Locanda Di San Martino Hotel & Termae Romanae

“Romantic Locanda di San Martino”

Stayed here during Rick Steve's Southern Italy. Absolutely loved this place. Stayed in one of the cave rooms. Hotel is located in one of the caverns so lots of steps. Grand but simple style, spacious rooms. Had fridge and soaking tub and table with a couple of chairs right outside room. Pictu… more

Stayed here during Rick Steve's Southern Italy. Absolutely loved this place. Stayed in one of the cave rooms. Hotel is located in one of the caverns so lots of steps. Grand but simple style, spacious rooms. Had fridge and soaking tub and table with a couple of chairs right outside room. Picturesque views at night. Spa located in the hotel with massage available. Very good breakfast, laundry service available. Of all the places we stayed during our tour this was my favorite. Would be wonderful place for honeymoon.

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“Wish we stayed longer”

Stayed one night in this beautiful hotel. Contact the hotel for the secured parking lot where they recommend their guests to park. Costs us about 20 euro and the hotel has a van to transport us to the hotel. The hotel is located in the historical center so to save us time and grief looking for park… more

Stayed one night in this beautiful hotel. Contact the hotel for the secured parking lot where they recommend their guests to park. Costs us about 20 euro and the hotel has a van to transport us to the hotel. The hotel is located in the historical center so to save us time and grief looking for parking spaces this was the best arrangement. The vibe was staying in a cave room and we got it. For breakfast, we were serenaded by harp player adding a nice touch. We also experienced the thermae. Wish we stayed longer. Will definitely be back to fully experience the magic of Matera! The hotel has another entrance to the back that leads to the square making it very convenient. The staff were very nice.

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“Stay elsewhere”

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 challenge… more

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.

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