Hotel berhampiran Ratafià Firenze, Florence

Although this is a beautiful hotel, quaint and nice rooms, that is where it stops. Whilst travelling around Europe on business for a few months, I spent 2 nights at this hotel. Yes, check in staff are warm and welcoming, and the rooms are nice and quaint… however, for both days I was there, bitterly cold showers with no hot water in the morning. And, after changing rooms. Checking out I complained, and the check out clerk just wanted to take my money. No discount, or compensation. And, he said, I will let the General Manager know tomorrow. Frankly, very poor indeed. Yes, hot water problems do happen - but not twice over 2 days, and then getting rubbish customer service. Why would I ever stay at this hotel again! Probably won’t unless it is my only option… lets see if the Hotel sees this review and makes it up!!!

Absolutely amazing service and rooms. Everyone in the hotel was super helpful and nice. Totally sold on the hotel and indeed the whole network of ”The Social Hub” hotels, it's now my first choice for traveling accomodations. As a bonus, I uploaded the view from the rooftop bar so you can see what you are missing!

We arrived at the hotel pretty late as we were travelling from Rome. Gabriele was pretty prompt and sent us all the necessary information ahead of our arrival as the reception service was until 3pm on Sunday. The room was surprisingly nice and clean, and indeed exceeded our expectation. Even though for just a night I thought this was a pretty good one. Nearby hotel has a nice pasta restaurant Al Peposo, just need to walk about 10 mins. Day time you can just walk towards town areas, you won’t get bored with the surroundings.

I’ve never written a review before but felt I had to this time. I’ve just returned from holiday staying in this hotel. I booked the holiday in a rush and didn’t check reviews until after I’d booked. Some of the reviews were not great which unsettled me. Please be reassured that this hotel is very nice, very clean and has very helpful staff. It isn’t in the centre of Florence, this can be seen by looking on a map. The distance is walkable but there is also a regular number 14 bus which picks up a minute walk from the hotel and drops off at all the major sites, railway station and tram stop for 1.70 euro. Tickets can be bought at the hotel reception. It’s possible to travel from the airport by tram and then by the bus to the hotel. Because of our very early morning flight time the hotel organised a taxi to the airport and that was 45 euros. I also took a taxi from the main railway station to the hotel one evening and that was 17 euros. There is an excellent selection of beverages and cold food for breakfast. The hot food is a little more limited scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and toast but perfectly adequate. There is a lovely restaurant next door that sells pizza, pasta and other meals at very reasonable prices. We ate there most nights. There is also a coffee shop and Thai restaurant near by that we didn’t use. There is a reasonably large supermarket a few minutes walk from the hotel as well. The spa and swimming pool is well worth a visit. It costs an additional 20 euros (for two hours). But as my daughter pointed out we’d spend £5 to go to just a swimming pool for an hour at home. The spa has steam room, sauna, salt room and hydro pool. Perfect after a day of sightseeing. It’s secluded from the rest of the hotel and is not busy. I was travelling alone with my young daughter and the hotel suited us perfectly. She found the centre of Florence a little overwhelming and enjoyed coming back to a quieter hotel and loved using the pool and spa in the evenings and then popping next door to the restaurant. If you want to be permanently in the busy hub and centre of Florence then this hotel isn’t for you but if you want to do your sightseeing and then come back on an evening to a more relaxed and chilled atmosphere with the use of a spa then I would recommend this one.

What a friendly and clean hotel! Convenient, excellent continental breakfast (even included eggs!), and superb staff to help with everything. Miguele, at the front desk was especially helpful with our entire 3 day stay. Parking was a big bonus, not usually included in this price range.

I am not writing this type of reviews often, but unfortunately this time I have to in order to reflect the reality about this hotel. Prior to this hotel we stayed at another hotel in Rome also 4-star that we really enjoyed (price level and distance from city center was similar). Firstly, I would like to point out that this hotel, even though it has 4 stars, cannot be considered to be a European-level 4-star hotel at all, at maximum a refurbished 3-star hotel. Given the price and its location, I would like to tell you straight, it is quite expensive for what you get, especially given the further circumstances described below. Secondly, I have not read many negative reviews regarding the noise level, but would like to shed some light on that. Even though we asked for a quiet room, we got the room facing the hotel parking and front road. I cannot say that there was a lot of noise from the road, but you could definitely hear cars from the road. But the biggest problem is the noise insultaion, or more precisely its complete absence. We could hear our neighbours talking in the other room like they were in our room. Our neighbours were awake until late night and we could hear them receiving messages while chatting on the phone and it seemed like the phone was vibrating each time near your ear. There was also noise from outside and other neighbours (it was partially not clear where it was coming from), so overall an awful experience also given the fact that each room has roller blinds and some people are using them at night and each time you can hear the mechanism working (it is quite loud). When people flush in other rooms, it sounds like it starts raining heavily. To sum up, insulation is really bad. Thirdly, the room was furbished at the level of refurbished 3-star hotel, the old hairdriers from the 20th century, only one card key, thus you cannot leave the AC on when you leave the room. Room was not ventilated at all once we arrived, so it was very hot to sleep and smell was not very pleasant. Breakfast at the level of 3-star hotel maximum and they do not let people finish their breakfast telling at 9:55am that you have to leave in 5 minutes since the breakfast time ends at 10am. As a cherry on the tart, when we were leaving we were told that the water in the room was not complimentary when we arrived, even though we did not found anywhere information with pricing of water in the room. When I asked where we could find price list for water in the room, as I belive it should be clearly placed in a visible spot, the person at reception firstly insulted us in Italian (not knowing that we speak Italian) and then just answered arrogantly ”it is in the room”, showing that he does not want to speak with us. Unbelievable and unacceptable behaviour from staff, you are paying them for being treated in such a manner... Overall, I understand that Florence is an expensive and crowded city, but in this instance when we unfortunately had only extremely negativ

If you are looking for a 5+ star hotel experience, Villa San Michele is the place to stay. From the moment that we arrived until our departure, we were treated like royalty. Every reason that one chooses a hotel for, this one excelled in all of them. From the staff, to the room, to the food, to the facilities, to the view, this hotel in unmatched in Florence.

We were staying in Florence and decided the morning of to go to Villa La Massa for the night. We wanted more peace and quiet after being in Rome and Florence, and we are so glad that we did. We were debating between the Belmond property and Villa La Massa, and chose Villa La Massa because it was half the price and provided bikes (we really wanted to bike along the river). We are so glad that we chose Villa La Massa because the experience was 10/10. We were a little hesitant at first because some of the photos on Trip Advisor look different than the website but please note that the trip advisor photos are OLD before renovations!!! The hotel and pool are both completely renovated and GORGEOUS, the photos on their website are real and accurate. I am very particular on hotels and this hotel is 10/10 -- we booked through amex centurion fine hotels and resorts and it lived up to the rating! Our room was stunning, overlooking the river and very clean. I highly recommend this hotel to anyone considering it. We used the hotel bikes to ride to Florence along the river -- it was about a 25 minute bike ride and we locked the bikes right near a bridge in Florence and enjoyed lunch / walking around. The front desk is extremely helpful and it is just a gorgeous property. The food is great, the views are great, and I def recommend!! If you're considering staying here for a night our two to enjoy the countryside, book it, you won't regret.

This hotel was booked by a company I am working for, so I am sure it was booked purely on price as we were quite a large party. I understand that any business coming out of lockdown has a hard job on its hands, but on entering my room, I did feel it was necessary to wipe everything down with disinfectant wipes as everything was quite dusty. Some of my colleagues were unhappy with the cleanliness of their rooms. Following my initial clean down, my room was tidied daily. Wifi is poor, except in reception which has nowhere to sit and work, so if you are here on business, you don’t have any privacy to get work done. Continental breakfast is okay, but I cannot think of anything good to say about the cooked food, except that I have lost weight because I have not eaten very much. We are not allowed out of our bubble, so we have not been allowed to eat elsewhere, but if you can, I would. I have been served undercooked pasta five nights in a row, which tastes of salt, then meat and fried potatoes, which again tastes like it has been preserved in salt. Day 5 and the vegetarians in our group are stiil being served meat which could be considered quite funny, but they were not impressed. Although the staff are very apologetic, it is then replaced somewhat later with a greasy omelette which looks extremely unappetising and lonely on its plate but the soup is okay. They didn't have any sauces or gravy to serve with the food at the beginning of the week so the food tasted very over cooked, salty and dry, but we did get gravy this evening, so it has improved a little. I have been craving some vegetables with my dinner but greasy Salty eggplant is the only option. Oddly, mixed veg is served at breakfast. They dont really understand dietary requirements, so if you are ceoliac, best not chance it. I maybe doing the catering staff a dis-service, because they may have been drafted in from a different occupation, like myself and just doing their best in difficult circumstances. Catering is clearly not their forte. Everyone seems friendly enough.

Location was what pleased us most, as well as apartment, itself. Also, the swimming pool (when available!) was nicely suited for children and was certainly large enough (approx. 22m x 10, and max 1.50m deep). Total lack of proper management, and overall maintenance of the property and apartment!!! Daily 'management' was strictly the responsibility of two, overworked, rather young and inexperienced ladies, working in shifts (hosting approx. 35 rooms and double the number of guests at least). Due to this, reception was largely unmanned, and no possibility to contact the management, at reception or by phone. Swimming pool (which was the only true accessory available at the location) was out of order and not cleaned/filtered for almost two days due to 'necessary' repairs (which should be done in low season or off season, NOT in high season!). Our daughter cut her foot on broken and very sharp tiles, which had become loose from the edge... A technical failure of our air conditioning, took over 2(!) days to get addressed (not solved!), only after I laid down a complaint and this in temperatures reaching 36°C and night temperatures not lower than 25°C (we stayed 7 nights). Yet, they are able to monitor the working of the AC in each room from the front dest! Breakfast was a true laugh, and therefore way too expensive to be called 'breakfast': the two 'team' personnel was very demotivated and not friendly at all, which resulted in a constant lack of replenishment of the food, the choice of which was very limited and not worthy of the price to be paid for!