Prima Luce Downtown

Don't book this hotel. The pictures are fake and the horrible reviews are real. We arrived late and stayed one night. The room was dirty and only one bed was made. The furniture was broken. We could not even sleep that night because of the noise from the disco. We could hear someone coughing next door...all night long. The next morning we advised the front desk of our experience and that we were checking out. The front desk staff was lovely but we were told by management that our stay was non refundable. I am disputing my charges with my credit card company and also asking trip advisor to take down these photos. We then booked our stay a short distance away at the Marriott. It was beautiful and not much more money! Split is beautiful, don't let this hotel ruin your vacation.

Okay, so I’m only writing this review as this is the most bizarre hotel stay I’ve ever had and I would want people to be informed before booking, as the management photos are misleading. Firstly, the good points - you could not find a more central location, absolutely perfect! And the young ladies on the front desk could not have been any nicer or more helpful……. Now for the downside - when we arrived at around 11:30 we walked around and around a seemingly disused building for about 45 minutes until eventually a kind local phoned the hotel for us and discovered it was actually inside this building - basically the entrance was the door into what was at a time a fully functioning shopping centre. We were given a room that was, without exaggeration, absolutely dreadful, the stink of sewage was vomit inducing, however, as we were exhausted and it was so late we just went to bed (avoid room 307, unless the problem has been resolved). The next morning we said we would not sleep in there again and were shown to the room next door, 308, which, as soon as the door opened we realised was actually worse! I said that we would not be staying in any room that smelled like a sewer so we were shown a ‘suite’, and told we could have it at an extra charge, however, once I insisted we would not be paying extra, we were allocated that room without additional charge. The room was made up and when we returned I actually could not believe that they had only made up one of the 2 beds…..now obviously that was enough for us as a couple, but it just seemed so skimpy. There was a massage chair squashed into the corner that had a broken plug….very bizarre! There was no water in the room and the mirror light in the bathroom didn’t work. I asked for and received an iron, but nothing to iron on, so I basically put a towel on the floor and ironed on it! All I suppose little issues but not reflective of the ‘luxury’ hotel advertised! Also, FYI, there is not even a hint of a roof terrace. Strangely though, there does seem to be some nice rooms….we left our luggage at reception as our flight was late and when we returned the lovely young lady (didn’t get her name, long brown hair and a fringe) allowed us to change in one of the rooms we hadn’t be shown, and it was beautiful! I suppose my summary would be, if you don’t mind staying in the top of a disused shopping centre and you are not bothered by the kind of issues I’ve mentioned then it is a good choice for you, as it’s relatively cheap, and very central! However, ‘luxury’ this is not!

DO NOT STAY HERE!!!! This “hotel” or “luxury room” is anything but that! This place is a complete scam. We were booked her for the second part of our trip to Croatia and within 10 seconds of entering the “room” our jaws and hearts dropped. This place is above a mall and nightclub. There is no English speaking staff, no lobby or receptionist. Those should’ve been our first red flags. The room has no phone, stains on the dirty bed, and carpets. It reeks of filth and the ceiling is covered in mold and water damage. Photos below of what we walked into. I called my travel agent and had us removed from this disgusting facility and moved to a SAFE and clean hotel. So sad that the website has fake photos listed to pull innocent people in. Do not stay at this “room” !!

Don’t know where to start, but here goes : - difficult to find. It is in an old run down, graffiti covered shopping centre, of which only the ground floor is in use. Sign outside is missing letters and doesn’t even say hotel - the lobby is old and tired. Stained carpet on the top floor of the shopping centre - the first room we were shown, was like an office converted into a bedroom. Small high windows. A box. - we said we are not staying there and were shown a nicer room - but still there was no way we would stay there. - the photos on their website are misleading. There is no terrace, it was closed during COVID and not reopened. There is NO WAY they can describe this as a luxurious boutique hotel. It is not even cheap. The only positives were Dora on reception who was charming. She understood our concerns (obviously used to it) and booked us into one of their sister hotels. We walked to the new hotel, but was told that the room they booked us into had been taken! But they found us another room at another sister hotel which was fine. The management of these hotels is dreadful. Advertising is extremely misleading. Look at the photos and book elsewhere! How they can say this hotel is in a “prestigious shopping mall” is beyond me. The shopping centre was old and run down - most of the floors were abandoned.

We arrived at Prima Luce Hotel anticipating the rooms might not be up to scratch from the June reviews we read here. We had been hoping it was just a few bad rooms given there had been positive reviews prior to this. Sadly, this was not the case and implore anyone look to book here not to. I never leave reviews but PLEASE AVOID THIS PLACE for your own sake! We arrived and as mentioned above a little sceptical on what we’d find. We were greeted with an abandoned shopping centre as stated in other reviews. You can only get up to the hotel using the one lift (elevator) that is there. Every floor is closed except the third floor which the hotel is located on. Once checked in we were shown to our room. Once in the room we were met by a horrific stench of raw sewage. The room was tired and had a cracked Ikea wardrobe and shoddy bed with plank board mattress (if you can call it a mattress). The bathroom was decent in design (walk in shower and decent sink) but the blinds were shoddy. The stench of sewage however got stronger. On our arrival it was 33C in Split with high humidity. Understandably we were hoping for some rest bite from this through the aircon in our room. We were sad to find this also lacked any power and so the room can only be described as a sauna. It was unbearable. We decided to contact ********** directly after we read on other reviews they were unwilling to give refunds. Thankfully we did (we recommend you do this to if you can) and after going through ********** managed to get relocated at a much nicer hotel in the middle of the old town (we’ll be be reviewing this separately after our trip but definitely on course for 5 stars). So much more could be said about Prima Luce Hotel but the main takeaway is don’t stay here and experience what we did.

I would give it 0 stars if it were possible, absolutey awful place, advertised on Booking .Com as 4 Star luxury, more like 1 star at best. No bar, no restaurant, nowhere to eat or even have a drink. Hotel does not supply water, and when I asked for tea bags I was told to go the shop and buy my own. Again on booking .com it advertises a Roof Terrace, well it does not exist, the roof is full of Pigeons, the entrance is through a department store until it closes, then you have to go through a dark and dirty carpark to access the lift. Split is a wonderful place but do not ruin your holiday by booking this dive of a so called Hotel. They wouldn't even accept Cards for payment, but demanded cash, never heard of that before.