Casa Brandariz

This accommodation has been the most disappointing of our stays whilst walking the Camino. It took 1 hour to be picked up in town and then on arrival the receptionist was barely civil. We had to carry our suitcases up the difficult stairs whilst he looked on! When we sat down to eat I was asked who I was and had to produce the room key. There were 8 of us in the dining room and we were the last to arrive. When we had eaten I was asked to pay for the entire meal. It took some convincing that it was part of our booking by the tour company and we finally paid for the drinks only. At breakfast no gluten free bread supplied (the only place so far that supposedly had none though I had some at dinner). No effort to help with our luggage and no farewell greeting. The hotel is lovely but it’s a case of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’! We felt most unwelcome and definitely would not recommend.

We stayed in Casa Brandariz while walking the Camino de Santiago recently. Our reservation was made and confirmed by our coordinating company. The building is historic and beautiful. Problems were mostly staff/owner related- 1. On arrival, Eduardo, the owner, was working the front desk and unkindly insisted we did not have a reservation. When we persisted and pointed to our luggage (delivered daily on our Camino by a forwarding service), he fumed about and finally gave us a tiny room. 2. The shampoo and soap were small sachets with very little product. Hard to open and use. Cheap. Not up to the quality of the more humble lodgings where we stayed on our Camino. The rack where the towels were placed was so high we did not see them at first, and could not reach them at all. 3. When we went to dinner with 5 friends we had met on the Camino, we were forced to sit in a dark table far from the fire, even though there was a table in a much better position of exactly the same size. There was only one other party for dinner that night, they were seated right near the fire. The table we wanted was never used. 4. Every other restaurant provided wine with the dinner paid for through our coordinator, this one did not, and charged a lot for what was offered. Our friend paid 80 Euro for an unexceptional bottle! 5. The next morning when we went to breakfast we sat at an available table for 2, which was next to another table for 2. The other tables (1 for 4 and 1 for 2) were already filled in the small breakfast room. While we were eating, Eduardocame over and complained that it was a table for 4 (it was actually, 2 tables for 2 with a few inches in between) and we should not have sat there. He apparently had a family of 4 who wanted to eat. We told him we sat where there was availability. He did not tell the party of 4 that arrived before us that they should leave and make room for the family, he only complained to us. We told him they could wait or he could seat them in the large, empty dining room. 5. While I was away from the table for a moment, Eduardo came up to my wife and said our taxi (provided by the hotel) was in 10 minutes. We were not finished eating or ready to leave that early, and had been unable to arrange our taxi previously because the desk is usually unattended. I went to Eduardoand told him we wanted a taxi in 45 minutes. He angrily insisted we had to leave in 30 minutes and there was no more negotiation possible. I would not recommend this hotel based on the staff and management.