It's more like an AirBNB than a hotel. We only ever saw one staff member who seemed to be both the maid and the front desk. She was friendly and very helpful (drew us a great map of town and made us dinner reservations) but she is not on duty often and rooms are cleaned only every other day (I don't need a full cleaning very often but I like fresh towels every day).
We arrived at 4 pm but there was no one there to let us in. Fortunately we had been emailed instructions in advance. The directions to find the place were confusing (it's right as you exit the tunnel from the train station and right next door to a mini mart; the door is more wood than yellow), but once we found the door we were able to use the code to get into the building and had no problems getting into our room. If you're from the US and won't have cell service in Italy make sure you get the building code in advance!
I booked the "luxury room" with a terrace for a small extra fee. It was immaculately clean and perfectly comfortable but rather sparsely appointed and not really what I'd call luxury. We didn't make as much use of the terrace as I had hoped, largely because we were out trying to see the other four towns, but partly because the chairs didn't have cushions and weren't super comfortable. In early May the temperature still dipped into the low 50s at night and even with the blanket we found in a cupboard we were quite chilly.
The biggest drawback to this room, however, is that it is up four flights of stairs and the building has no lift. It was pretty unpleasant to come back to after a long day of hiking. They really should make this clearer on their website. For us it was merely an annoyance but for the disabled or elderly it could be a much bigger issue.
There is free wi-fi but it was extremely spotty and I was never able to get it to work in the bedroom.
Overall, the location is great and the price struck me as reasonable but I can't really enthusiastically recommend San Giorgio. It was a serviceable place to stay in Manarola, which was our favorite Cinque Terre village, but not quite what we had hoped for. read more