Sant'Angelo Matera

Great hotel. We stayed at the residences. We were upgraded so I can’t really say what the value for money would be if we weren’t, but the room we received was fantastic. Well decorated, recently renovated, great position and view. A cute little house to ourselves. Could not have asked for more. Breakfast had a good selection, of good quality and was placed in a beautiful room. Not quite a criticism, but rather a note for this type of hotel, we did have strangers sitting on our doorstep taking calls, or generally talking at 1am. A little unnerving, but they left after being asked to. It’s not something the hotel can do much about, but it is a consequence of running such a dispersed hotel.

The hotel enjoys an exceptional location with truly breathtaking views. Our check-in experience was very pleasant, and we appreciated the professionalism of the staff. However, on the day of our arrival, the temperature was 37°C, and we were surprised to find that the room was equipped only with a bathtub and no shower. Moreover, the switch to activate the handheld shower was not functioning, and it took the staff member approximately 15 minutes to adjust it. We were informed that we would need assistance again to switch it back, which was rather inconvenient. Additionally, we were quite disappointed by our experience in the hotel restaurant. When we sat down and asked for the dessert menu, we were told that desserts could not be ordered unless we first ordered main courses. This policy felt unnecessarily restrictive and left us with a negative impression of the service.

The setting was excellent as was the parking arrangement. We would never stay here again. I carefully studied top end hotels in Matera and selected this one. We've stayed in Small Luxury Hotels affiliated hotels in the past and have always had great stays. This hotel was engaging and responsive before our arrival. The parking solution both seemed good and worked flawlessly. The hotel greeting once we reached the property was good and the room looked nice. It was only in the evening that we realized we had issues. First the room never got cool. Second, we had no hot water in the shower. We called down to the office and after 4 tries finally reached someone. They said it could only be looked at the next day as it was too late. They did come to inspect the issues and take a video. We sweated all night. The next morning a maintenance person did come to the room. The water was marginally made better. The room never got really cool. Ever. And they said that's just how it works. Every other hotel in this trip to Italy has had excellent air conditioning. Some of those hotels were a fraction of the cost of S. Angelo. As for breakfast, it is in a lovely restaurant up the hill from the main street. The restaurant is beautiful. The food is buffet style with only coffee able to be ordered. It's as though the hotel just forgets about the importance of guest engagement. Nobody ever asked how the food was or if we needed anything else. I am just perplexed how this can be such a beautiful place with mediocre service. Hindsight we should have checked out after the first night. Maybe other rooms are great, with no issues. Maybe this type of non-service is what people expect. When we did check out there was no query about our stay. Nobody asked if our issues were resolved. It's as if they don't care. Please consider this and look elsewhere. We will not stay here again.