We just stayed at Grand Hotel Fasano in Lake Garda with 13 friends for a milestone birthday (8…read morerooms, ~€40k spend). I honestly don't usually write stuff like this, but the trip was so bad (and honestly unsafe) that I feel like I need to warn people.
Two of our group have serious allergies. One has celiac (gluten) and one has a coconut allergy that can trigger anaphylaxis. We told the hotel over and over -- when booking, at check-in, before meals -- "NO gluten, NO coconut, it's life or death."
First dinner at their Michelin-starred restaurant: we remind them about the gluten allergy, tell them it's extremely serious. Two minutes later they bring a steak dish with soy sauce in the sauce (which obviously has gluten). He had to send it back. Then every day they served him vanilla ice cream, and one server told him it had gluten in it. He panicked, called his doctor, and by the end of the trip he'd had gluten shock. He left a night early because he didn't feel safe eating anything there. Later management tried to say the ice cream didn't have gluten... so who do we believe? Damage was already done.
The coconut allergy friend got served a smoothie with coconut milk at breakfast. When he flagged it, the waiter literally shrugged and said "I told you so." He then spent the whole day in his room, anxious, waiting to see if he'd react. The next morning, another server tried to bring the exact same coconut smoothie to our table AGAIN after we had explicitly said no coconut.
When we brought this up with management:
They refused to refund the night our gluten-free friend left early.
They accused us of faking the doctor's note (!!).
After we pushed back, they ignored all our calls and emails.
Their excuse was that since no ambulance was called to the hotel, they weren't responsible.
We were lucky the exposures were small, but the way they handled it was terrifying. At a so-called 5-star hotel, the bare minimum is knowing what food might seriously harm your guests.
Other stuff was bad too -- the "Michelin-star" meal was painfully slow and the food tasted awful. Ruined the birthday dinner we had planned. Who tf makes a taco shell out of saffron then fills it with some weird green cream? But honestly, I wouldn't even mention those things if it weren't for the allergy mess.
Lake Garda itself is beautiful and the hotel property could be amazing, but the management is negligent and defensive. If you have allergies, or just expect proper 5-star service, I'd avoid this place.
