Starhotels Du Parc

“Retro Hotel”

Located in a quiet place with retro feel. The rooms have an retro furniture design. Good breakfast and cooperative staff.

“Not Up to 2024 Standards”

This hotel may have old-world elegance, but in my experience was lacking in modern amenities. The hotel entrance has two small stairways leading up to the front door and reception, but no ramps. A plank with non-slip material was laid on top of each set of stairs, precariously perched at a 45-degre… more

This hotel may have old-world elegance, but in my experience was lacking in modern amenities. The hotel entrance has two small stairways leading up to the front door and reception, but no ramps. A plank with non-slip material was laid on top of each set of stairs, precariously perched at a 45-degree angle, which was not helpful with 50+ lbs of rolling luggage. No Bellhop nor Doorman was provided for assistance. The location is not ideal without a car, you need to walk through the Parco Ducale to access the City Center, which is a gated park that closes at particular times and I did not feel safe returning alone after dark. I arrived on a Thursday afternoon, and was surprised that the Canova Restaurant had already closed for lunch at 2:30 pm. I went to the Canova Bar instead, where I waited 15 minutes for a bartender to appear from a door behind the bar. No food was available, but I was able to have a cocktail, which was served with complimentary snacks. My later visits to the bar were unsuccessful as there was no bartender available for service, even during their listed Open Hours. I went back to the restaurant at 8:00 pm (it opened at 7:30 pm), and after wandering around searching for the "entrance," was greeted by a server who told me that they were serving a private party of 15 people. I asked if I could have a table in the restaurant as well, and it seemed to inconvenience the waiter. Nevertheless, he set up a table for me and there were a few other diners in the restaurant outside of the private party. I ordered the Pork entree, which they were out of. They were also out of the Prawns entree and the Steak entree (interestingly, the party of 15 people WAS served steak as part of their meal). Out of 5 entrees total, they were out of 3 - leaving a vegetable & cheese dish, as well as a Sea Bass entree. I ordered a mixed salad, which was served with greens on the bottom, a few slices of tomato, and three HUGE piles of shredded carrots - orange, yellow and red. It was more of a carrot crudité than a salad. I also chose a first course - translated to English on their menu as a "Risotto with shellfish and lemon bisque." When the dish was served, there was no shellfish, in fact, no protein at all. Apparently, the bisque was made from shellfish and lemon - but that was not communicated well on the menu. Unfortunately, in all of the meals that I had during my time in Italy, this was the most disappointing. Inside the room, the mini-refrigerator was not even remotely cold. The thermostat in the room was set at 20-degrees Celsius, or 68-degrees Fahrenheit, which was quite chilly for this Florida girl. Even though I adjusted the thermostat several times, the temperature never increased in the room, and remained at 20-degrees for my 3-night stay. The towel warmers were inoperable. The bathtub was a mere 12 inches (30.5 cm) wide at the bottom (though the bathtub flared to a larger width at the top of the tub), which my derriere did not find particularly comfortable. The bathtub faucet did not work, so to fill the bathtub, one must use the handheld shower attachment, which significantly cools the water. The hairdryer requires one to press the "ON" button down the entire time during use. There was no iron nor ironing board provided in the room. In order to summon the elevator, one must press both the Down arrow button AND the Number of the floor above the Down arrow button outside of the elevator, a point that was not communicated by the front desk staff and led to frustration when trying to use the elevator for the first time. Lastly, the walls were paper-thin. I could hear the Guests next door coughing at night, as well as their cell phone alarm in the mornings. At approximately 9:00 am every morning, the doors in the hallway began to slam. Now, these are beautifully appointed heavy wooden doors with brass hardware, but how many Guests could possibly be coming and going at 9:00 am? I later learned that the door slamming was not Guests, but rather the Housekeeping staff. In addition to letting doors slam behind them, they would also ram the floor cleaning machine into the walls and baseboards as they cleaned, which created quite a bit of unnecessary noise in the mornings. The noises also emanated from the rooms above me when they were cleaned. The positives: the rooms were very clean (though the hallways remained littered with crumbs and debris during my stay). The sheets were soft and had clearly been pressed.

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