Kristina Kehler
Google
Based on our experience, we unfortunately don’t have many good things to say about the Castello Di Leonina. We had booked the classic room which was 250€ per night on average, which I consider a rather steep price. However, there were several major problems with our room called "Bruco": 1) the room was located in a separate building across the street, not in the castle 2) it was a souterrain room with no view at all (despite advertised differently) and slightly claustrophobic 3) wifi didn’t work in the room 4) this is by far the worst one: humidity in the room was super high and there was a strong smell of mold and several moldy stains on the walls, especially in the bathroom. Being souterrain without any mosquito nets it was not possible to sleep with the windows open to at least try to get some fresh air - definitely not the room you'd want to sleep in, especially not for that price and with the expectation of staying in a romantic castle in Tuscany. The whole building (which was tiny anyway) was heavily air conditioned - probably an attempt to suppress the smell.
Of course, there is always the WHAT and the HOW, and a lot can be turned around when handled with the right care. The situation with our room wasn’t handled professionally unfortunately - when we complained about the room, we were offered an upgrade after the first night, or a cancellation with the possibility of an unspecified refund which they would only be able to specify after the weekend. Based on that they wanted us to take a decision and when we argued that an unguaranteed refund was a high risk for us as customers, the lady at the reception desk took an arrogant attitude and told us something along the lines of „we are a reputable hotel“ and this is why we should „trust them that they will find the best solution for the refund“. Furthermore she said that "all our rooms are beautiful", so we weren't really fond of an upgrade. However, the refund, as another staff member kindly checked out in the meantime, would have been 50%, although they had offered us an unbearable room. Thank you, but no thank you. Despite our anger, we took the option of an upgrade after the first (horrible) night to the junior suite which was a decent room, but I still wouldn't recommend it from a value for money point of view.
Generally speaking, service varied a lot between the individual staff members. I would like to highlight that some staff members were very professional, friendly and helpful, while others were not and some behavior was definitely unprofessional and/or not what I expect for such a facility.
Be aware that when you book the classic room, you might end up in the room I am talking about here.
