My wife and I stayed at the Michelangelo for 3 nights in May and enjoyed our stay. 2 first impressions stand out immediately on arrival at the hotel - its location and decor. The hotel is high on the hillside looking down over Ascona and the lake and while it may be only a 10 minute walk to town its quite a steep climb on the way back. On the drive from town to the hotel, the street is one of those that seems to double back on itself every 100 meters because of the steep incline. Its like something from the monte carlo grand prix or your standard car TV advert.
When you arrive at the hotel, the decor is very, very 1970s. While everything is clean and tidy the wallpaper, fittings etc makes everything feel like the back lot of 'That 70s show' or that you've been transported back in time.
If you can deal with the decidedly dodgy decor and elevated location - the hotel is small, quite and the staff are friendly (and in keeping with the area -multilingual).Combinations of German, Italian, Ticino Deutsch, French and English seem to feature in every conversation ( and sometimes in single sentences ).
The hotel ( or the decor ) seems to attract a older clientele but we enjoyed our stay. The bar is small, theres a sun terrace on the roof and the outdoor pool is housed in something akin to a glass house. The hotel charges 10 CHF per night parking but there's free parking 100 metres futher up the street/hill. The only other unusual part is the you have seperate hotel and hotel front door keys i.e. if you go out in the evening you leave your hotel key and take a front door key with you in case you're late back. Once you get back, you swap them again...
All in all - its a quirky hotel that really doesn't feel like its part of a chain but its clean, quiet, friendly and less expensive that other location options. And Ascona is a pretty little town...