Hotel San Giorgio

BAIT AND SWITCH VIRTUOSOS

This is a very nice hotel in a great location, BUT be very careful if you book a stay here. I booked a room here a couple of years ago and again last month. Both time, when I got to the hotel, they said they did not have a room for me and 'walked' me to another hotel in town. In both cases, I had booked months in advance and prepaid the entire cost. The first time they walked me to a hotel next door - which wasn't so bad, but not as nice as the San Giorgio. Last month they 'walked' me to a hotel 3 miles from the center of town, and much less attractive (I could have booked this same hotel myself for about $40 less than I had paid the San Giorgio). There was nothing close to this hotel and I spent $30 on taxis to get to and from town. Save yourself a lot of trouble, inconvenience and hassle and book any hotel other than the San Giorgio in Civitavecchia.

Made the mistake of selecting the non-refundable rate via hotels.com for a 1 night stay before a cruise. Then Corona Virus hit. Cruise company and all the other hotels booked for a post cruise stay via Bookings.com refunded all the money. I don't even believe this hotel was open on the date we were supposed to stay there. All Hotel.com would do is give us a voucher to be used at this hotel only in the next 12 months. Hotel.com did this because this HOTEL opted to not offer full refunds due to Corona Virus. I've learned my lesson, never plan a stay at this hotel because they took advantage of customers during this pandemic, never book a non-refundable rate and NEVER use HOTELS.COM again. Bookings.com advocated much better for customers affected by this situation.

Spent 1 night pre-cruise in a triple room.
The room was comfortably spread out over two floors with an internal staircase. The queen size bed was on the upper level and sofa bed on the main level. There were several available electrical outlets by the queen bed nightstand. Room was well kept and clean. Room was also quiet throughout the day and night; no noise from neighboring rooms.

Wifi connection worked well in most areas of the room, but did seem to slow during peak times (morning and evening).

Hotel location was excellent as there were many restaurants and shops within walking distance.

Breakfast: excellent! Served buffet style with a variety of hot foods (eggs/meats) and cold foods (cheeses, fruits, pastries, breads, cereals, and yogurt). The coffee machine worked so well, I wish I could have taken it home.

Front desk staff was friendly and helpful. Bellman was prompt to deliver our bags at check in.

The hotel provided shuttle to the the cruise port was quick, convenient, and included in the room rate.

These people do not honor commitments. Don't take a chance on losing money and/or getting your reservation cancelled a few days before arrival. We cancelled months before the full refund date and they just ignore requests for a refund. No response at all.

This was a one night stay prior to a cruise. The room was clean and bed comfortable. It is in a good location and the breakfast was also good. The hotel seemed to be catering for cruise people - in other words, it is not the sort of place I would be staying at for more than a few days. It does the job!

Let me start my saying if I could give zero stars I would have. We booked Hotel San Giorgio for 1 night prior to a cruise via Hotels.com. The hotel lobby was very nice, but the rooms are very outdated and in need of a makeover. The bed was very hard and uncomfortable. While we were attempting to get some sleep loud music started from the hotel lobby. When we called to complain we were told that an 18 year old was having a birthday party with a live band and the music would not stop until midnight. We were unable to get any sleep until way past midnight. Having a party in the hotel should not be more important than all your customers who have paid for rooms to sleep in....We will never recommend this hotel or ever stay there again....

I will offer the exact facts in my review. I made a reservation directly with Hotel San Giorgio on Nov 29, 2017 for the night of Oct 21, 2018 and paid for the room in full in advance.

On October 16, 2018, 5 days before my arrival, I was informed by email that my reservation would not be honored due to an overbooking situation. They offed to refund my payment or send me a to another hotel several miles outside the city which had a number of negative reviews. Despite several emails pleading my case, they refused to honor the reservation. Obviously, my reservation was made and paid for before many others but I was bumped. There is another review this year with the same problem.

Based on this, I would not recommend this hotel to anyone as they cannot be relied upon to honor a reservation even when fully paid almost 11 months in advance. Their ethics and reliability are not to be trusted.

Got an email that they overbooked the hotel! WHAT! A day before we travel! They offered full refund or rebooking at nearby hotel. Upon checking found that we had in fact booked the wrong date (arrive a day later after flying in from USA - yes our fault.) I assume good for both of us, our mistake and their mistake...you would think they would still offer the refund they offered! NO!!! our mistake is to their benefit. They have now sold the room twice! And we get nothing! Staff is very unfriendly. Avoid this place!

Great location by the water, easy access to local restaurants and transportation.

Wonderful breakfast buffet with a Italian touch.

Hotel San Giorgio had a lot of positive aspects with just a couple of negatives but overall, I would still recommend it for a pre-cruise hotel.

A couple months in advance, we chose and paid for a "gold" package. This included pick up from Rome airport, one night's accommodation, dinner, breakfast buffet, Internet and cruise ship drop off. Sure, you could take a train into Civitavecchia but having never been to Italy before as well as a bunch of luggage, I chose convenience over cost saving.

High marks for the airport pick up. The driver pretty much spotted us in a crowd (wow, do we really look that obvious?) and took us directly to the hotel. It took about 45 minutes and after traveling for something like 20 hours at this point, I actually hallucinated that the couple traveling to the hotel at the same time had a young Asian son. I later found out he was actually a middle aged man not with them at all and probably not even Asian. My husband has yet to let me live it down.

Luckily, through my haze of no sleep and hallucinating jet lag, the front desk had a room ready for us a 10:30 am. The room was nice, had everything we needed including a partial ocean view and a huge marble bathroom. The shower is ridiculously small and has a huge step down when getting out so be careful. We were able to get the room super cold and super dark (my favorite sleep combo) and snoozed for three hours.

The location is right across the street from a gravel beach but also right in the heart of Civitavecchia which is nice to explore for maybe a couple of hours. There are a lot of restaurants and some shops nearby as well.

Because it was included in our package, we dined at their restaurant. Though there is a fixed menu, we added in an appetizer off the regular menu - scallops in a really nice white wine cream sauce which were amazing (see the pic). We then returned to the lackluster menu geared toward Americans (whom according to the menu, have no taste buds or sense of refinement). I had a rather blah pasta starter and then the pork limone which came with what I can only describe as shriveled up home fries. The lemon sauce was terrible and gelatinous with only a hint of lemon. The hubby ordered up some sort of innocuous sounding Italian fried chicken breast and was treated to a plate of over-fried, thin, dry chicken with french fries. No sauce. Just dry as bone chicken and french fries - because apparently that's what every American wants on their first night eating out in Italy, LOL. Our waitress was bizarre and defensive though we pleasantly muddled through the mess of our entrees. The restaurant isn't really worth your time unless dry and boring is what you are going for and eat for sustenance instead of pleasure.

The check out is very early (1030 am) but I was able to snag an extra 30 minutes due to sleeping in. A shuttle took us straight to our cruise ship around noon. This was very convenient and you don't have to carry your own bags. Yeah! The front desk was pretty friendly. They forgot that Internet was included in our package and when we were told we'd have to pay for it, I was just too tired to argue and went without. Side note: why are some hotels so stingy with the Internet?

So in the end, I'd probably stay at this hotel for the convenience of hotel pick up, good location and cruise ship drop off. Be picky about what you eat and this works out to be a good deal.