Maison Tofani

“Wonderful hotel”

Beautiful hotel in the centre of Sorrento. We had a lovely bedroom which was very quiet in spite of looking out on to one of the main shopping streets. The room had a very comfortable bed with high quality bed linen. Excellent service from every member of staff from reception to breakfast service … more

Beautiful hotel in the centre of Sorrento. We had a lovely bedroom which was very quiet in spite of looking out on to one of the main shopping streets. The room had a very comfortable bed with high quality bed linen. Excellent service from every member of staff from reception to breakfast service and housekeeping. The breakfast is very good with a good range and served in an elegant dining room with a beautifully painted ceiling. We had a problem with our shower and this was promptly addressed by the staff. There is a bar which we used with a good range of drinks although I don’t know if it is open after the staff finish at 9 pm. There is also a lovely roof terrace with comfortable furniture and wonderful views of the bay of Naples and Vesuvius. I have only one thing that I would suggest for improvement. The standard coffee was very weak. I asked for a double espresso on the second morning and it was delicious.

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“Extremely well situated and well priced”

I highly recommend this former palazzo turned into a hotel. It is EXTREMELY well situated if you want to walk around the old town of Sorrento but is also centrally located if you want to go the beaches, the port, or even the main square. The price vs location was reasonable. The only small pet peev… more

I highly recommend this former palazzo turned into a hotel. It is EXTREMELY well situated if you want to walk around the old town of Sorrento but is also centrally located if you want to go the beaches, the port, or even the main square. The price vs location was reasonable. The only small pet peeves: our room was under the roof and - at he beginning at least - knocked our heads often on the rafters, the shower was so small that one does aquatic gymnastics to shower, and the elevator (at least there is one) was soooo slow (they cannot install a modern one due to the preservation of the building) that going from the first floor to the 4th was an exercise in patience. Oh, you will also have to push your luggage through a crowded small street with cobblestones when you get there but that is a small hindrance vs the location and simple luxury of this hotel.

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“Great overall location however parking & accessibility can be challenging”

My husband and I stayed at Maison Tofani for 4 days after returning from a Mediterranean cruise. We planned on using Sorrento as our "home base" and taking some day trips to the surrounding areas to see some old friends, etc. We have stayed in Sorrento many times at various properties and I have to… more

My husband and I stayed at Maison Tofani for 4 days after returning from a Mediterranean cruise. We planned on using Sorrento as our "home base" and taking some day trips to the surrounding areas to see some old friends, etc. We have stayed in Sorrento many times at various properties and I have to say that Maison Tofani was my favorite location as far as being able to walk to many different things and being right in the middle of the downtown area. There was an amazing gelato place directly across from the entrance, some great restaurants right around the corner (thank you Da Gigino’s for several great meals throughout our stay!) and any type of shopping you could want without having to walk more than a block. Being a huge history and architecture fan, I loved the historical integrity of the building and the decor of the interior, especially the breakfast room and lounge. These rooms were absolutely stunning- the ceiling in the dining area is completely painted in a Renaissance style mural and it is amazing. The setting would be spectacular for an intimate dinner party or small wedding which I believe they hold there on occasion. Breakfast was nicely done with many different things to choose from- eggs, traditional Italian charcuterie, fresh fruit, gorgeous pastries- and is served between 8 & 10 daily. There was not a single morning of our stay when more than 3 of the 8 or so tables were occupied at any one time which was a nice change after fighting for tables with 1000 other people on our cruise ship in order to eat breakfast. Our room had a small balcony off of it and one of the nights we were there it was the perfect vantage point for fireworks that were being done over Sorrento- I think I was actually the only person in the place who was able to see from that particular view. The reasons I am not giving Maison Tofani five stars are the following- as mentioned by someone who must have been in the exact same room we were in-there were numerous times we smacked our heads on the slanted attic beams- the ceiling was very low in about half of the room- not necessarily the hotel’s fault but unpleasant nonetheless. Also as mentioned by others, the shower in our room was excessively tiny- my husband has very broad shoulders and due to some past surgeries he has difficulty bending/twisting so it was almost physically exhausting/impossible for him to take a shower in such a tiny space. Also, I’m not sure that I’ve seen anyone else mention this but there was a placard in our room on the desk that I happened to notice the second day we were there that stated we were not allowed to bring any outside food or drinks into the room, eat or drink in the room, or use the mini fridge for storage of anything other than the items the management had put in there- they attributed these requests to “health concerns/risks” which I understand to some degree but I found it ridiculous that when it was 95 degrees out My husband and I stayed at Maison Tofani for 4 days after returning from a Mediterranean cruise. We planned on using Sorrento as our "home base" and taking some day trips to the surrounding areas to see some old friends, etc. We have stayed in Sorrento many times in various hotels and I have to say that Maison Tofani was my favorite location as far as being able to walk to many different things and being right in the middle of the downtown area. There was an amazing gelato place directly across from the entrance, some great restaurants right around the corner (thank you Da Gigino’s for several great meals throughout our stay!) and any type of shopping you could want without having to walk more than a block. Being a huge history and architecture fan, I loved the historical integrity of the building and the decor of the interior, especially the breakfast room and lounge. These rooms were absolutely stunning- the ceiling in the dining area is completely painted in a Renaissance style mural and it is amazing. The setting would be spectacular for an intimate dinner party or small wedding which I believe they hold there on occasion. Breakfast was nicely done with many different things to choose from- eggs, traditional Italian charcuterie, fresh fruit, gorgeous pastries- and is served between 8 & 10 daily. There was not a single morning of our stay when more than 3 of the 8 or so tables were occupied at any one time which was a nice change after fighting for tables with 1000 other people on our cruise ship in order to eat breakfast. Our room had a small balcony off of it and one of the nights we were there it was the perfect vantage point for fireworks that were being done over Sorrento- I think I was actually the only person in the place who was able to see from that particular view. The reasons I am not giving Maison Tofani five stars are the following- as mentioned by someone who must have been in the exact same room we were in-there were numerous times we smacked our heads on the slanted attic beams- the ceiling was very low in about half of the room. Also as mentioned, the shower in our room was excessively tiny- my husband has very broad shoulders and due to some past surgeries he has difficulty bending/twisting so it was almost physically exhausting/impossible for him to take a shower in such a tiny space. Also, I’m not sure that I’ve seen anyone else mention this but there was a placard in our room on the desk that I happened to notice the second day we were there that stated we were not allowed to bring any outside food or drinks into the room, eat or drink in the room, or use the mini fridge for storage of anything other than the items the management had put in there- they attributed these requests to “health concerns/risks” which I understand to some degree but I found it somewhat ridiculous that when it was 95 degrees out we couldn’t keep any cold beverages purchased elsewhere in our mini fridge. The same placard also mentioned the towels & linens and that any staining/ruining of them could result in additional charges. I understand that hotels probably do get tired of guests treating things like towels and bedding poorly but unfortunately this is sometimes the cost of doing business. Not that I advocate treating things that aren’t your own disrespectfully but as we all know sometimes things happen and towels or sheets may end up getting dirty from time to time. I also had picked Maison Tofani because knowing we were going to have a rental car and since parking is difficult in Sorrento, the property description I read (on Expedia) said that they had parking both on-site and off-site available - there was a note that it might be valet and incur an extra charge but that would have been fine, we’ve done that in the past at other hotels in that area and it was no problem. However, it did not seem like Maison Tofani had any access to any specific parking lot especially one “on site”once we spoke with the woman who checked us in. We inquired as to where we might be able to park especially in order to transfer our luggage from the car to the hotel since it was not possible to get close to the hotel due to restricted streets and she really did not give us any answers to this question. My husband does have a handicapped tag for parking - he checked online prior to this trip and apparently handicapped tags from the US are supposed to be honored in EU. Again, it was difficult to receive any guidance from the woman at reception- she told us that the handicapped tag would not be recognized in Sorrento which according to the local traffic police is not true. This parking situation proved to be somewhat of an ongoing issue for our stay that I won’t go into here, I just felt the information about parking posted online was somewhat misleading and had we known the actual situation ahead of time we might have chosen another place to stay. One other bothersome thing- the bell man from Maison Tofani came to our car to help us with our larger bags when we checked in- we were on a 21 day trip so had some heavy luggage with us. However the entire walk from the car to the hotel was cobblestone and as I followed him watching the wheels of the suitcases bounce and bang into the cobblestones all I could think of was that one of the wheels was going to end up breaking or snapping off completely- we have had a broken wheel happen before mid-trip and it was not a fun experience. As we later realized when we checked out, there was a luggage cart available which we used to take our suitcases back to the car and saved them from more wear & tear. Overall we did enjoy our stay and would consider staying at this property again in the future as long as we don’t have a car we have to worry about. we couldn’t keep any cold beverages purchased elsewhere in our mini fridge. The same placard also mentioned the towels & linens and that any staining/ruining of them could result in additional charges. I understand that hotels probably do get tired of guests treating things like towels and bedding poorly but unfortunately this is sometimes the cost of doing business. Not that I advocate treating things that aren’t your own disrespectfully but as we all know sometimes things happen and towels or sheets may end up getting dirty from time to time. I also had picked Maison Tofani because knowing we were going to have a rental car and since parking is difficult in Sorrento, the property description I read (on Expedia) said that they had parking both on-site and off-site parking available - there was a note that it might be valet and incur an extra charge but that would have been fine, we’ve done that in the past at other hotels in that area and it was no problem. However, it did not seem like Maison Tofani had any access to a specific parking lot especially one “on site” once we spoke with the woman who checked us in. We inquired as to where we might be able to park especially in order to transfer our luggage from the car to the hotel since it was not possible to get close to the hotel due to restricted streets and she really did not give us any answers to this question. My husband does have a handicapped tag- he checked online prior to this trip and apparently handicapped tags from the US are supposed to be honored in EU. Again it was difficult to receive any guidance from the woman at reception- she told us that the handicapped tag would not be recognized in Sorrento which according to the local traffic police is not true. This parking situation proved to be somewhat of an ongoing issue for our stay that I won’t go into here, I just felt the information about parking posted online was somewhat misleading and had we known the actual situation ahead of time we might have chosen another place to stay. One other bothersome thing- the bell man from Maison Tofani came to our car to help us with our larger bags- we were on a 21 day trip so had some heavy luggage with us- however the entire walk from the car to the hotel was cobblestone and as I followed him watching the wheels of the suitcases bounce and bang into the cobblestones all I could think of was that one of the wheels was going to end up breaking or snapping off completely- we have had a broken wheel happen before mid-trip and it was not a fun experience. As we later realized when we checked out, there was a luggage cart available which we used to take our suitcases back to the car and saved them from more wear & tear. Overall we did enjoy our stay and would consider staying at this property again in the future as long as we don’t have a car we have to worry about.

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