Locanda San Martino Thermae

Our experience at this unique hotel/airB&B which is located right in the heart of the SASSI district, is as follows. We spent two nights in a beautifully renovated room that was originally a cave home.||While the furnishings are intentionally spartan to reflect the cave dwelling experience, all necessary amenities were provided. This stay was a departure from our usual hotel choices, but embracing the concept of cave life made it a truly wonderful and memorable experience. |The availability of laundry service (a bag for €12) was also very convenient during our two-week trip.|We used the opportunity of our stay to book a couples massage and swim in the caves. Sooo relaxing.|In the evenings, we were treated to a spectacular view of the town, and our room was incredibly quiet thanks to the ancient, thick walls.

Locanda San Martino was a great choice. The rooms were very nice and very clean. The bed was very comfortable and the view from the room was breathtaking. It's in a great location close to recommended churches, restaurants and bars. A member at the reception in the early evening wasn't very friendly or patient in sharing suggestions but otherwise nothing to complain about. We would go there again.

A value for money hotel located in the heart of Matera's Sassi District and close to the center after climbing the stone stairs of surrounding alleys. Room was like cave with renovated walls and floor. Bed was a big double one offering relaxing and good sleep. Only the breakfast was poor and basic with few things to choose and most of the were pies and croissants.

This hotel is full of surprises. We booked a junior suite room, first of all, when we entered the room, the temperature decreased by 10 degrees and it saved us because outside was like 37 degrees. The room was spotless, everything was vintage style, full of characters and history. Can’t imagine that someone was sleeping in the same location 4000 years ago. They provided sleepers, and had a small fridge for the mini bar, and had a jacuzzi. The balcony has a magnificent view of Matera, which we enjoyed a lot during the evening! The temperature was so cool and we enjoyed eating snacks and drinking over there. Notably, the hotel has a Roman bath facility, and we paid an additional €25 per person to use it, which is more than worth it!!! The receptionist was so kind, they offered to send the robes to our room so that later on we could go directly to enjoy the facility. The staff showed us around the facility, and there were different types of saunas, different temperatures of pools, a Turkish bath, and a couple of places where you can take a break and enjoy the tea. This is very thoughtful that they have a corner that provides a choice of tea, after the sauna it is needed. 💗 Trust me you must experience it. Finally, one more surprise is the breakfast, I LOVE the environment way too much!!! Many typical foods, including sweets were served, and the breakfast was not boring at all. There are staff taking care of the environment at all times, when we entered the site they approached us kindly and asked which kind of coffee we wanted then they brought it to the table. Service was 💯!!! The food was delicious and everything was so organised, as a frequent traveller I'm very impressed! The satisfaction is at the highest level. 👏👏

A hard to get to hotel, very challenging lugging suitcases up and down flights of stairs. Then checking in you need to take your cases up more stairs to your room. Beware that if you want to swim in the pool it is €25 each for a swim. The room was like a oven and did not get under 25 degrees despite air conditioning running 24 hours. Great breakfast in a beautiful setting.

Booked here for one night in Matera as we’d heard great things about the hotel and that it is a unique experience. There is a lot about it that is very charming but a lot that really disappointed.||We knew our room was away from the main building and that any moving around Matera has its challenges with up and down steps, rough ground and confusing laneways. We had prepared for that and left most luggage in the car in the parking garage outside of the Sassi bringing in only a ‘carry on’ style case. We were told on booking that our room was about 300 metres from main hotel – well it was a great deal more than that from the hotel reception. ||We arrived about midday and knew our room would not be ready. We booked the spa for 5pm that day with the receptionist, went for a walk and returned about 4pm to pick up our bag (different receptionist). We were brought by minibus to our room. It was quite confusing as the driver went out into the modern city and then back to the Sassi. On leaving the minibus he raced ahead of us down steps, up steps and along a path and pointed in the general direction of our room. I asked how to get back to the hotel reception and he just pointed downwards and ran off. We had a private gated terrace with a great view of Matera and good table and chairs. Great cave room and cave shower room. Really unique. We got our swimwear and headed back to the hotel reception for the spa. It took a long time and we got lost so we were a bit stressed about the time. When we found the reception the receptionist was very busy with a large tour group that she was assigning rooms to so we headed down to the basement spa. We couldn't find anyone down there. Eventually we asked a couple in the pool and they told us we needed to check in with the hotel reception and they would provide us with robes and keys for lockers. Why had the original receptionist we’d booked with not told us this? The basement swimming pool is amazing. Probably the most expensive swim ever but I did love it. I’m not a sauna fan but others told me they liked it. ||I wanted to get a glass of wine to have on our terrace (there was none in the minibar) so asked about that. I was told there was no room service and I’d have to wait for someone to come to the bar to get me one to bring myself. I ended up waiting over 20 minutes as the poor bar man was bringing bags to rooms. We asked the receptionist about the route back to our room and got “just go to second floor and the wooden gate” with an expression of amazement at our stupidity. “What second floor and wooden gate, we have no idea what you're talking about”. Just to be clear this was the same woman who had sent us off to our room in the minibus and she’d never told us. This kind of “it’s easy” attitude was actually really annoying. It might be easy if you live in Matera but it’s not at all easy if you are a visitor and their job is to look after visitors. ||The second floor and wooden gate did make the journey back marginally easier and you can imagine the laughs I caused carrying my glass of (speedily warming) wine with me through the streets. We’d booked a restaurant near the cathedral so we had to make our way back down again for dinner. On our way back in the dark we were unsure again which route to take (Google maps is useless in Matera btw) so I suggested we just get to the hotel and ask for someone to bring us back. The man on reception told us he was alone so could not accompany us but he did at least try to help us. He started off with “It’s easy” and then proceeded to a very complicated list of instructions. An American guest in the reception area was shaking with laughter listening to what followed “It's easy”. ||We eventually got to our room but unfortunately not to a good night’s sleep – the worst mattress I’ve ever experienced in Italy. Unacceptable but especially unacceptable at this price point. ||In the morning we went down for breakfast which was poor. Very poor selection generally and the only fruit was a couple of dried up apricots rolling around in a bowl. Coffee was cold and getting it replaced with hot coffee was not easy. ||We went to reception to let them know we were going for a walk but that our bag was left packed for them to pick up for us so that they could get on with cleaning the room. The receptionist (fourth we met and third lady) told us that staff were not allowed to go to our room on their own and that we would have to go back up to the room and wait for someone to arrive to collect our bag. Such total nonsense and clearly just trying to get out of doing it. Any security concerns were undermined by the fact that they’d left our bag floating around their reception and not locked away for hours the previous day. I explained politely that we were not undertaking the arduous uphill walk again in the hot sun and that they would have to sort out a solution. She grudgingly agreed to us coming back after our wander and the minibus driver taking us to our room en route to the parking garage. When we came back she sent us up the road to where the minibus was parked. We waited quite a long time and eventually the barman from the previous day showed up to drive us. He’d been waiting for us at the front door of the hotel on the instruction of reception. He was honestly the best member of staff we met and seems to have an innate understanding of hospitality. The rest could do with a bit of training from him. ||Go to Matera as it’s fabulous but maybe stay elsewhere.

Thermal spa of Locanda offers THE most relaxing experience ever!! The environment, the services, the staff!! From the bottom to the top this is a top service installation that suits everyone's needs for relaxation and joy. 2 hours in the spa and a full body massage with Jenny who with her magic hands made me feel so relaxed and comfortable like living in a dream! I will come back for sure!! Strongly recommended!!!

Fantastic location in the middle of the Sassi!! Cannot beat the views from the various suites! Taxis are also able to drive right up to the hotel, which made for a very convenient pick up and drop off. And the breakfast! WOW! One of the best we have had in Europe in terms the wide variety of local selection and service. The room was quite large and cozy for a cave. It was a little damp/stuffy, plus the floor had small ants all over the place, but can't really complain about that given you are staying in a cave. As this is also a spa, I was expecting a little better amenities in terms of body wash, hair wash, etc. They do provide slippers though which was amazing on the stone floors. We only stayed one night, so did not get a chance to check out the spa but would have loved to. Would highly recommend staying here!