Stayed in the Astra Hotel in October 2010 for just one night. The whole hotel appears tired and run down and needs a refurbishment. The room was clean but typically italian, very stark, dark and dingy with old furniture and fixtures. The exception to this was the electrical and locking system which has been upgraded.

The double bed was two singles put together and was just furnished with sheets and an old cover. The mattress was hard, there was no duvet and the pillows were old and flat. There were some old blankets to supplement the bedding but they were singles so didn't fit the bed ! In my room there were very noisy water pipes just the other side of a thin wall which made a hell of a noise everytime someone flushed a toilet or switched on a shower. This woke me several times in the night.

The plumbing in the Bathroom all worked OK. The television was ancient and small and still CRT, with no english language channels or satellite. There were no tea or coffee making facilites, as is often the case in Italy, there was a minibar, however the prices were stupidly high. There were no ironing facilities in the room and these were not available from reception either where the staff were particulalry unhelpful on this point. I like to iron (or have ironed) the creases out of the shirt I will be wearing the following day after it has been folded in the case - this was not possible.

There is a garage but it will cost you 20 Euros a night to park. Wi-Fi was available, slow but not badly priced at 5 Euros for 3 hours.

Breakfast was OK but the choice was a bit limited.

In my opinion this was once a good hotel, by Italian standards, but hasn't moved on in 30 years and definately does not now deserve a 4 star rating. By UK standards it would be a 2 star. It is relatively cheap and well located for the centre of Ferarra. It used to be a Best Western but they moved their franchise to the Park Inn a bit further out of town, where I have also stayed - frankly the Park Inn is much better.

The Astra is very centrally located, only a short walk to the castle and the historic heart of the town. The room we were given was clean, comfortable, quiet, well furnished and very spacious for the price. We did have a problem with the safe, it didn't work as advertised and we had to wait an hour to have a staff member come help open it. Also, the in-room wifi connection was pay-as-you-go, and not cheap (3 euro for an hour or 5 euro for 5 hours). Air conditioning was free of charge, and the breakfast was excellent. A good value hotel in a pretty sleepy town.