Albergo Centrale

What People are saying

Nice hotel

F4371RWmarcelb on 10/10/2017 18:35

Room had a balcony and was good. Large enough.
No noise from the street, close to the lake (ferry!) and other good restaurants etc.
Dogs are welcome.
Breakfast was good (for Italian standards).
Checking in was efficient and friendly, checking out as well.
Parking at the back was available, so OK.
Good location for a weekend !

Enjoyed our stay - Hotel could be better with some small improvements

YJ68 on 27/09/2017 16:38

We were attending a wedding in Lake Como and chose to stay at the Hotel Centrale for 3 nights. It is not a luxury hotel but nevertheless it is a very good choice. It was clean and the staff were friendly and helpful.

Overall we enjoyed our stay here very much and we would choose to stay here again. However, there are a few issues to be aware of if you do choose the hotel and accommodation we stayed in.

We chose the Lario apartment as we like to have space and self catering facilities. The space was great, the apartment has been recently refurbished and everything was very comfortable.

Shower room was spacious enough with room to put toiletries around the sink and on the shelf in front of the mirror. The shower cubicle was also spacious with a small shelf on the shower unit for your soap. Water took a little while to heat up but once it got going it was hot enough.

Although there was a kitchenette, there were no facilities – no kettle, no cutlery, plates, saucepans etc. On asking at reception if we could have these things we were told that the manager doesn’t allow for these things in the apartment. It seems rather strange that there is a self catering apartment on offer but you’re not allowed to cook or boil a kettle in it. Hot water was provided at the bar for you if you wanted to make a hot drink but it is very inconvenient to have to go down two flights of stairs and walk all the way to reception to get to the bar every time you fancy a tea/coffee. There was a fridge with small freezer which worked well. There were drinks in the fridge – water, soft drinks and beer but no sign anywhere to advise if these were to be paid for or not. We asked at reception and were told you had to pay for them if you wanted to consume them.

There was no iron or board in the room. You had to use an ironing room, which was no-where near the apartment. It was a long walk to get to the room and you would need someone from reception to let you into that part of the building each time. Again, this was not very convenient. I was allowed to take the iron to the apartment, but not the ironing board but this wasn’t a problem as I laid a towel on the kitchen counter top instead. The iron could only be used as non-steam as it was leaking from the bottom. They only have one iron in the hotel which was rather unfortunate.

The other small issue was that the apartment felt quite cool so we asked how we could turn the heating on. We were told that the aircon units do not have a heating option and the season hadn’t kicked in for management to turn the heating on… so we had to put up with it being a little cool, until we discovered the radiator in the bathroom could be switched on providing some heat. We left the bathroom door open and it slowly heated up the rest of the flat to a better temperature (we travelled September 21st to 24th so not sure if it is usually cooler this time of year or not).

The nearest supermarket was a 20 minute walk, which we decided against. We found a lovely little gelato shop just around the corner from the hotel, with a very friendly owner who sold big and small bottles of water, juices and cakes at reasonable prices so we just bought a few bits from there. The gelato was good too! (turn right out of the hotel, walk to the next road and turn right. Cross the road and the gelato shop is just a little way up on the left side of the road).

Another thing to be aware of is that there is a church right next door to the hotel and the bells ring every half hour from around 7am until the early evening.

Having said all of the above, we would still stay here in the Lario apartment again as location was excellent, just 2 minutes walk to beautiful Lake Como, several restaurants nearby, staff were friendly and helpful and the buffet breakfast was very good with hot, cold, gluten and dairy free options available. Fresh fruit, cakes, yoghurts, cereal, boiled and scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, broad beans, ham and cheese slices, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and white/brown toast.

Solutions to the negatives:

1) Bring your own travel kettle & travel steam iron
2) Don’t worry about eating in your apartment – eat out at the lovely restaurants!
3) You could bring your own snacks with you – save you having to walk 20 minutes to the supermarket. Buy water, juices and cakes from the gelato shop around the corner
4) Take earplugs with you to help cut down the noise of the church bells
5) Take a cardigan/hoodie in case it feels cool in the room/apartment

If management would sort out some of the negatives I would give this place 5 stars (i.e. provide kettle and self catering facilities in the self catering apartment, an iron and ironing board in the room, and heating option in the room. Also, an electronic card key system rather than the old fashioned key system would be good).

We hope to be back one day soon.

Nice hotel but several irritations

hildenley on 21/09/2017 20:41

We were welcomed by a youth who came in from the terrace having been smoking so smelled of tobacco. Our room at the far end of the new extension on the ground floor but we noticed did not have a proper shower, just a hand held spray over a bath - no shower room was available. There was no milk on the tea/coffee tray but on asking at reception, the youth told us coffee & milk were not put in rooms although we actually did have so he went away to find some milk to finish making our coffee. Whenever we wanted to use the tea/coffee we had to go & ask for some. The first morning we were awoken early by people using the rear door next to our room & a trolley rattling along the tiled floor at the back entry. The room key cards would be better if a buzzer did NOT sound when neighbours entered their rooms late at night & early morning. Next evening about 5 pm we tried to drive into the car park but no one responded to the buzzer - my wife went in to reception & rang the bell 4 or 5 times before the youth hurried out from the accommodation area putting his jacket on - why was he not at the desk for a good 10 minutes? However, a more helpful & sympathetic young lady had noted our numerous problems over the first two days, apologised for the problems & next day a bottle of prosecco was left in our room - a good outcome to a catalogue of problems. The rest of the week stay was much better, as was the irritating youth.
P.S. - their evening restaurant is only available for pre-booked groups but there are several lovely ones close by.

Really enjoyed staying here

unsub1967 on 24/08/2017 10:23

Decent place with Yerevan good price level. The staff is all time friendly. Breakfast is also good and the rooms are nice too. I you have a chance ask for the newer rooms at the back of the house. I stayed In the older part and these are fine too.
Will definitely come back !!!

Excellent visit

Beverly G on 23/08/2017 10:55

Great location close to shops, lovely restaurants, the lake, just ideal.
Very new modern bedroom wing wonderfully air conditioned.
Our double room with facilities for the disabled was large and well equipped, the bathroom was great all designed to help someone in a wheelchair. Very well done.
The hotel was clean, very friendly staff, small bar but adequate for our needs.
I would suggest a ramp down the steps to the front terrace, we couldn't get there.
Breakfast was great and very good value for money, hot food as well as cold.
We would certainly recommend this hotel, we enjoyed our two days there.
Thank you

Beverly Greenwood