29/08/2025: The Sud Hotel enjoys an enviable location, overlooking the splendid Montedarena Bay.
The hotel has enormous potential, but it's underutilized.
EXTERIOR: The building appears anonymous, with not even a name printed on a canvas. The lush garden features a small central square and furnishings for relaxing in the evening. The hotel lobby is spacious and leads to the restaurant. STRUCTURE: The building is brand new, recently renovated with quality materials.
The only downsides are the hallways, which are still made of terrazzo tiles, which clash with the modern decor; the rusty doors with sharp edges; and the bathroom sinks, which splash everywhere and require a trickle of water to avoid flooding.
ROOMS: The seafront rooms are all beautiful, with large balconies overlooking the bay. The rooms at the back have smaller balconies and courtyard views. BAR: The bar is always brand new, accessible from outside, but is only being used at 5% of its capacity.
RESTAURANT: Large with plenty of space.
PARKING: Both paid on-site and free, gated parking a few steps away, unlocked with a card.
CLEANLINESS: Adequate in all areas.
FOOD SERVICE: The food service is NOT adequate: a single appetizer per course, e.g., three slices of mozzarella and tomato = or the next day, battered zucchini flower. But what if a guest doesn't like it? We were told to either leave out an appetizer or not indicate. The choice of two first courses and two second courses, for those accustomed to traveling and frequenting restaurants, is very perplexing. It ranges from slightly more sophisticated dishes to pasta with sauce, and we often left the dishes barely touched. The children's menu is almost always the same... often tubes of white or red sauce. The napkins smelled of egg, a problem reported several times but never resolved. Eventually, they took paper napkins. A neighbor of ours asked to eat something else because he didn't like the dishes that required a reservation... He was told he'd have to pay for the dish... And if you like the dish, there's no question of second helpings... it was like a parody of Fantozzi. Long wait times and the air conditioning was on full blast. Advice: you can't skimp on food service; if it's included in the package, it must be adequate, otherwise it loses its reputation. A quick tour of the managers on the Adriatic Riviera in even a two-star hotel would be enough to learn respect for customers in these matters.
STAFF:
The cleaning ladies were very friendly and proactive; the restaurant staff: some adequate, others in need of further training; the reception: remember that the first contact with the customer is there, so you can't put people who are lazy and often absent from their station on the front desk. The bar staff: knowledgeable and friendly, unfortunately with few customers. A special mention goes to Mr. Angelo... the problem solver, always friendly, helpful, and polite, a true asset to the facility. Someone like him should be employed in management roles.
OFFICIAL LOCAL GUIDE
24/08/2025: We stayed at this hotel from the 19th to the 24th...fair rating.
Let's start with the strong points: excellent location facing the sea, good cleanliness, very helpful staff (not all of them), Leo and Angelo are two lovely people.
Good breakfast, not very varied but with quality products.
The idea of organizing evenings for guests and children is nice.
The cons are many and not least significant.
The rooms are not very comfortable, especially for a disabled person. The bathroom is small, the bidet is unusable, and considering it was in the disabled person's room, this created quite a few problems. The bathrooms have no guest kits other than hand soap and a hairdryer.
The outlets, especially those next to the bed, are dangerous for children. Plugging in the charger would cause the entire power block to go out, and that shouldn't happen.
Dinner wasn't worth it: the quality was poor, the portions were small, and the meat was inedible in our opinion (everything is subjective!). We had rice, potatoes, and mussels, and as a Bari native, finding several pieces of shell in the rice bothered me so much that I thought, if you don't know how to do it, avoid cooking this type of dish.
At the end of our stay, no one asked us how we had enjoyed our stay or if we were happy with the service. This, in my opinion, is also unkind to people who paid as if they were staying in a 4-star hotel, when the service was anything but three-star.
Would I go back?
Honestly, only for the beach, but I would consider other options, such as hotels.
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