the world! AMAZING views as you ride between towns! There is also, a beautiful pool, but it was a bit chilly for us. We were told that it is heated, but they only heat it to 75degrees. Not sure what your idea of heated is so just be aware. But is is lovely to sit and read next to.
The front desk staff was very helpful. One in particular, and unfortunately I do not remember his name, but he seemed to be there all the time. He arranged reservations, helped us to find a bike rental company with quality road bikes, and made many useful suggestions. He was very apologetic about the lack of a/c. He was outstanding! He seemed much more manger material than the actual manager.
Now the bad:
Rooms:
Our issue with the resort was this: It is very costly, "luxury" resort that advertises air conditioned rooms. This was one of the reasons that we selected this hotel over others, and we payed more for it! When we arrived to the resort around 4:00pm it was nearly 90degrees outside (unusually warm for October). Our room was stifling!! Went to turn on the air conditioning, but heat came out. Called the front desk and was told " we have heat air conditioning". Hmmm, what is that? Well it turns out that they fill their pipes with cool water in the warm months and hot water in the cool months. So you have either heat or air conditioning. There is no forced air. They had already switched their pipes to heat for the season. Therefore, there was NO AIR CONDITIONING. We opened the windows, which if you are familiar with European hotels, they do not use screens! So, this means our luxury room that we payed $700 night for we are now sharing with flies and mosquitos! We were told that they would bring up a fan, which they did at midnight after we called again. So we slept(or tried to sleep) with no covers, a fan, and the bugs. It did cool down over the course of the week, but never to the point that I felt we did not need air conditioning. We used the fan every night and slept with just a sheet and the window opened.
Manager:
The worst part: The manager! He was not apologetic at all. Nor did he offer to do anything for us. I felt that our room should be discounted as they falsely advertised air conditioned rooms. We could have stayed at a much less expensive resort and received the same accommodation. His response was " well, how is everything else?" He made a point to speak to us every morning,so we just smiled and said we were having a great time. Why ruin our vacation complaining all the time.
The restaurant:
AWFUL! I had read the reviews, but decide to try it anyway. Sorry that I did not listen to the other reviewers advice. The restaurant itself is beautiful and they have a great pianist playing, but that is all that was nice about it. The staff was very cold. They weren't rude, but they weren't welcoming and friendly as we found the rest of the region to be. The whole atmosphere was very pretentious. The food was terrible as well. In fact we went down for lunch the following day, because we were waiting for a delivery and couldn't leave the resort. When we were given the same menu as the night before we got up and left. We would rather skip lunch than to eat from that menu again!
The bar menu had some very good "snacks" which held us over until we could leave and go somewhere else. I am not sure why such a pricey resort does not offer more options for lunch. Pizza? Pasta? No where to be found.
Also, beware that the restaurant was VERY expensive. When the bill came we asked if tip was included and were told "no". My husband tipped very generously, only to find out the next night from a different restaurant that tipping is included in all of Italy and it is not necessary to leave extra. So, we total were taken advantage of by the San Felice staff.
See my review of Il Celliere a Castagnoli. By far the best food and service! A Must! I want to go back to Tuscany just to eat at this restaurant again!
I want to add that our issues were not isolated to just us. We talked with 3 other couples during the course of our stay. Conversations were struck up when we overheard others complaining about all of the same issues. Everyone was equally disappointed with the restaurant and the excessive heat with no air conditioning. One couple changed rooms. We were offered the same, but declined as none of the rooms had air conditioning we didn't see the sense in packing up. There reason was that some of the rooms receive less sun exposure and are therefore cooler. The couple that changed were shown 4 different rooms before choosing one. They were told it was a more expensive room and were charged extra! So they had to move because there room did not have a/c and they had to pay extra! Absurd.
This may be a great resort when the a/c is on. I have understand that this may have been an unusually warm fall and normally they do not need the a/c, but it is unacceptable for the managers lack of concern. I would not stay here again because of the manager and a lack of response to his guests concerns.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
February 19, 2013
Dear customer,
I am very sorry to read about your unhappiness regarding your trip in Tuscany last October as our objective is certainly the opposite, and we strive hard to provide a real Tuscan experience to all of our customers.
The air conditioning problem was due to unexpected, unusual weather conditions for the time of the year and we decided to switch our system to heating in order to ensure that none would have suffered from the expected cooler Fall weather of October. Once the switch was done we had no possibilities of turning the A/C system back on even during the high temperature we registered during your stay.
I have taken good note of your comments regarding our staff attitude both in the positive and in the negative aspects you have highlighted and I am very surprised as they are all committed to enthusiastically provide our customers with a superior hospitality experience. As far as I am concerned I am also sorry that my daily checking with you during your stay was interpreted as a routine and not as a sign of concern for the inconvenient that occurred to you because of the weather.
In order to fully address your points, I also have to admit that the point you raise about the restaurant and our F&B offering takes me particularly off guard. Since we started our collaboration with the two Michelin star Chef, Francesco Bracali, we have received only extremely positive remarks and compliments for a cuisine that takes inspiration from the territory to re-engineer traditional Tuscan cuisine into a creative menu that has been well received by our guests and even by the most sophisticated food critics.
I will take your remarks with me in the future operations of our resort, but I wanted to express to you directly the senses of our deepest regret for not having been able to deliver to you the magic of Tuscany we are used to provide to all our guests at all times.
Achille Di Carlo
General Manager
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.