Hotel Onufri

Friendly staff welcomed me to their clean and comfortable hotel. Spacious accommodation, great food, and very good location so everything was an easy walk, even up the hill to the Castle!

We stayed in Hotel Onufri Berat on March 3 with our tour group (OAT). The room was comfortable but hot and there seemed to be no way to cool it down except to open the windows. But, my main complaint is that we used our Visa credit card for a simple dinner that night in the dining room. There were few people there. Our meal should have been about $25 but when we got the Visa bill we had been charged 2070 Euro. That's about a $2500 overcharge. So far we have not gotten any positive results from any attempts that we have taken to fix this. You'd think that a restaurant would have questioned a bill for 2 people that was 2070 Euro. So, be careful if you stay there!!!

Nice and clean, but the total package is limited mostly by the lack of sophistication now in all of Albania beyond Tirana. I guess we can thank Enders Hoxha who managed to take this poor country and it’s people back to the 18th century during the Cold War when he thought it was cool to emulate N Korea and China with closed borders. They are trying to catch up… Examples: - no one is at the front desk except when a group tour is arriving. Ever. No bell to ring. - One pillow only per person in bedrooms. No extras. I liberated a Libby couch pillow each night! -no safe for passports and valuables. This is really important…. - Lights in lobby and halls are controlled by switches behind front desk and are mostly left off. Not good. Cheap. -bathroom soap was an open leftover from previous guest.

My wife and I stayed here for just one night in late September, ‘23 as part of a small group tour of the Balkans. It was a pleasant stay and we would have liked to stay longer. The hotel is on a side street just a short way off the river, and it is a very attractive building in the same classic style that is the hallmark of Berat. It is very close to the scenic walk along the river and close to restaurants, shops, and historic sites. Our room (101) was very large and had a nice view of the open area in front of the hotel and the shops opposite. There was a comfortable king bed and one twin bed, two night stands with outlets, a desk, armoire, and a small refrigerator. The bathroom was large and attractive, with a shower, a stylish raised sink, and plenty of storage space on the surrounding vanity. Breakfast was served in a restaurant area on the street level, only reached by going outside and down the steps. It was a pleasant setting, but the breakfast itself is hard to evaluate because we arrived after one or more tour groups had pretty well cleaned everything out and nothing much was left. We suspect that under normal circumstances it would have been very adequate. Overall, we found the Onufri to be a comfortable and convenient place to explore Berat, and we recommend it.

So let’s start with the good stuff. The hotel certainly looks great and the location is perfect for exploring the historic parts of Berat. The rooms were quaint and the breakfast decent. But the positive review unfortunately stops here…. The staff was, well uninspired must be the word, and we felt like we were “in their way” most of the time. Examples: We had coffee and water on the terrace (which is great) but could not pay by credit card as the amount was “to small”, any souvenirs shop would gladly accept card payment for smaller amounts. We lacked toilet paper which required multiple requests and more than an hour before we could finally pick it up ourself from the reception. There must have been a paper shortage as the toilets at the restaurant was also out! And a mess. Staff was taking up tables in the shade on the terrace, on staircases etc for smoking, sitting in the waiting area of the reception chatting and ogling us when we went by etc. Our rooms were not turned down either. A great hotel on paper, but found lacking unfortunately….