Hotel Vecchio Borgo

The Hotel Vecchio Borgo is very well situated in Palermo ,Sicily, Italy, but for one very large weakness-it is right next to an intersection hosting some of the noisiest party venues in town. On Friday and Saturday nights especially the noise can be deafening, making it difficult to sleep. In addition the hotel has a practice of having “non-working” airconditioning systems. I was told (by the hotel staff) that the airconditioning system is turned off, often to save energy and money. When this happens, and patrons complain, the reception staff use the excuse of saying the system has broken down. If you push them hard enough it can be switched back on, but it will, at some stage, “fail” again. This is important as not only are the rooms then very stuffy, with double-glazed glass, but the the solution offered by the Hotel is for you to open the windows, thereby aggravating the noise problem from the streets below. When I complained to night staff about this their response was that “There is a malfunction, I cannot fix it”. More likely the system is turned off and no one wants to fix it. Their solution is to then offer ear plugs to alleviate the noise problem. Even assuming you can sleep with ear plugs, this does not solve the air-conditioning problem. This is a pity as the Hotel is used by GAdventures as one of its bases in Palermo. I am surprised that GAdventures has not moved to pressure the hotel to fix the problem.If you are doing a GAdventures (or other group) tour, and this is one of their hotels in Palermo, I strongly recommend you look for an alternative which doesn’t use this hotel-not if you want to sleep.In the circumstances I can only advise against staying in this hotel.

Our stay was ok, location was in old area, a bit far from attractions, room was tight, clean, staff was ok.

The hotel is perfectly located next to the historic old town, but misses the cheesy tourist *****. The neighborhood and surrounding streets have a lot of bars and restaurants that serve locals (no english on menus) and is very lively on weekends. The receptionist and staff at hotel are polite and friendly and give good suggestions on places to visit. The wifi was quick and room spacious and clean

The desk clerk was nice and friendly. They could not get my temperature in the room adjusted so it was cold. Good restaurant, La Brace in walking distance. Breakfast was ok. The room was decent but beds should have been split. Quite noisy outside at all hours.

Position - convenient Staff - fantastic Room - small but spotless and comfortable. I only stayed one night, which isn’t enough fora full picture but Margaretta on reception was a star.

I loved the location, very convenient and walkable. Close to public transportation. Air conditioner in the room stopped working after 2 days and at night was impossible to sleep, very noisy neighbourhood! Staff were nice.