Arola accommodation from NZ$179

Beautiful place. Staff was fabulous! The hotel was lovely, great bed, nice patio off room. Bathtub/ shower was slippery and way too narrow and the shower head did not extend out far enough from the wall. Shower was not soothing. Only 2 electrical outlets- one low on the wall by the patio door and one in the bathroom. It made charging phones etc, challenging. Lastly the room key, even though it was a cute bell, it weighed at least a pound and was a hassle to haul around

We stayed in a triple room which was very big, clean and facing the car park therefore quite at night. Breakfast was simple but ok and included in the price (which seems to be rare these days). The hotel is approx 100mt from the train station therefore not a great area to wander around at night but super handy for train travellers. Parma historic centre is less than 15mins walk away. The only very weird thing was the strong smell of dump in the stairs on the way to the breakfast room

The room itself was large and comfortable. This was true for all of us (3 couples occupying 3 rooms). On arrival the member of staff that booked us in was quite gruff and when my wife asked her for help with directions and transport to local places, namely the city centre and the sports ground which three of us were going to on that evening, she was quite unhelpful saying it was far too complicated for her to get details of bus times and routes. We established, ourselves, that this was not at all complicated as we only needed the numbers of two buses that passed by the hotel. Another of the receptionists on duty when we arrived did help me to access the wifi. The breakfasts were good and, on the whole, staff in the breakfast room were helpful. The biggest inconvenience for all of us was that the bedroom lighting was faulty. Lights came on and went off spontaneously. This problem persisted throughout the night with lights going off and plunging us into darkness when going about our regular business and coming on when we were trying to sleep. We asked to have this seen to but the efforts of staff attending to this made little difference as this was an intermittent fault, which, I understand, management at the hotel were aware of. When we paid the bill we asked about compensation but were told that, as we had booked through Expedia, any compensation due should be arranged with them. So over to you on this one - please respond soon.