Beautiful if a little cold hotel. Modern and elegant. Lovely room with patio and lounge chairs and gorgeous breakfast area. Best was right in town, walking at night and early in the morning to feel like you "live" here..... Expensive, but got best rate and an upgrade through Small Luxury Hotels. Staff competent but less than warm/friendly except for the staff in the breakfast room who talked about the owner and the history of the hotel.

The hotel is really nice and the staff was really helpful and friendly. The rooms are quite expensive but you are in Portofino and there are only 2 hotels walking distance from the harbour so I guess you have to pay for it ! But you also pay 14 euros for a beer so.....:) The room was made twice a day and was a good size though not as big as I was expecting.
All in all if a nice place to stay if you can afford it.

The only good feature about this hotel is that it in situated in Portofino. We had been booked into a room with a small terrace or balcony but while our room was nIce it did not have a balcony. This was written clearly on our printed itinerary by our travel agent and advertised on this hotels website. However I could not get anywhere with Reception and we realized that we just had to put up with this for the 3 nights we stayed. It was particularly annoying when I realised that the room next door was similar to ours but it had a balcony and there were one night stays in it while we were there. I cannot understand why we did not get this one.
The hotel website needs to be more accurate and informative and the staff more obliging! There is no view from the hotel and it is up the hill from this charming seaside village. The reception staff were not helpful and one member in particular had a very superior manner. There was no information in our room about hotel facilities or the points of interest in the area.
We were told when we arrived that breakfast was served in the rooftop garden everyday unless the weather was not fine. We had perfect weather each of our 3 mornings but not once during our stay was it there. Breakfast was indoors on the second floor with no explanation. It was basic in comparison to the other five hotels that we stayed in, in our 3 weeks in Italy.
I took photos of what was supposed to be the outdoor breakfast area ... It looked like it hadn't been used for a long time if ever! I wondered how 7 tables would be enough for 18 rooms. There is no bar or restaurant at the hotel.
We only had one pillow each and had to ask for another one as there were no extras in our room. During our stay we had to ask for soap and another towel because when our room was serviced they weren't replaced.
We paid 408 Euro ($570 AU) per night which was cheaper than most hotels in Portofino but still substantial and expected that our booking would have been honoured and for more genuine hospitality from Reception. It would have been better to stay in one on the nearby towns such as Santa Margarita where there are many more hotels and the private beaches are much more reasonably priced that the arrangement Eight Hotel had for its guests at 40 Euros ($56 AU) per person per day. There is an excellent ferry service hourly linking the 4 nearby towns of Rapello, Santa Margarita, Portofino and San Fruituoso. Don't bother to stay at Eight Hotel.

Spent one night in Portofino, out of a 10 day break in Lombardy. We were really looking forward to it as the hotel photos looked great and the reviews looks good. It is labelled as 'small luxury hotel of the world'. I paid the going rate( a very high rate!) for a standard room ..thinking that it was going to be special hotel with a great room and great location. We were looking for something special to finish off our vacation. It was definitely not. We were really disappointed. It is small hotel and must be the most expensive hotel in Portofino or possibly in the area!. A nice entrance and initially good feeling...But..the classic room was nothing special...clean, reasonably funished but still a very small room and bath,room with only a shower. The window overlooked a side street. The hotel has no facilities, no bar, a small jacussi and area on a terrace on the roof area, but which received little sun anyway. Did have free parking. Breakfast was included and was a small continental. The hotel has access to a beach at its sister hotel in Picaggi and has a shuttle car but will charge you 40euro per person to use, which I thought was ridiculous. This should be provided to all guests. The website is not obvious on this. The only good thing about this hotel is the location, just 100m walk from the harbour area. You are really only paying for the location (portofino) and the proximity to the harbour..but seriously , do not waste your money. We were going to stay 2 nights but the manager kindly and thankfully allowed us to leave the next day at no extra night cost..for which I am grateful. The staff is very nice. We were quite disappointed with Portofino in general. It is definitely a nice harbour and seafront as is that entire coastline..definitely worth seeing. But Portofino is very expensive, oversold and full of people either having or pretending to have too much money. The shops and restaurant really do charge high prices for everything. It has a small harbour with some large moored yachts which clearly helps attracts visitors. Make a day visit, have an evening meal..it is lovely in the evening ...but definitely stay elsewhere. The Piccolo hotel just outside portofino looks nice, is much better value and has room patios and access to the local (public) beach and is within 10min walk to Portofino. Beaches are definitely at a premium along the coastline. I would even avoid Santa Margarita nearby although it is pretty enough for a day visit as well. This coastline is spectacular and worth spending some time visiting.