I can imagine that this hotel was a lovely place in the past, catering for an up-market clientelle. The good news is that, despite the fact that it's main business now seems to be package holiday tourists, it remains veryclean and very pleasant place to stay.
We visited her in March 2018 on a TUI holiday. Flying in to Naples, we used the TUI transfer coach: given the location (mainly Sorrento's location, rather than the hotel's!) I'd recommend using the coach or taxi transfer options.
Being out of season, the hotel was, I calculated, at well under 50% occupancy. The staff were attentive, pleasant, and helpful: I hope this continues as the season progresses and the hotel fills up!
The public areas were typically mediterranean: large rooms with marble (?) floors, and large leather settees..
The dining area is very large, and in March, never more than 1/4 to 1/3 full.
Breakfast is a pleasant (and healthy, if you chose the right things!!) mix of fresh mediterranean & european foods. If you are expecting a "full english" then you will be slightly disappointed.
If you go half board (ie breakfast & evening meals included), then dinner is good quality selection of food, probably much of it locally sourced,on a self-service buffet. It follows the Italian stype of Hors D'euves (typically ham, salad, cold cooked vegetables, soup), first course (pizza, raviolli etc), second course (choice of meat, fish, and vegetables), a simple salad bar, and of course the desert (small desert plus choice of ice creams). Drinks are charged extra. You can eat the food in any order or combination you like, they won't mind!
If you don't eat meat, then there are ALWAYS plenty of vegetables / salads, and ALWAYS a fish option.
If you don't want the buffet, you can pay extra, and go a-la-carte.
The quality of the food was quite amazing, given how little the whole holiday costs.
We selected a pool-view, no-balcony room. In terms of "condition", I would define our room as being somewhere in the middle: clearly not recently refurbished, but not yet needing refurbishment (typically, a large hotel will have a "rolling refurbishment" plan with a number of the rooms being refurbished each year: that is why you always get a mix of "great new rooms" and "old tired rooms" in reviews). Being the end of March, it was not "sitting outside" weather, so not having a balcony wasn't an issue.
When you book, you'll probably see 3 "views" options. "pool side view" is the best, as you get a view towards the sea. Next best is the "garden view": no sea views, but you do overlook the small rear garden. "Cliff views" are no doubt the cheapest, and you get what it says: a view of the cliff, a few feet away! At the end of the day, how much time do you actually plan to stay in your room?
The bathroom contains a good shower, sink, toilet and bidet: the room is clean, but with a little ingrained mould in the shower.
Our bed was 2 bed bases / matresses pushed together, but with a single pair of sheets / blankets... and the whole thing was huge. Firm but reasonably comfortable. There's lighting controls at each side of the bed. Use the window shutters to (a) keep the room cool in the day; (b) dark at night.
The room has air-con, but this is not turned on until later in the year: due to the mild temperatures, this was not an issue, and opening the window was enough to keep the room fresh.
The wardrobe was a good size: not just hanging space, but a couple of drawers too. Another set of drawers in the (large) built-in dressing table.
Modern TV (only a couple of English channels, but watching TV isn't high on my list of things to do when on holiday!!!) and a room-safe behind the curtains.
There's no tea making facilities (quite common for Europe generally), but on floors 1 and 4 there's fresh water dispensers... BYOB. (There's a supermarket near the station that does 1.5 litre bottles of water for 25c). We took a travel kettle!
The unheated outside pool doesn't open until 1st April, and only gets a couple of hours of sun each morning: Sorrento is a north-facing town, with hills / cliffs to the south, and no beaches, so the whole town is not really great for sun-worshipers (and maybe that's part of the attaction?). However, the pool looked immaculately clean (and was very cold in March!)
In terms of getting to town, this hotel is in an excellent position: walk out past the pool, down a short "lane" and you are just 2 minutes from the main pedestrian area, and about 10 minutes from the station. (by comparison, several other hotels are a 20 minute walk down a steep hill to town, or use a shuttle bus).
If you like eating at MacDonalds etc, then do NOT come to Sorrento. However, the town is full of a collection of small bars and restaurants (and a few big ones too), all of which seem to get good reviews. Our experience of the food in Sorrento and other places was very good.
Finally, the tours: The TUI tours ARE expensive: there are MANY "Tourist Information" places in town. Note that these are commercial, but can probably sell you a pre-arranged tour cheaper than TUI (and a larget choice too)
It is VERY easy to get to Pompei (local train, 4.80 return, 30 mins) and Vesuvius (6.20 return local bus ride from Pompei station) by yourself, but I can imagine in peak season, the trains and buses will be very full. However, it means you can do things at your own pace.
There are regular ferries to Capri. From the harbour it's a strenuous walk into town, or catch a bus / use the funicular. There are also (tiny) public buses to Anacapri. The problem is that, whilst you'll be ok out of season, I can imagine you could be queueing quite a long time in high season, so a pre-arranged tour might prove to be better.
We took a bus tour of the "Amalfi coast", well worth doing (and I would NOT suggest driving it yourself!).
We came to Sorrento on a pretty cheap package holiday, without too many expectations. The hotel well exceeded our expectations. The down side (and this is probably true for most of Europe) is that food and drink can become a little expensive over 7 days.
Would we come here again? Looking at just the hotel, definitely yes. But we've now "done Sorrento", so are unlikely to return!