We booked this hotel the end of July, for a stay of 7 nights in August for an unbeatable price. I already read the mixed comments regarding this hotel and knew what we were up to. We're a young couple that would like to get the most of our vacation, so our intention was to stay in the hotel mainly for sleeping, breakfast and some occasional lingering. For this purpose, the hotel is perfect: very competitive rates, friendly and helpful staff, a (small) swimming pool, pretty central location. From the hotel it's easy to reach the beautiful villages Bellagio and Varenna via the ferry and Menaggio via bus or tourist train. Villa Carlotta with its beautiful garden is only a 5 minutes walk. It also has a lot of restaurants nearby, so there's plenty of choice to have dinner or lunch.
The downside though ... Our room was located at the backside of the hotel and was very poorly isolated: we could hear every guest walking in the hall and our side and upper/lower neighbors. It was also frustrating that at around 8am the staff was driving a towel trolley at the backside, it woke us up every time ... There's no free parking right in front of the building, you'll need to walk a few minutes to Villa Carlotta for the free parking. The swimming pool is only 1.2m deep.
We had a very nice holiday at Lake Como and for the price we paid, the stay was more than worth it, but in the future we would book a more up to date hotel that is not that prone to surrounding noises.