In June 2021, it was announced the first series of Hotel Portofino had been sold to BritBox and ITV, Sky Italia, Foxtel in Australia and the American broadcaster PBS.

[7] Sales expanded to Danish DR, Swedish SVT, Norwegian NRK, Finnish Yle, Icelandic Sýn and Dutch NPO by October.

Radio Times consistently complimented the first series, awarding Hotel Portofino a glowing front cover and countless Pick of the Days.

In more critical reviews, Anita Singh in The Telegraph gave the first series two out of five stars, praising the production values but unimpressed by the writing.

Singh remarked, 'It is a drama serial which draws so heavily from The Durrells and Downton Abbey that it could have been assembled from an ITV kit, although it is a pale imitation of both.