Giovanni Rooms Manarola

It was great and just what we wanted and needed on our vacation. The staff was very accommodating.

Lovely room. Very clean and comfortable with a view of the harbour. As most of cinque terre it's on a steep hill but so is everything. Giovanni met us at the room promptly and was very pleasant and helpful.

We booked this room fairly last minute - about a week prior to arriving. There weren't many options left, but this hotel seemed decent and seemed to be in a good location. When we arrived, this hotel exceeded our expectations. We had a car and the parking was no problem (there's a pay-to-park lot when you enter town) and we had a short (but steep) walk to our hotel, which was to be expected. There were clear instructions on the door for what to do, and we were delighted to see that we got upgraded when we arrived (i had emailed the hotel directly asking for a room with a view if possible, so it was great to see that this was honored with no upgrade fee). The room was perfect - recently renovated, very clean, large bathroom and a great view of the town and ocean. The room is about a 10 minute walk to the water (also steep but this is Cinque Terre, what do you expect?!) Great cafes in the area, an awesome bar with live music at night, and a great view from the water of the village. There's also a great bar (Nessun Dorma) and a little cliff jumping spot with a ladder. The train is also a 5-10 minute walk so it's easy to get around, and a few hiking paths pick up right in the area. The owner was also very accommodating and was quick to respond to emails. One thing to note - when we arrived, it was requested that we pay in cash. We were able to ask the owner to charge the card given through Orbitz instead since we were short on cash and he had no problem doing so.

3.5 stars (which you can't do on this site). It was a tale of two rooms...one terrible and one lovely. My understanding is that there are 5 rooms in the Giovanni rooms. We were initially given the room on the ground floor. I would strongly encourage Giovanni to stop offering this room, or if offering it, drop the price to 60-70 euros/night. This room has no window, just a door with tinted glass that is on the street level and there was so much noise from the street we hardly slept. The bathroom was small with no place to hang towels or place toiletry bags. We complained (though not to Giovanni - we never saw him after check-in) and we were able to move to a room upstairs. The room upstairs had a mini fridge, a much larger bathroom, a sea view and no further street noise. An entirely better arrangement than the night before. As many have noted in other reviews, the host claims on websites that he takes credit cards, but on arrival, he tells you he can't and only accepts cash. This was tricky for us as there was only 1 ATM in the town. Had we seen Giovanni on the second day, we might have asked for some of our money back having stayed in the downstairs room for a night, but our room switch was accomplished through the help of the housekeeper who spoke to him over the phone. Cinque Terre is gorgeous, and our upstairs room was all we could want, but would advise anyone staying here to be sure they were booked in an upstairs room before committing to a reservation.

It was a tale of two rooms...one terrible and one lovely. My understanding is that there are 5 rooms in the Giovanni rooms. We were initially given the room on the ground floor. I would strongly encourage Giovanni to stop offering this room, or if offering it, drop the price to 60-70 euros/night. This room has no window, just a door with tinted glass that is on the street level and there was so much noise from the street we hardly slept. The bathroom was small with no place to hang towels or place toiletry bags. We complained (though not to Giovanni - we never saw him after check-in) and we were able to move to a room upstairs. The room upstairs had a mini fridge, a much larger bathroom, a sea view and no further street noise. As many have noted in other reviews, the host claims on websites that he takes credit cards, but on arrival, he tells you he can't and only accepts cash. This was tricky for us as there was only 1 ATM in the town. Had we seen Giovanni on the second day, we might have asked for some of our money back having stayed in the downstairs room for a night, but our room switch was accomplished through the help of the housekeeper who spoke to him over the phone. Cinque Terre is gorgeous, and our upstairs room was all we could want, but would advise anyone staying here to be sure they were in an upstairs room before committing to a reservation.

Our travel agent booked the Giovanni Rooms for us. We were very happy with the choice, not having seen Giovanni at all during our stay but he did leave plenty of information for us to make our stay practical and memorable. We simply loved Cinque Terre and having visited all the towns Manarola was the perfect setting for us. The Giovanni Rooms were quieter than down town, train station, restaurants and other conveniences a short stroll down hill, what goes down... and the building is not too far to haul our luggage back up to the car parking near roadside at the end of our stay.

First of all, the property is a private town house with no staff/owner whom we could directly meet upon check-in or check-out (if we depart before 10:30am on the next day). The payment needs to be collected by the owner, not by Expedia per booking says. The property owner had an instruction sheet left in our room, asking us to pay the room stay with cash (Euros) and leave the money in an envelope provided. We were instructed to leave the keys in the room too and lock the room when we depart. They said they would later email us a receipt for our room payment made in cash. Unfortunately, the owner never emailed us the receipt, even after our requests (they just do not respond us). But then at the same time, the owner went ahead and charged our credit card (that was given to Expedia when we booked the room) for the room charges. So basically, the owner not only took our cash payment, but also charged our credit card. We had to file a dispute later with the credit card company. Therefore, please be careful so you will not be a victim like we are.

As everyone has mentioned before, the views from this place are stunning. It's a 5 minute walk from the Manarola station, although a little difficult to find (As you're walking up the steep hill, if you see the church you went too far. It's a set of stairs after the second curve on the right. Google will not work in finding you.) The phone number given for the location also didn't work, so if it hadn't been for a friendly local, it could have taken me hours to find Room location was good, the only downside is that the you can hear other guests as they're climbing the stairs with their luggage, or just coming back to their rooms. I'd stay there again (now that I know where it is).

An amazing location with the breathtaking view! Giovanni is 'Numero Uno' host, who will take care of you to the highest standarts! Will explain everything you need to know and answer all the questions you might have. He will recommend places to go, where and what to eat, how to travel around and and how to chill. His apartments are very clean, tidy and serviced daily. We had an amazing time.

Great place for a quick trip to Manarola. Easy access to parking if you're traveling by car. Many steps, but...it's Manarola although, very steep steps up to the room. We were traveling light but these steps could be issue with big bags. Stay was during the first part of March and we could not figure out how to work the heater so it was cold but hey, that's not so bad if you share the experience.