My husband and I stayed at this hotel recently. We were really surprised with the condition of this place. If you notice, there are very few photos of the rooms on the hotel's website. Most of the photos are of the outside of the hotel or the view from the hotel. The reason is simple. If you saw the rooms, you probably would not reserve. We were very disappointed with the hotel and would not return. Also, you can forget about the swimming pool. It did not look clean enough to get into. Breakfast was very basic, with minimal selection. This is not a good choice!

After reading the reviews for La Perla in Trip advisor, we decided to spend two days there. We called the hotel and asked about the rooms. We were told that the best rooms were located IN the hotel (not in the Villas) and were promised a "nice room" with a balcony. We did get a balcony, which did have a lovely view, but that was the only thing nice about this place. It was terrible. We had been mislead.

The furnishing were 20 year old IKEA style. The room had not been renovated for many decades. Everything looked old and folling apart. It seemed like a worn-out youth hostel. Later, when we asked about it, we were told that there were more recently renovated rooms, but they were all booked out.

We asked to see the "swimming pool" and went for a walk. The Swimming pool was a run down, dirty, pathetic looking hole in the ground. Even though it was a very hot day, no one was there and we also quickly left. The breakfast buffet was minimal, not the luxery dining we had expected from the reviews we read here.

We are not "hotel snobs", generally we stay in 3 or 4 star hotels. We do not insist on luxery. But La Perla was one of the worst hotels we have ever stayed in. My guess, from the reviews we are reading, is that there must be some nicer rooms but we did not get one. However, the staff is not honest enough to tell this to you, so if you book here, you are taking your chances. I am CERTAIN you can do better than this place.

We had a terrific stay at La Perla last summer (I really should have posted this earlier). My husband and I booked online after doing a decent amount of research. We wanted a queen sized bed and a room with a balcony. Driving up, and everything else during our stay, was exactly as advertised if not better. The only negative was that the first night they had overbooked those rooms and we had to stay in a smaller room with no balcony, but the rest of our stay was impeccable and the service was excellent. I'm a bit of a hotel snob (it's true) and this was right up our alley. Not 5* or pretentious but just like a European resort town from the 50s. Very clean rooms and really close to town (well, really it's in town, just 3 minutes walk to the main streets). In hindsight I think it was the best location because we were perched on a hill and could see the mountains and the lake as well as the rest of the town. The more expensive hotels may have been just as good service or appearance-wise, but I think we definitely got the best value/view/proximity. The stay also included a breakfast buffet, which was excellent (not just a few muffins and coffee); it included eggs, cheeses, etc. and you could eat on the veranda which had a striped awning and look over the city. Ascona was a great choice - much better in my opinion than the larger towns close by. There was a pool at this hotel, which was nice and I think you could borrow bikes but we never did. There was also a sandy beach close by. The town was very walkable. And I have to sound unpatriotic for a second and say that it was nice not to be surrounded by American tourists (we are American, but get out quite a bit so I like to think we blend better than most) :) The hills around the town were great - we went out for a long hike one day and then took a cable car down. We were also able to take a side trip to Verona, Italy during our stay, where we saw an Opera in an outdoor amphitheater. We travel twice a year internationally (stopping in London or Paris, etc) and my husband and I both agree that this was our best one yet.

This is a good hotel but in my opinion is not worthy of an excellent rating. Having booked my stay there largely on the basis of the TripAdvisor reviews I was somewhat disappointed by the reality.

First problem was trying to find somewhere to park the car. The parking spaces at the front of the hotel are ridiculously small and some of them could only be parked in with a Mini. This is really something you could do without after a long cross-alpine drive. Actually there are lots of parking spaces further up the road outside the Villa Favorit belonging to the hotel so my tip is to park in those while you check-in and then negotitate a reasonable parking space with the reception.

Second problem was that we booked a hotel room and it had a French bed which was too small for two normal sized adults to sleep in comfortably. We ended up lifting the mattress onto the floor at 3 o clock in the morning so that we could get some sleep. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to be doing on holiday.

The next day we asked about a different room at reception and were upgraded to a Villa room which came with an associated price increase. My tip here would be to book by phone with the hotel and sort these things out beforehand.

Don't get me wrong this is overall a good hotel. However I would suggest some pre-planning before you stay there. Consider other hotels in the area and don't be over-influenced by the TripAdvisor reviews.

One final thing to be aware of is that at the time we stayed there the other guests were mainly pensioners and the food in the restaurant was reminiscent of a pensioners coach outing and much better food can be found in Ascona proper.