Reginna Palace Hotel

The holiday was booked through Tesco. Ah-ha, we thought, this'll be interesting, as they're so good at most things they're involved with, but they use lastminute.com, which used Fleetway Travel to do all the leg work.
No problem, we got a nice hotel for a reasonable price (£599 including flights for half board in September). Not the first choice, which was fully booked after our initial booking went through, but that sort of thing happens all the time I suppose (we usually book our own self catering apartments or hotels direct).
The drawback to the holiday was that the flight arrival time was in the evening (20:30) so we had to get across the Sorrento peninsula to arrive in Maiori at a reasonable time. We opted to hire a car for the week, but by the time we'd got our bags, and picked up the car, it was 22:00, and the journey took about an hour at night so we arrived too late for something to eat. No problem, they said we could have lunch instead on our last day (which they were pleased to honour without a quibble), and pointed us in the direction of a late serving restaurant on the sea front.
The hotel is medium size (100 to 150 people at a guess) in 1970's glass and concrete style, so a bit blocky and could look nicer, but it's clean, and has a large, well maintained and exotic garden which has grown over a lot of the lower buildings and softened the edges. The pool was had curves instead of straight edges so was a very attractive place to stay, with plenty of shady places if the sun gets too boring.
It's situated right on the seafront, with only a pedestrian area/service road and the main Amalfi road between the hotel and the beach. The service road is Via Christophe Colombo, the hotel's address, and the block between the hotel and beach is part of the promenade, with huge palm trees. A very attractive setting.
The room was a bit smaller than we expected, with nowhere to store our bags except on top of the wardrobe, but it had a balcony facing east, overlooking the garden, and a clean modern bathroom, so after we unpacked and got the suitcases out of the way it suited us. There were a number of tours which arrived, and only stayed overnight, so they might have been tripping over their suitcases. We looked the sea view rooms at the front when they were left open for cleaning, and they're much larger.
The staff were very nice, all very helpful. The waiters were very friendly, and staying half board lets you see them at their best - chirpy in the mornings, elegant and lively in the evenings. They liked to put on a bit of a show! Very warm people, and they spoke English pretty well too, so we could joke with them.
The food was the biggest surprise. The buffet breakfast had a lot of choice of continental food, eat, and drink as much as you want, which suited us. But - they do play 80's R'n'B a lot, so be prepared for a quick shuffle with Geraldo to A Donna Summer track or two!
The evenings were the special times, the waiters wear their whites, and the food, especially the seafood, is sumptuous. They have a great chef, and the waiters are great at serving, so much of the fish was filleted at your table. And it was delicious! The meats were good too, and they always had a choice of fish, meat, or vegetarian.
All in all, a recommended hotel, and we were sad to go.
Maiori itself has the drawback of having had some of its buildings destroyed in the 50's, so the front has many newer buildings, like the Reginna Palace, which give it a Spanish Costa look from the main road. Persevere, because behind the front are many older buildings worth exploring, like the garden of the tourist office, with its sunken fountains, and the castle way up above the town, which is worth the walk.
A lovely place to stay, with friendly people, and not too far along the crazy Amalfi road if you have a car!!