We’ve been to Florence many times and have stayed in hotels and apar**ents. The Alinari Hotel is minutes from the train station. While not charming from the street, the hotel was perfect in many ways. The host was great and accommodating, we had a large four person room with a view of San Lorenzo and the Duomo/Baptistry and footsteps to shopping, Mercato centrale, and many great restaurants. Florence is always busy with tourists even at this time of year but it’s nice to experience some rain and moderate temperatures as opposed to summer heat. The Alinari offers a great, very complete breakfast along with an open balcony looking over most of central Florence. We squeezed a lot into a two-night stay but we were already very familiar with Florence, so other then tired feet we wished we could have spent a few more days. Tutti Buono!
The hotel is located very conveniently a few minutes from Firenze central train station, right in the old city center. This means that several attractions and restaurants are very close by. Unfortunately, this is where the positives ended for us, in addition to the reasonably friendly staff. We stayed at the first floor. While the room was fortunately equipped with air conditioning, it was in desperate need of refurbishment. The bathroom even more so. The ventilation in the bathroom was inadequate, whereby nothing dried there. The room was quite dark, worn down and extremely noisy, both from sounds from the street as well as neighbors and people moving about in the hotel and stairs. We could even hear the phone of the reception. By noisy I mean seriously noisy - we were expecting noise in the center of a busy city, but this was too much. The breakfast included in the price was more of a formality than a true breakfast. Unfortunately very sub-standard, and nothing we would have paid for. This applies both to selection (extremely limited) and quality (this is what you serve in the Mecca of food?). All in all, we found the 3 star rating to be a star too much. The accommodation would have been somewhat acceptable at half the price (maximum) and without the poor breakfast, but at this price point, it simply was completely overpriced. Our experience unfortunately demonstrated that hotels in the Firenze old town apparently can charge absolutely anything without having any correlation to quality and comfort. That being said, we cannot recommend this hotel for anything exceeding around 100-130 euros per night.
A stay at Ostello Bello Firenze places you in the heart of Florence, within a 15-minute walk of Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Ponte Vecchio. This hostel is 0.7 mi (1.1 km) from Uffizi Gallery and 0.5 mi (0.8 km) from Piazza di Santa Maria Novella.
Take advantage of recreation opportunities such as karaoke, or other amenities including complimentary wireless Internet access and an arcade/game room. Additional features at this hostel include a communal living room and tour/ticket assistance.
Satisfy your appetite at the hostel's coffee shop/cafe, or stop in at the snack bar/deli. Wrap up your day with a drink at the bar/lounge. Buffet breakfasts are available daily from 7:30 AM to 11:00 AM for a fee.
Featured amenities include a 24-hour front desk, multilingual staff, and luggage storage.
Make yourself at home in one of the 43 air-conditioned guestrooms. Prepare your meals in the shared/communal kitchen. Complimentary wireless Internet access is available to keep you connected. Private bathrooms with bathtubs or showers feature complimentary toiletries and bidets.
We really enjoyed our stay at this hotel. The rooms are nice and clean. Good quality bed linens and towels. The hotel has several sitting areas and an outside terrace. There is a bar for drinks and a lovely breakfast area with a very nice breakfast. All the staff were lovely and helpful except for one person Joya. Our adult son was with us and he was asking for directions from one of the employees. He went around the counter where the employee was showing him the computer screen . Joya came over and actually slapped my son’s back and kind of pushed him. This is really bad news for hotel management. My son is a patient person and not aggressive. Another person may have had a different attitude. As a woman, I would have had a few choice words. Today physical intimidation is unacceptable for all persons. I will not return to this hotel as this made my husband, son and I very uncomfortable.