Santa Maria La Scala Vacation Rentals

"I really wanted to give this hotel 5 star, but I simply can’t! The majority of the hotel is perfection and it was an absolute luxury having three days there… the pool itself is a wonder with the view to mount Etna, and so is the restaurant next door to the pool which overlooks the water. One issue was the rooms. We were give a nice room but the electricity didn’t work. An electrician came and after 20 mins of waiting, it was back on. But then it broke again the next day and we were once again waiting for an electrician to come for c.30 mins. This delayed our evening plans. They decided to move us to another room - but it was smaller! They the moved us again to one of their newly refurbished rooms which although really lovely, the air-con didn’t work. I gave up trying by that point as we had to leave anyway. The inside of the hotel is quite dated and when we arrived we really weren’t sure what we were in for, but the pool is the attraction and rightly so. Another reason why I can’t give 5 star is because of the shuttle buses. Although its great that the hotel provides free shuttle buses to and from the town, they are not frequent and book up really quickly. If you miss out, you need to pay for a taxi to the town which is around 20 euro one way. More shuttles are needed. "

"Internet was good."

"Stunning property !"

"This was a great hotel with the perfect location. Breakfast was delicious and the view was a great start to the day. Bathrooms are a bit small, but otherwise no complaints. We also had a balcony facing the water which gave us additional opportunities to enjoy the beauty of of this cliff city!"

"Fabulous location but hotel needs a lot of maintenance, ie most of the lifts were broken and our mini fridge was extremely noisy so had to unplug it. Shower ok but drained very slowly. Sheets ok but bedcover very very old and didn’t want to touch "

"We loved this hotel! It is in a fabulous location, right above the bus terminal, and a 5 minute walk from the Main Street. Hotel Ariston has a fabulous sea view. The hotel was spotless. All the staff were so friendly and helpful, always cheerful. Breakfast was amazing.. and plentiful. We loved the music in the evening . We enjoyed a few of evenings in the bar with Giuseppe the bar manager (his 39th year in Hotel Ariston! ) and Giovanni the hotel singer/pianist - he was fantastic!! Giovanni and Giuseppe sang a few duets together… just wonderful ! We will be back!"

"We had superior room with terrace, sea view and was perfect, better in real then on the picture, clean. Breakfast okey. Staff very friendly and helpful. Area nice, 20 minutes drive to centre. "

"The staff is very nice. Our room smelled funny. It was pretty hot in the room one of the days. We thought maybe it was because it was hot. We tried to turn the air conditioning on, but they have the air-conditioning shut off. The only option was heat. They told us to open the window. We were right by the street so that really wasn’t great but it was the only option. We realized the problem is actually that the bathroom smelled funky. If we kept the bathroom door closed all the time the room did not smell bad but the bathroom smelled even worse. It must come from the drains because we noticed that the cleaning staff always closed the bathtub and sink drains. The location was okay. It’s a bit of a walk to the city center. There was no restaurant for dinner so had to leave the hotel. Unfortunately it was rainy and cold so that was kind of miserable. There are no amenities except a pool. "

"The room is pretty small being a twin room and there is even smaller bathroom and we have problem getting boiled clean water because they did not give the kettle , instead there was a coffee machine which was extremely difficult to operate and the cups provided the paper ones were very, very small. As a result we have to buy water bottles from outside to fill the coffee machine. The staff were okay , one gentleman on arrival gave us the wrong message that we were already billed when it was not the case and we were billed at the end when we checked out . Not a big deal but we kept looking at our credit card and bank statements to check whether it was already done or not which was a bit of a waste of time and unnecessary, one of the girls at the reception kindly gave us a small bottle water so that was appreciated. Overall it was okay but it would do with a bit more space to put things on like toiletries in the bathroom and also the roof off restaurant was costly and the view wasn’t that brilliant anyway."