Just got back from a 4-night stay at Hotel Boite (ski-break). Our experience was mixed.
The staff were surprisingly and consistently friendly and very eccentric in a 'Being John Malkovich' kind of way. This was the quirky side of hotel boite that we loved.
We had a room with a mountain view. The bedroom part of the room was clean and very nice. Simple, with fresh, white bedding, although the curtains mysteriously did not open. The bathroom was not 4-star at all! It was old fashioned, with poor water pressure and a toilet that flushed by turning a tap, so not very effective (!) and wastes a lot of water. It was clean though. The prices in the mini-bar were surprisingly cheap .
The biggest problem with Hotel Boite for us was its location. The hotel is 1.5 miles out of town. While we would normally love the isolation, in this case we felt trapped. That's a 1.5 mile walk from the bus stop (there are no taxis in Borca), and absolutely no chance of going out for a meal in the evening (the buses stop at 5:30pm). (On Lastminute.com it says the bus stop is 300m away from the hotel, which is odd, because the bus stop is past the wellness centre, which lastminute.com reports is 900m away from the hotel!)
If we had known this in advance, we would happily have rented a car. However, when we called the week before to ask how to get to the hotel, we were simply told to catch the bus to Borca from the airport.
Without a car, we were bound to the hotel's timetable. Yes, there were shuttles to Cortina (half hour away - yes, the nearest slopes are 10 minutes away at san vito, but these are beginner slopes, so take note), but only 5/6 per day, and the hotel offered shuttles to the spa and the bus stop, on the hour (although these stopped at 7pm), so whatever you did, you needed to be back at Hotel Boite by 7ish in the evening to avoid being stranded.
Even worse, this meant we were bound to the hotel's 'restaurant'. The word 'restaurant' is as much of an exaggeration as the pictures of the restaurant on the Hotel Boite website. This is a dining hall, reminiscent of a boarding school, with below-average, mass-produced set menus. Brightly-lit, canteen-style, the place lacks atmosphere entirely.
The breakfasts were okay - buffet-style, absolutely fine for this type of trip., However, there was no real coffee (a major setback for some people). Instead, guests have to make do with vending machine coffee (noooo!!!!!). This is not acceptable for a 4-star hotel, AT ALL!! Coffee is an absolute must.
One last thing - the spa is shared by 3 hotels, so absolutely packed! and the jacuzzi wasn't working when we were there.
The ski-ing was fabulous (Cortina) and the trip was brilliant. It would have been greatly improved by a car enabling us a modicum of independence from the hotel and a good cup of filter coffee with breakfast!
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