Hotel Villa del Bosco

Far away from the airport (which had broken wifi). Had to take a taxi that costs 50euros. Male staff was pretty attentive, Mina at front desk who also drives guests to beach/city is great but female staff is unprofessional. One female staff at breakfast yelled at me for spilling water on the tablecloth. Another female staff at reception forgot to give me a voucher to access the beach with an umbrella (went associated with contiki - a group travel agency), I gave her my receipt for reimbursement, which she did reimburse me, but being stranded at the beach for 5 hrs without shade was not a fun introduction to Sicily. The blow dryers in the rooms kept blowing out. Breakfast was subpar with little choices.

The place is run down, tired, and, "stinks like sewer". No hot water for shower. The hotel owner is also manager, refuse to resolve issues. STAY AWAY!!!! The "lonely" positive is the staff works there, busy to "defend" the incompetence of owner, The prized presidential suite, looks like scene right our of move Scarface.

a good hotel I would give 3 stars not 4.the reason?the facade outside - very rundown..urgent need for proper maintanance at least refurbish...paint..not a wellcoming appearance from the street.the staff generally excellent.I must list the receptionist Alexsia-excellent!.wait-staff very good.rooms have been refurbished yet still need more work.the bath-has jets like hottub..jets filthy..bathplug broken.(my room)other rooms not known.in room safe wasn't usable.ok,I checked in on a Saturday..no maintanance staff?Sunday I again reported it..someone came about 4 hours later-replaced the batteries..yet still unusable.each evening a function..so my impressions are that functions are the "earners".rooms a "by product".meals in the restaurant are good.good service too.A 4 star hotel..no coffee maker in the room? Covid caused worldwide havoc..unemployed staff due to it left for employment elsewhere and not replaced..yet guests pay and so it goes.Breakfast is ok..basics as in most hotels worldwide..no complaints from me regarding this.

This was our first time to Sicily, we booked this hotel as the description closely matched what we liked in a hotel. I'm writing this review to help anyone who is seriously considering a stay here. Firstly, forget the photos, the hotel is indeed run down and the photos have little resemblance. The room we stayed in was small, with aluminium sheets on the wall, making it look more like a prison cell. It did have a working safe and the mini bar is not a bar, it means a broken mini fridge. The beds are HARD and very uncomfortable (and I like a firmer mattress) it's also very noisy with other guests taking showers etc. There is only one socket in the room also, which makes charging awkward. The TV worked ok but has limited Italian channels, we took a fire stick so was able to watch that at least. The bathroom was fine but the shower screen didn't open due to the toilet being in the way, which meant you had to climb over the toilet to get into the shower, not good at all. There is also no tea/coffee in rooms, asking at reception they do not provide this service, we bought a kettle locally. Breakfast is simple, lots of sweet cakes available, tea, coffee, the choice was.. make your own toast, cheese, ham, boiled egg, plum tomatoes. They provide cereal but had no milk, I was advised to use hot milk next to coffee but declined. When a coach trip was staying at hotel you did get scrambled egg and bacon provided on those days however. By British standards this is simply not 4* maybe 2 at a push. Location is suburbs and a 2 mile walk to centre over a motorway, not a walk for the faint hearted. A taxi will cost approx 20 euro one way to avoid this walk. The hotel does not provide any transportation so do not be fooled by this statement. In short save your money and find a location within the city centre. We decided to leave the hotel early and pay for another hotel for the last 3 days of our holiday, returning on the last day as we were due to get picked up at this location for our trip home. Most of the negative reviews for this hotel are in fact true, I chose not to listen, thinking they might be just picky. Don't make the same mistake, you will regret it.

There is no functioning internet, though they claim there is. It is not close to ANYTHING within walking distance. It’s an out of the way residential area with no viable restaurant options. The menu for the hotel is disappointing. The rooms are in desperate need of remodeling. Tour bus groups of Spanish tourists stay long enough for their next bus tour. Don’t waste your time or money.

We tried to check in but the hotel had no power or water so they told us not to check in. That was fine and understandable however they then wouldn't refund our money for our stay despite not allowing us to check in. We have tried to chase this up for 2 months now but have got nowhere and they pretended we had stayed there. Clearly they are an untrustworthy business and I would avoid at all costs. It's also very rundown and way out of town in an unsafe area as you will read in other reviews. Fortunately we found a lovely place in town which is where you want to be anyway you can't walk anywhere from here it is truly miles from anything.

Thank you for your hospitality, we were with 4 kids and had interconnected rooms in the modern part, it was very Clean and breakfast was good. All Catania was without electricity for our last 24 hrs, but the receptionist gave us alternative room to have electricity although no ACs were working since they had generator on and did their utmost to make us comfortable in 47 degrees. They also have shuttle service to the beach which was beautiful! We will return very soon! Thank you

The staff was rally helpful about how to travel around town. They had a shuttle that picked us up at the airport and stopped along the way to get carry out for lunch. They have shuttles that go to the beach and to the city center at regular times. If you are out side these times they can arrange for a fee for someone on their staff to pick you up at an agreed upon corner. The local bus stops across the street from them. It definitely rates a four star.

Charming old hotel, but rundown and frayed around the edges. Kind staff.