Maison Matilda - Luxury Rooms & Breakfast

This is an expensive hotel with rooms costing more than E200/night. Is it unreasonable to expect air conditioning that works? Additional pillows if you need them? (apparently the rooms were full, so they were all in use - I saw no evidence of this). Or a receptionist who is available day and night to sort it? (and no instructions as to what you should do if there's a problem). Or a decent selection of food for breakfast, instead of an amiable but gormless youth who tells you that there isn't any cheese, or meat, and that essentially your choice is Peach juice, a selection of croissants and jam, some yoghurt and coffee? Oh, and he later realised that there was an orange that he could squeeze if we wanted fresh orange juice. The place looks stylish (though the staircase carpet is a bit frayed). The situation is ordinary (it's a residential street, so no special views) but reasonably close to the centre. The problem, I suspect, is that the owner just isn't prepared to invest in new carpets or working air conditioning, to pay for food for an adequate breakfast or staff to man the hotel. Even though she charges prices that would bring all of these things and more elsewhere. The impression that I had was that she simply didn't care. We had the most uncomfortable night that I can recall in any hotel that charged more than E100 a night. It was June. The temperature was high. The room was stifling and the lack of extra pillows was a real problem for us. The breakfast was embarrassing and made Fawlty Towers look professional. We cut our visit short. It's probably fine in cool weather and if you're happy with just coffee and pastries for breakfast and aren't gluten intolerant. At this price, though, it's still a rip off.

The room I was allocated had a heavy stench of cigarettes. Viviana, the Manager/owner, acknowledged the stench, but either had not checked the room before arrival or chose to leave the stench unaddressed. The room was very dark, with almost no natural light; the windows were opened onto walls. There wasn’t a proper closet for clothes and the bathroom had a low ceiling and no shower. The breakfast room was dark and dingy and the furniture upholstery had holes. Parking was hard to access and in tandem with two other cars making entering and exiting cumbersome and difficult. Overall, a very unsatisfactory experience. Even if the stench were set aside, the darkness and gloominess of the property, plus worn out furniture and poor facilties made Maison Matilda uncomfortable, unwelcoming and overpriced. The awkward parking arrangements added to the property’s drawbacks.

My daughter and I spent a week at Maison Matilda. We loved every minute of our stay. Super stylish and Viviana could not do more to make our trip extra special. Everything had been thought through to offer a feel of luxury and the location could not be better. Very close to the town centre but still very quiet and tranquil.

The Matilda calls itself a luxury boutique hotel designed to ensure comfort and guarantee a once in a lifetime experience. Fortunately we only stayed one night as there was absolutely no way that it lived up to the promises on its website. It was certainly a once in a lifetime experience but not one we would want to repeat. We had agreed a check in time and arrived a little early but were sent away and told to come back later. The air conditioning wasn’t working and apparently hadn’t been for several days so the place was hot, we tried to speak to the owner/manager about this but she was too busy to speak to us. Instead we were told the room would cool down soon and provided with 2 cold drinks and a faulty fan. The room didn’t cool down and nobody else from the hotel bothered to speak to us, in fact the place appeared to be deserted – there were certainly no members of staff anywhere to be seen. We spent a virtually sleepless night in a very warm room, opening the windows simply let in mosquitoes and a lot of noise from the street. We had to leave by 7.30 the next morning and asked for an early breakfast, ok we didn’t give the required 24 hours notice but were told they could arrange something. However, again we heard nothing further about this although eventually we did find somebody in the kitchen the next morning but by then it was too late. We are elderly and there was nobody to help get our luggage down 2 flights of stairs as the Hotel doesn’t have a lift. We left the keys and went, very relieved to be going. As is often the case with these so called small luxury boutique hotels it was more style than substance and didn’t actually deliver on its promises. We made a formal complaint to the Booking Agency and were promised a response within 5 working days but despite a reminder heard nothing more.

We loved this place. If you strip away the Maison Margiela towels, the pure linen sheets and the Ortigia Sicilia bath products you are still left witH plenty of style at Maison Matilda. This small hotel packs a big punch. From the warm personalised welcome by Natalia to the breakfast delivered by the effervescent Viviana, this place exudes hospitality. A great location to explore Centro Storico and a top recommendation for dinner. We will be back..

Having stayed overnight at Maison Matilda many years ago, we chose it this time for a birthday celebration trip with friends, occupying four of the six available bedrooms for three nights. This luxury b&b, with very stylish decor of vintage furniture in a muted, sombre colour scheme, is owned and run by the lovely Viviana who is completely hands-on and bends over backwards to please her guests. We enjoyed elegant breakfasts together in one of the two small breakfast rooms, with other guests thoughtfully accommodated in the other room. Afternoon tea was served to us in the guest sitting room on our arrival day and first day (Viviana was, mysteriously, nowhere to be seen on our final afternoon and the buffet of usual hot drinks and cookies was not accessible to us). Best of all, on one evening we were served a beautiful dinner ‘in-house’. Although Matilda is a b&b, they are able with prior notice to arrange dinners in-house, cooked by a highly-talented young chef and elegantly served by Viviana and her daughter. Superb wines may be supplied by a local restaurant. This experience at Matilda combined perfectly the intimate feel of a very small establishment with the luxuries of hotel-style service. Viviana would love to host more of these occasions. The accommodation is very good value and, though the additional extras are more akin to hotel prices, Viviana makes celebrating a special occasion here highly personalised and memorable.