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Bella Maggiore Inn
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7 reviews for Bella Maggiore Inn
Awesome! This hotel has a lot of character, the staff was friendly and the location is great. I love the old world feel of this place.
We stayed in Room 37 which had a jacuzzi hot tub, a fireplace, king size bed and a sitting area to celebrate my birthday. It was perfect. The bathroom was huge, the jacuzzi worked very well, and we had no problems with the fireplace (apparently this has been a problem for other guests, based on various internet reviews). The bed was comfy, and I loved the decor, very antique in a cool way.
Our room overlooked the parking lot behind the hotel, and I was a little concerned because I heard it gets really noisy in the middle of the night but that was not a problem at all.
The hotel is centrally located, you can walk to the beach and the main drag, the staff was really helpful about recommending shops and restaurants, and they were more than happy to share their ghost stories!
Happy hour wine/food was a nice touch, the courtyard is absolutely beautiful. The breakfast in the morning was amazing, but the service was pretty bad. Don't be in a hurry when you go down there.
We didn't see or experience any ghosts, but I will definitely go back again. I asked to see the price sheet for the other rooms and it is SO reasonable for what you get. I think this is probably the best bet for a hotel in that area if you're on any kind of a budget. I kicked myself in the morning when I woke up at Casa Del Sol in Carpenteria (see my other review if you're curious) and realized I hadn't even thought to check availability here. Bella Maggiore rocks.
Cool restored old hotel. Free wine and cheese in the evening. And breakfast is included in the room price. The breakfast is the best in Ventura. Fancy coffee not included in the free breakfast. Breakfast is served in a big open patio with vines on the walls. Weekends they sometimes have a acoustic guitarist at breakfast. No a/c, but you are about a mile from the ocean. Can be a bit noisy if your room is on the street.
For an overnight stop in Ventura on a restful vacation, we were excited about the old world charm the Bella Maggiore Inn had to offer. Within walking distance of Main Street and the lovely Cafe Fiore, we thought we couldn't go wrong. The price was even right for one night with the generous business travel discount they offer.
All was well until:
-The shower sprayed ice cold water in the middle of a hot shower
-The jets on the bath tub did not work easily
-We were told we could not have too much fruit for breakfast as the chef complained (I only eat fruit by the way)
-The main lobby (right near the breakfast area) wreaked of cleaning products and sounds of a vacuum in the morning and gave us a headache
-The clocks in the room were 1/2 hour incorrect
All would have been fine except for the fact when I simply stated to the front desk what had occurred, the woman helping us immediately wanted to give us a gift certificate to make up for what had happened. A lovely gesture, but she said first she would talk with her manager and she would give us a call a bit later. Not expecting anything, the manager later called us to merely say that all of our "so-called" complaints were completely invalid and that we had no right to say anything at all!! She was extremely rude and I might have actually considered returning if it were not for the simple fact that this woman basically called me on my vacation to invalidate my poor experience at the Bella Maggiore Inn. I will never return to this hotel and I expect if you read this review that you consider another hotel.
We suggested that our wedding guests all stay at Bella Maggiore, so this is entirely from the point of view of trying to plan for a group. We've had friends and family stay there in the past and the experience has generally been good. Every once in a while someone will get a particularly noisy or hot/cold room, but the place is cute with a great location and wine hour.
Around the wedding we wanted to support local business and were hoping to keep everyone in walking distance of the wedding festivities, so Bella Maggiore seemed to be the best option. (Also, the included breakfast is great!)
Unfortunately, while booking an individual room had never been a problem, booking a group was a HUGE hassle. The short version is that the hotel just doesn't have a system to manage a group reservation simply and communication is an issue.
Among other issues, their staff ended up confusing the fact that the rooms were held with the idea that the rooms were booked, so multiple people were told that they were full. Then we got anxious calls from the hotel about whether we still needed all the rooms as we were trying to communicate back to friends who had been told there weren't rooms but were waiting to hear from us before they booked at other hotels.
There was also a communication bottleneck because only one person at the hotel was supposed to deal with any of the group bookings, so anyone calling (they don't use email or computers) when she wasn't on shift had to leave a message and wait to be called back. This included messages I left that that weren't returned and led to multiple trips to the hotel to try to figure out what was going on.
I went down to try to sort things out when I started getting calls from friends about the hotel being 'booked', only to learn that the staff person in charge of our reservations was on a 2 week vacation and every other staff person I spoke with showed an amazing apathy and lack of knowledge about the situation. When I asked whether a particular room was booked I was told that the person couldn't tell me - she could show me the reservation card, but couldn't tell me what it meant.
My mother called to check the reservations she was taking care of and the staff person ended up calling her back multiple times with questions about how reservations for other parts of the group should be set up, which was both not helpful and frustrating for both my mother and I. When my mother asked each time why they weren't calling me for the information she was told that they didn't have my number, even though it was written on all the reservation documentation.
In the end I was told that in the future the hotel would have whoever is organizing a group reservation gather everyone's contact and credit card information and give it directly to the hotel, which may make it simpler, though I know I wouldn't have wanted to handle that even for our small group.
In the end everyone got a room, we were able to fix a couple of last minute issues (so people weren't moved during their stay, etc) and everyone seemed happy.
I'll still recommend individual people coming to town to the Bella Maggiore - but would definitely not recommend it for a smoothly organized group trip.
I've stayed here once before and it was 5 stars in the nice big room at the back of the hotel. A beautiful setup, fireplace, and hot tub. Because of this awesome previous vacation, I decided to come back. This time a slightly smaller budget, I was given a room at the front of the hotel. At first I thought "how cool I can see the people go by from my window." Yet I was incorrect to think this. I find myself staying here tonight and can't sleep do to very loud live music at the bar across the street and cars bumping bass. The live music at the bar is every Friday and Saturday night from 10pm until 1am. I suppose if you are going out late on the weekend this wouldn't pose an issue, but seeing as I am getting up at 6am to catch a ferry to the Channel Islands the next day, this is not a welcome. I was not told that I should expect these rooms to be loud. I would have selected a room at the back of the hotel. The rooms at the front should be cheaper. Additionally, the bed in this particular room is like a slab of concrete and there is no A/C which wouldn't be a problem if I could open a window, but then we are back to an even increased sound issue I spoke about before. Overall, I'm saddened that the hotel let me down a bit after such a promising first trip here.
Stayed in Room 17, the "Haunted Room" for July 4th. It's a very big room with access to a patio area. This time we booked our reservation that morning on a holiday. The Bella Maggiore is as good as any European Bed and Breakfast. It reminds me of the Excelsior Hotel in Barcelona on Las Ramblas..
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1 Previous Review: Show all »
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5/25/2008
We stayed in room 15. Just two doors down from the haunted room. Well so much for ghosts. The rooms… Read more »
Great find! Sun-Thursday gets you business rates if you have a business card! Early evening complimentary wine with meat, cheese and veggies platter in the lobby. Every morning, Nonas, which is downstairs behind the lobby serves complimentary breakfast to guests. Anything off the menu - just order and sign your name and room number.
Room 17 is supposed to be haunted by a woman guest from years gone by. Never able to get room 17 though.
I had room 4 for one night that overlooked California St then room 19 that had a balcony overlooking Nonas courtyard restaurant.
Walking distance to everything...
Drawbacks: Noisy, drunken folks knocking down chairs and tables in the courtyard at 230am. The fucking fountain in the courtyard turns on at 7am and it sounds like 200 people taking a piss into a pool of water. Just dont smoke the dope in their non-smoking rooms as youll get put on their blacklist. (overheard the housekeeper telling the front desk about room 6)
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