Nice City, Shame about the Hotel (Hotel Filoxenia (Trieste, Italy))

Member Name: Essexgirl2006

Product:	Hotel Filoxenia (Trieste, Italy)
Date:	09/07/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, well located, reasonable compard to other hotels in the city

Disadvantages: Uninspiring decor, few staff, expensive compared to hotels in othet cities

For last year's summer holiday, we were flying in and out of Trieste airport in North Eastern Italy, although we would be travelling around and not based in Trieste we decided to stay there for our last night making it easier to get to the airport the next day without worrying. I used a number of sites to search for hotels, including my trusty favourite for Italy www.venere.com which I eventually used to book this hotel. I don't know if it was the time of year (August) or if Trieste was just very poor for hotels, but I struggled to find a reasonably priced hotel in the area, and most hotels had poor ratings and reviews when I cross checked some of the travel review sites. In the end I plumped for Filoxenia, as it seemed to be well located, and was one of the cheaper hotels. We were charged Euro95 for the night including breakfast in an air-conditioned room with private bathroom. The hotel has a 3 star rating.

I had printed off directions to the hotel which claimed it was a 5 minute walk from the bus/train station. I think this would be accurate if you were walking at a brisk pace in reasonable weather, but with two weeks worth of washing in my back pack and 32 degrees heat in the middle of the day it was a long five minutes! The road name given actually changed and became a different one which confused us also.

We walked into the smart, airy reception and waited for a receptionist to appear and check us in. We were the directed to the lift and then found our room. The room was quite disappointing, beds were twin (not joined together like they are in many hotels now) and there were bedside tables, a wardrobe, a dressing table and luggage rack as well as a large bathroom. It was also air-conditioned. However the blue tiles on the floor were reminiscent of a school corridor and the furniture was mass produced dark wood veneer type and reminded me off when I had stayed in student accommodation. The room was disabled friendly - light switches were low, the toilet was high with a hand rail and the shower was flat so easy to get into. I don't know if all rooms were like this or if we just happened to get one. Supplied toiletries included unbranded shower gel/shampoo all-in-one pack, soap and a shower cap.

Compared to the one star hotel in Venice we'd stayed in a few weeks previously, this was disappointing aesthetically, as well as being more expensive. It had a higher star rating I would guess due to more facilities (although I think ratings tend to be subjective). The hotel had a Greek restaurant attached, although we didn't eat dinner there, we had the included breakfast there. It was fairly extensive as continental buffet breakfasts go - yoghurt, cereal, bread and jams, with juice and coffee. Saying that, I have had a better Continental breakfast in the UK! The décor of the restaurant and lobby area were done very nicely. The corridors as you exit the lift to go to your room were dark, and as we opened the fire door, there was a few seconds delay before the light sensor registered that someone was there and turned them on. This was worse leaving your room after dark as someone had to hold your door open with the light on in the room until the other person had walked towards the lifts and triggered the light sensor again otherwise it was pitch black!

My main niggle was that the rooms were impersonal and uninspiring, designed for practicality of the hotel rather than the comfort of the guest. I'm not saying they were uncomfortable to sleep in; they just weren't inspiring to want to spend time in. The hotel is not affiliated to a chain; I believe it is actually family owned. It has about 20 rooms over several floors. I found the staff to be polite and helpful but often absent. When we arrived back from dinner the reception was unmanned, we waited for a bit before pushing the buzzer, but I could just have easily walked around the desk and picked up the key myself, which I could see hanging there. I would have preferred if access to my room was a bit harder for people walking in off the street!

Overall, I though this hotel did not offer value for money when I compare it to others of that star level (or even lower), the range of hotels I found were quite poor, and not cheap so either the city is not well served for decent hotels at reasonable prices or they were already booked up, as I was quite late looking. It is a pretty city, and a convenient gateway to other destinations in Europe, so I hope that there will be some competitive hotels soon, as it is a regular destination for Ryanair and other budget carriers. There are no real reasons to not recommend this hotel - it is clean, well-located and provides what you are likely to need from a hotel, but that is about all.

Filoxenia scrl
Via Mazzini, 3
34121 Trieste
Italia
Tel. +39 040 3481644
Fax +39 040 661371
Email info@filoxenia.it

http://www.filoxenia.it/defaulteng.asp

Summary: An uninspiring, over-priced hotel