Hotel Review: Fiera, Bologna, Italy

We first rated the Hotel Fiera in late 2004 and were impressed with the quality and presentation of this property. We immediately thought of it when we learned we needed to attend a trade fair in Bologna on behalf of a client last week.

The booking was easy! Venere was perfect as always, providing lots of good information in advance, including reviews by other travelers. We especially like the fact that, unlike most of the larger hotel booking sites, your card is not charged until you are standing in front of the hotel desk!

Nothing has changed in the presentation and quality of the hotel - the room was remarkably large for a European hotel, the staff were attentive (to a point) and it certainly is close to the fair. But this time we have rated the overall stay down, as well as staff quality of service and quietness because of a problem which we and many other guest reportedly faced regarding uncontrollable heat in the corridors and even our rooms.

We were fortunate to have a room with a balcony and double doors which we were able to open to mitigate the heat. Thankfully the weather was nice, low to mid teens (C), so we were able to get some cooler air in during the evening. However, the other problem is that the hotel is located across from a rail line and on a busy avenue close to the Bologna Fiera. Because of this, it was almost impossible to sleep.

We asked repeatedly about the heat, which could not be adjusted from inside the room, and of course it was too early for the air conditioning to be operational. (This is standard in Italy.) At first we were met with seeming indifference, but midway though our week-long stay something clicked. We were told that the bold step had been taken of turning off the heat, and indeed that night things did seem to improve. But at this point, it had taken too long to fix it, and in fact the heat was better but never completely went away. We were able to sleep with the door ajar instead of fully open, and this did help the noise, but it did not go away entirely, and it was still warm.

For the internet-minded, note that high speed wireless service is available but is costly. You can find the rates in advance at www.hiport.it.

In summary, it's still a good hotel, and we hope that with some pressure from Venere and other travelers they can fix this heat problem.