My family and friends booked several rooms at Le Calette Garden & Bay and No. 5 in late July of this year. Check in was very smooth and we were very impressed with the location, the beautiful pool deck, and the dock and cove areas. The food was good, and the service was very nice.
We were however appalled by the rooms, in both hotels, but especially Garden & Bay. The hotel is a disjointed mass of properties that have been loosely purchased near the main building with little thought for comfort or design. We stayed in two rooms, the family room and the club room. The family room was so small, with two beds crammed into it, that there was no room to open our suitcases. The club room was slightly more spacious (which is ridiculous considering the family room was much more expensive and meant for 4 people. However, they both shared similar problems. The decor and fixtures are extremely dated. The soap in the bathroom wouldn't rival what you'd find at a cheap motel. I asked for an iron from the front desk and was told that the hotel did not give out irons to guests, and I would have to pay for the (typically) overpriced laundry service. The phones often did not work, and the lights would periodically turn off and on (not uncommon for Sicily, but not experienced at any other hotels on our trip.) Not to mention we were completely unaware when we booked that the hotel becomes a club on Saturday nights, which had our windows rattling until 4 in the morning, with no offer of earplugs.
I walked out of this hotel feeling overcharged and underwhelmed considering the outstanding reviews and beautiful surroundings. If the rooms hadn't been so expensive I think we would have been satisfied, but to call Garden & Bay even a 4 star hotel seems a serious overstatement. Anyone used to standard amenities in hotels in North America or Asia will be disappointed in this place.
