Palazzo Orsucci Apartment

Very Poor
Traveller Type: Business Traveler
  : Palazzo Orsucci is a lovely apartment. It is comfortable and beautifully decorated, especially the bedroom, and in a great location just a few steps from the Torre Guinigi, and a few minutes to Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.
  : We were on a "working holiday", enjoying Italy while working remotely. It was imperative that we had a good internet connection and after booking we checked with Palazzo Orsucci to confirm that they had a good connection. Unfortunately, we had no hot water for the first day of our stay. We were told by the managing agent, Larissa that as it affected the whole building there was nothing they could do about it. This was fixed and so was a tolerable inconvenience. But we then had a second problem. On the penultimate day of our stay we woke to find we had no electricity, which meant no air-conditioner (it was 34 degrees outside), no fridge (full of food for our stay), but most importantly, no internet, which was a disaster for me as I had urgent deadlines to complete. It transpired that the local electricity company were doing major planned works affecting central Lucca and had placed posters (in Italian) in front of each property warning that there would be no electricity on this particular day. On speaking to locals, it seems the posters had been in place for weeks. We advised the agent, Larissa, who said she knew nothing about this, despite her father living in the next apartment and she recommended we go to an internet cafe, but due to the confidential nature of my work, this was not an option. Had we been advised that we would be without electricity we could have shortened our stay and moved elsewhere. We asked for a refund for our last day as the apartment was not useable, and the agent agreed, but said we needed to speak to the owner, Stefano who lives in Umbria. Unfortunately, he steadfastly refused to accept any responsibility for the situation, claiming that he didn't know the electricity would be cut off, and how could he know, as he lives so far away, and also that in his opinion, it wasn't a problem to be without electricity for a day. Being absent and ignorant does not absolve you of responsibility for your property!