My wife and I just returned from a 15 night stay in Italy, 2 of which were at the Chia Laguna and 3 at another Starwood property on Sardinia. Prior to departing I searched this board for reviews on this property and found only BusTravDave's report of his honeymoon at this property, and another in France.
We had booked our flight from FCO (Rome) to CAG (Cagliari) on Alitalia with AA, but when Alitalia pulled out of the FCO to CAG market, they moved us to Meridiana, an Italian Budget airline with whom AA did not have a ticketing agreement. This meant that I had to have my ticket rewritten, had AA refund the price of the FCO-CAG ticket and then booked the Meridiana flight as a standalone flight with Lufhansa, an airline that had a ticketing agreement with Meridiana. Upon arriving at CAG, we picked up our rental car just to the right in a trailer-like building outside the terminal, and then drove the 30 km south of CAG to the hotel.
When we arrived at the Le Meridien's Chia Laguna (pronounced Kia and not Chia as in Chia pet), we were greeted at the front desk by the desk clerk who told us the hotel staff was expecting us, and that they had a welcoming drink for us on the terrace just off the lobby, overlooking the property and the ocean. While enjoying our welcoming drink, the Front Office Manager, GianFranco came by to introduce himself, and to give us our room key and guide to the property. He told us we had been upgraded and then handed us our room key packet which had a preprinted sticky attached that said "Congratulations, you have been upgraded" We had booked a room in one of the bungalows, but like BusTravDave, we had been upgraded to a room (# 55) in the main hotel building located on the 3rd floor. This room was large and had a balcony that looked out onto the lagoon, and on to the sea. It appeared to be one of the largest rooms on the room chart of the rooms on our floor, and one that also had a superior view. No sooner than we settled in, a bottle of a Sardinian sparkling wine made from the Vermantino grape arrived along with a basket of fruit. As we neared the end of the bottle of wine, the hotel manager, Mirko Aru, called and asked if we were satisfied with the room, if there was anything he could do for us, as well as apologizing for being unable to greet us upon checkin because he was in the middle of another duty.
The rate we booked included dinner and breakfast, and while at dinner during the first evening, Mirko Aru came by to our table and introduced himself and mentioned that he had searched for my name on the web, and that he was aware of many of my accomplishment (now I never have had a hotel manager mention that he had searched on my name on the net and could recite some specifics about me). Dinner and breakfast were both buffets, and with the upgrade of our room came an upgrade to the dining room and the buffets just off the lobby rather than the buffets one floor below. One of the dishes we enjoyed was spagetti and clams that a chef and his assistant would make over a wood burning grill for those who wanted a specially made portion. We also agreed with BusTravDave's review of the food, as we found both buffets of high class with some difficult to make local dishes. Mirko spent considerable time with us during dinner on our second night, describing his career prior to coming to Chia Laguna (he worked for Hyatt in the Middle east), and saw his current job as an opportunity to make the Chia Laguna into a world class property similar or perhaps even surpassing the three outstanding Starwood properties on Sardinia's Costa Smerelda. To do this he had recruited a young, aggressive, goal driven staff who shared his vision to establish this resort over the next five years. Clearly, the staff worked hard to please, and offered personal service on par with the best of the Starwood's properties. They also mentioned that being a part of Starwood rather than going it alone as a Le Meridien would help them immensely meet their goals because of the committements they received.
The property is sprawling and appeals to families with small children who come on budget airlines from Britian, Germany, and Italy, usually renting cars and spending time at the beach. The resort sits on a hill, with perhaps 20 bungalows and a central hotel building, surrounded by many private cottages. Construction on the outskirts of this property abounds with additional cottages and bungalows being constructed. From our description of the web page, we assumed that the beach was nearby, but it is a 10-15 minute walk or small train-like vehicle ride across the road. The beach was sandy and perhaps as long as a NY City block: it was unlike many of the rocky beaches we saw as we toured Sardinia. While we were there, we estimated that there were as many as 400 guests at the hotel on each of the two nights.
There are no major historical tourist sites close to the hotel, but Cagliari, just 30 kms north is an interesting city with a number of sites. Although Cagliari has many old buildings as does any major city in Italy, the south of Sardiania where the Chia Laguna is located is surrounded by all new developments.
When I booked, I booked a single night, but then added a second night as a second reservation. I pointed this out to the hotel staff when I checked in, and they acknowledged this second stand-alone reservation. However, on the second afternoon after returning to our room, a second bottle of sparkling Vermentino and some other local tidbits arrived earlier for our enjoyment. We initially suspected that this was an error, but based on how hard management worked to make Platinums happy, we were unsure, and were too embarassed to send this gift back.
Overall, we rated this property high with the staff, the setting, the new construction, the food, the rooms, and the beach being the major strengths of this property. For those who insist on recognition of one's Platinum status, it appeared to us that this hotel did a better job than any other hotel we had stayed at.
