Grand Hotel Rimini

One of the most unique hotel resort type places weve ever stayed! Very Environmentally Effective unlike the USA (we from FL) !! Amazing fresh food, excellent staff & service!!

I arrived at the hotel just past noon and found the receptionists busy, but they soon started helping me, and I was glad to get my room in about 15 minutes, some two hours ahead of the official check-in time of 2:30 pm. I marvelled at the grand lobby, took some photos of the bar and the grand staircase, but was finally hugely disappointed when I opened the door to my "room" 301. I entered a closet. A very nice closet, though, with worn-out parquet floors and a high ceiling. But the size was unacceptable, akin to a basic three star hotel room. There was a comfortable bed measuring 100 cm in width and with a socket by the bed, a miniature desk and chair and a minibar. No sitting area, not even an armchair, because there was simply no room for one. A/C was set to 22°C and could not be adjusted nor turned off. Wifi was free, unlimited, and very easy to use, but on Friday evening it was extremely slow. There was a safe in the room, but no water bottles. The electrical blinds went up automatically in the early morning hours, three times, waking me up each time, and when I lowered them, after some 45 minutes up they went again. Very annoying both because of the light and the noise. While the room was clean it was nothing short of a basic three star hotel room, and at a price of 225 EUR a night, it was definitely poor value. Bearable for my two-nght stay, but definitely not for a longer holiday. The bathroom was of good size and came with a walk-in shower with good water pressure in the hand-held as well as the overhead shower. Amenities included wall-mounted containers of shampoo and shower gel, which I dont like for hygiene reasons; I've read too many stories about guests amusing themselves by fillling those containers with, well, you can imagine. I wish hotels would save money elsewhere. A bar of soap as well as individual mini-bottles of conditioner and body lotion were provided, as were a bathrobe and slippers. Breakfast was served in the ground floor restaurant from 7 to 11 daily. It was a large buffet with a wide array of hot and cold items, breads, fruit etc. The cold cut selection could have been larger but otherwise the selection was quite good. You could also order fried eggs, but eggs Benedict would have cost extra. The hot chocolate was excellent! Service was a bit erratic and surprisingly many members of staff were not able to communicate in English. The pool was perhaps 20 metres long, not heated so definitely on the cool side in June when nights are cold, but bearable. Hours might be the shortest I've experienced anywhere – 9 am to 5:30 pm. The lobby bar offered snacks and some food, but was closed in the afternoon between lunch and dinner. I find it disappointing that a "five star" cannot serve a club sandwich at 4 pm because the kitchen is closed. Check-out is at 11, and I asked for a late check-out at 1 pm, because I was catching a train at 1:45. I was granted a whopping 30 minutes extra, so check-out at 11:30. Made me laugh. The hotel is located in Parco Federico Fellini, by the beach, with lots of restaurants nearby. It took me about 15 minutes to walk to the railway station and some 5 minutes more to the old city. The closest supermarket is 5 minutes away on foot. While I hope to return to Rimini one day, I will find a hotel that offers a better price/quality ratio. It feels to me that this is one of those hotels that heavily relies on past decades' reputation and does not meet the needs of today. An example of their service culture can be seen here on Tripadvisor – most hotels reply to reviewers, but here, nothing.

Both the interior and the exterior of the hotel look very luxurious, and our room was fantastic with greta views, however, we found the staff very disinterested and disorganised. We used the lounge bar twice and had to ask the staff multiple times to serve us. The hotel reception did not offer any introduction to the hotel. Our room was not ready and they said maybe an hour and we will call you. They never called us and we were left to go find our bags and take them to the room ourselves. It appears most of the staff are new and not experienced in working at a five star hotel.

The complete arrogance of staff and dismissive rude comments are appalling. I would not recommend this pace to anyone. From check in to my 3rd day nothing but disrespectful comments and rudeness. I asked for coffee at breakfast and got told “no” WTF! I’m not allowed a coffee. The restaurant is fully booked and not allowed to eat in the bar. WTF! “You must eat elsewhere” At $1000 per night and a thunderstorm outside that is just obscene and rude. AVOID THIS PLACE. 5 star is the arrogance level not the service n

The hotel has a huge well tended garden. if you are travelling by car you can park it for free close by (during low season not a problem) however would have to pay extra to use the hotel parking. The spa you pay extra as well. The room was large and clean - nothing to complain about that. The steps to the hotel entrance not so great if you have a large suitcase. As it was October we didn't use the beach which is just steps away from the hotel. Bfast had a very large selection and was not pre-packed at all, like some claimed. my only complaint would be that for a 5star and for the price we would expect no extra costs for bfast (some of the items on the card were inclusive the price - others you had to pay extra).