I’ve been travelling for business reason in the Bari area and I stayed 3 nights in the Svevo hotel just outside Gioia del Colle (about 40km from Bari). The hotel is a good structure situated just outside the town center. My room was of a decent size and clean, which was a pleasant surprise because I had very bad experiences in the Bari area. Recently the hotel has opened a fitness center and although I didn’t use it the equipment looked new.

The restaurant and the bar were nothing special so if you have the chance you can find nice restaurants in the town center of Gioia del Colle. The breakfast was of a fair size and everything was fresh.

Wireless internet was included in the room but the only real annoyance is that the password expires every 4 hours.

The only downside of the hotel was that my shower cabin door wasn’t working very well and when I made that known to the reception they said they’d look into it but when I came back it was the same.

Overall the Svevo hotel is a good hotel.

I'm staying at the Svevo for one week while on business.

The hotel is located a short 10 minute walk from the center of town and located in a residential neighbourhood.

The hotel has 4 floors serviced by 2 very small elevators.
There is a dining room and lobby bar.
There are no fitness facilities.

Front staff all speak some english. At first they seemed to not be very happy or engaging.....but when I made an effort to be friendly, they opened up. Oddly, there are no women on the staff (except for house cleaning)

Beware, there are 2 types of rooms.....the standard and the supperior. They are both the same size, but the superior has been re-decorated and upgraded.

My first room was a standard room. The main problem was the heating. The control was old and the writing worn off. No matter how I set it, I couldn't get heat....so I was chilly.

My second room was nicer (a Superior room).
Upgrades over standard:
- Heating was an automatic unit - room temperature was fine
- Paintings on the wall
- Flat screen TV was mounted on the wall
- Bathroom was nicer
- Lighting was better

The one problem was, I was located just adjacent to the elevator, so I could hear the elevator going up and down......beware of any rooms that end in 01 or 29, as there are the rooms on either sides of the 2 elevators.

To Improve:
- In the small shower stall, there is no soap holder or tray bolted to the wall, so you have to go into the shower holding your shampoo and soap in your hands as you shower.....then drop each one as you finish.
- The soaps are those tiny motel size ones.
- The cups are the cheapest little plastic ones.
- The bed is very firm....so much so that I did have a sore back each morning. This may not be a problem for people who love very firm.....(my business associate in another room had the same problem with his back)

What you should also know:
- No in-room safe
- No kettle or tea/coffee facilities in room
- There is a mini-fridge that you could find room to place a few of your items
- 2 English channels (9) BBC and (23) Fox USA
- Internet was FREE (wired or wiress in my superior room & wireless only in my standard room)......however, you need to continuously go to the front desk and get an access code for 1 to 8 hours of access......a bit of an annoyance.

The breakfast was included. The breakfast is from 6:30am on weekdays. I usually arrived there at 6:30, but it usually took 1/2 hour for the staff to bring all the food out. It's a continental buffet on the light side.
Yogurts
Fresh baked breads
Cut fruit is canned, not fresh (however there are oranges and apples)
Cheese, ham

Conclusion: If you get the right room, this is an ok hotel. Management could make some easy changes that would make this hotel a lot better.