Maybe I overhyped Hotel Serapo based on some of the reviews I read, but when my wife and I arrived, we were far from impressed. The interior of the hotel seemed very outdated. Our room was clean but the furniture/decor was very tired. We were supposed to stay there for two nights and ended up leaving after the first night. The staff was courteous and allowed us to cancel our second night without a problem.

I have stayed here twice now and love the hotel. The staff is friendly and you cant beat the view. Gaeta is a beautiful little town and the Serapo hotel is very nice. The only problem I found was that the beds are very hard, almost like sleeping on the floor. After my first stay even with hard beds, we came back thinking we would have better luck with a different bed, nope, hard also.

Hotel Serapo is situated in a beautiful spot right on the beachfront and only a 5-10 minute walk from Gaeta center. We requested a sea view which we got. It was on the top floor (4th Floor) and we also got a huge balcony. The only problem was that there were a lot of ants around the balcony which kept coming into the room each day as the cleaners left the balcony door open. We left a note in our best Italian but it was the last day before they actually left the door shut. If it wasnt for the ant problem it would have been a perfect hotel, but because of this I would not stay there again. It was very good value for money - we paid €500 for 5 days.

Serapo more than lived up to my expectations. I was travelling with another family member, , and we each had single rooms. From my experience this means living in a cupboard for your holiday, but not at the Serapo, where each of us had vast rooms with seaview balconies. Food in the hotel is good and reasonalble. If you depend on meeting other English speaking people as part of your holiday its very hit and miss. When we were there it was mostly other Italian couples and some tour buses of very tired Northern Europeans. Like a lot of Italian towns public transport during the day is fine but get past 6pm and its over so if you want to explore a car is neccessary.
Despite the predominance of Italian holidaymakers we did not feel left out in the hotel by the staff who were helpful and charming. As a footnote I add that one of us left our spectacles behind and we advised by email only to have them meet us on return after some days in Rome. Personal gripe: When I look at Trip Advisor sometimes I see that the top rated hotels are only the a 5 star ones, which I imagine are rated by people who are jaded by business/expense account travel. Serapo delivers on anyones terms.
Ps no need for beach charges set by the hotel, if all you need is a turn in the sun and a refreshing dip a strip of public beach is directly beside the pay beach. But beware strong September wind which for me only meant immersing myself and a few timid stokes at hip height, braver more reckless people may have no problem.