Palazzo di Varignana

Beautiful, beautiful Italy, we were here for an automobile weekend, and Bologna and Varignana are indeed beautiful locations. We were test driving a car for the weekend at the invitation of a local car manufacturer and our stay was partly paid for by them. Sadly we were unable to do much driving as we were so exhausted from sleep deprivation. Our room appeared decent enough with a lovely balcony, however our main issue was the air conditioning and temperature control. We also had issues with a faulty coffee machine and a leaking shower. On our first night the balcony doors were blown open by strong winds, however we later realised that the doors had not been locked properly. On checking in, reception gave us no information about the hotel, instead directed us to the TV for further information. Sadly this was all in Italian so we ended up just using the website. After our first night the display on the room phone stated that the room was unoccupied and it was apparent that the hotel had not understood that there were two consecutive bookings for the room, one from ourselves and the second by the car manufacturer. The fact that the hotel never mentioned the car manufacturer to us once was an indication that they hadn't processed the booking correctly and why we had to twice speak with reception after our first night to correct the room card authorisation for the duration of our stay. We had tried over a couple of days, late night and early hours, to get staff to sort out the air conditioning, which we were unable to control from our room. The room was so hot! We were told that this would be done remotely via reception. This did not happen. After a couple of sleepness nights we complained to management, who totally accepted fault and liability, specifically that the two consecutive room bookings had not been properly recognised, that the hotel had been experiencing issues with their systems and consequently were struggling to control air conditioning and room temperature, and that her team had not communicated any of our issues to her during our stay. With one night left the manager had the temperature of the room adjusted, replaced the coffee machine and had the shower re-sealed. She offered to move us to another room, an upgraded room, however we declined as we did not want to move all of our clothes and belongings with literally hours left of our stay. In light of the fact that we were only in Italy at the invitation of the car manufacturer to test drive one of their cars, and that our ability to do so was limited by the fatigue directly caused by the hotel's failings, we felt that we were clearly due compensation and expected our final bill to be appropriately adjusted. The manager gave us a bottle of olive oil (!) which was gratefully received, but told us she was unable to authorise compensation and claimed she could not get hold of her supervisor. We have never heard of a hotel where a manager is unable to authorise compensation! Frankly we sensed she was more interested in going home than dealing with this situation, however she said she would keep us updated until her shift ended. As we expected she failed to do so. On check out her colleague called her at home for an update and she informed him that a director had rejected any compensation. Her colleague seemed quite perplexed himself! Frankly we felt our stay should have been fully compensated but on checkout we generously decided to authorise two thirds of our bill to be charged. The staff member on reception told us that management would just charge the remaining balance to our credit card whether we authorised it or not. On return home we discovered this was the case, and that the balance had almost immediately been charged. We have now informed the car manufacturer and will be disputing the charge with our credit card company. For the purposes of balance, we visited two of the hotel's restaurants, Aureva and Le Marzoline. In stark contrast to the rest of our experience, the service at both was exemplary as was the food. The pool area was an odd experience. Firstly we had to sign in at the spa to get our towels and then travel up three floors to get to the pool area. Nobody was interested in greeting us or helping us with the beds. We immediately realised we needed more towels, and were told we had to go all the way back to reception ourselves to go and get them! For the duration of our time at the pool no member of staff approached us for drinks or food, nothing! Just very odd! Also felt it was odd that the hotel only give you water on the first night. Lastly the hotel have their own app which you can download and use to do walks and bike rides. We did a couple of the walks, the amphitheatre walk which was beautiful, and we also tried the arboreo walk, however this path was more difficult to follow as the app didn't work quite as well here. There was also an art walk which was interesting. In summary, it is a beautiful location, but the service is poor and there is little accountability from management. The car manufacturer actually offered us two different hotel options and we truly regret choosing Palazzo di Varignana over Grand Hotel Majestic Baglioni.

Huge, luxurious hotel complex in the hills of Emilia Romana, a good 30 minutes from Bologna. The resort has countless buildings, various restaurants, a golf course, numerous pools and a spacious spa area, all neatly and thoughtfully integrated into the landscape. It is all very modern, even though an attempt has been made to create a historical charm. Especially at breakfast you realize that you are in a large hotel complex, otherwise you have enough space (at least outside the high season). The spa area is spacious, and the private spa in particular is worth a visit. The combined wine and olive oil tasting in the adjoining vineyard is a must-do, and the restaurant “Le Marzoline” is definitely worth a visit. A great base for exploring the surrounding area for a few days.