Il Salviatino Firenze — Hotel in Fiesole

I chose Il Salviatino as my hotel to get ready at for my wedding day! The hotel itself is absolutely stunning. It’s a charming hotel nestled in the beautiful hills of Florence. I stayed in the Greenhouse Suite and it was really one of the most beautiful hotel rooms I’ve stayed in!

I’ve stayed in several Small Luxury Hotels around the world and I must say that the service at Il Salviatino wasn’t nearly as great as other SLH properties I’ve stayed in or as I expected it to be. Upon arrival, the desk service was not friendly nor welcoming. I requested to have my bed made up at 9 am to ensure that my room would be picture ready before hair / makeup artists arrived at 9:30 am. They did not show up until 9:20 and that was because I had to give them a call to do so. Aside from that, my wedding planner arranged breakfast / lunch for myself and bridesmaids. When I called the concierge to ask what time breakfast/ lunch would arrive they had no idea about it and told me to order from the room service menu. Mind you, this is my wedding day! So I was very frustrated. They ended up finding the order and was able to deliver the food on time. I must note that the room service staff was amazing and super kind! They brought us everything we needed and were very helpful.

About 1 hour into doing hair / make up, the air in the hotel room was not working. Mind you, it was 97 degrees outside. It was beyond hot and everyone was sweating. Even the photographers were sweating!!! This is a 5 star hotel. The air conditioning should work properly. I called the front desk 2 times and they told me they would send maintenance to check on it. When maintenance arrived, he told me that the computer system that is connected to the air is not working properly. They didn’t say they would fix it. He just left and no one contacted me to express their concern or that it would be fixed. My bridesmaids and I were sweating while taking photos. The air was not working from 11:30-4:30 pm when I left.

The next day, I received a call from the front desk (at 12:50) telling me that check out was at 12 pm meanwhile my husband requested a late check out (1 pm) when we arrived and it was never noted. I was extremely disappointed with the service here. As I previously mentioned, I always stay at SLH properties and I’ve never experienced service like this before. It was even more upsetting because I’ve spent months looking for the perfect hotel to get ready/ take pictures at for my wedding day and I was blown away by the beauty by extremely disappointed and frustrated with the service. While we were checking out, I mentioned the issue I had with the air conditioning to the office manager and he told my husband and I “it was working, it wasn’t broken” and did not express any ounce of sympathy or concern. It’s disheartening because this was an extremely important day for me.

All in all, if you are choosing to get married here or plan on getting ready at this hotel make sure to confirm all details prior to your wedding day to ensure that your day...

The service here is a joke. One night, the air conditioning in my room was set to full blast and coldest temperature, and despite turning off the controller, the air conditioning remained as such. I called downstairs to the night manager, who simply said I didn’t know how to work the controller, which is ridiculous because this was already the 4th night staying here and I knew perfectly well how to turn it off. After much back and forth, the manager agreed to send a technician up to have a look, but instead I was met with a clueless staff member who was clearly not a technician, and he pointed to the television asking me if he could fix it. I corrected him saying that it was the air conditioning not working, and as he couldn’t understand English, he left the room, and told me to wait. After 30 mins, nothing happened, and I called again, and they sent yet another clueless non English speaking staff to assist me in switching the already switched off air conditioning panel. I called downstairs and he simply told me it would turn off after a while. 7 hours later, I awoke to a freezer of a room. I called again, and the manager sent another staff, and at this point I insisted he come himself. The manager INSISTED that he had somehow went to turn off the air conditioning “on his end”, and told me what I was hearing and feeling was the ventilation. I argued that no, it was the air conditioning, but he simply ignored me and told me to open the windows to warm the room. (Why couldn’t he do the “magic turn off” thing the previous night?) Later on the real technician arrived and told me the aircon was on the WHOLE TIME. Enraged, I complained to the manager that I lost 1 night and couldn’t sleep, expecting they would compensate me somehow, but nope, all they said was “oops, sorry.” Another morning I asked the concierge to help me call some restaurants to secure bookings. After 10 mins, the concierge walked to me and said that he had called all of them,and all were full so he booked one of his favorite restaurants (probably gets a commission). It was 930am. All the restaurants were closed, I knew because I decided to call them myself. I don’t appreciate being lied to. Then, I left my number to call in case 1 restaurant had space, and left for the day, they said they would call by 11am. No response the whole day, and when we returned, the concierge said oh no! Where were u guys? I called your room so many times! There was space! LIES AGAIN. Because before leaving the hotel, all room keys are placed with the concierge so they knew we were not in. Another night at 10.30pm, while taking a shower, I hear a knock on the door, followed by someone turning the key and entering my room, despite me shouting NO! The staff member said oh wrong room and then left, which is ridiculous how can u let a staff member enter rooms at night without warning? Food here is 3X overpriced and average tasting, I wouldn’t recommend this place...

I'm going to share a comprehensive and honest review of this property.

We wanted to stay at the Belmond but it was booked. We felt this property might be similar so we decided to give it a try for our 3 nights in Firenze.

Upon arrival, I was slightly concerned. The reception desk had a strange curtain arrangement as a backdrop and I could clearly see lamp cords laying around with no attempt to conceal them. This is a small thing but usually at hotels in this price range you do not expect to see this (we had also just finished a stay in Switzerland at the very, very well appointed resort, so any hotel following would not compare).

When we got to the rooms, they were fairly spacious (one much more than the other but the smaller had a perfect view of the city). One had been smoked in and still had a scent of tobacco but this disappeared when we opened the window for a couple of hours (it was disappointing that this was the case). The furniture in our rooms did not seem like it had a rhyme or reason but it was nice. There could have been more and better touch up on paint and small details around the rooms. Again, I am being a bit more critical here because of the price point. The air conditioning worked very well.

So yes, the hotel is not perfect and definitely has some imperfections. But over the next day and the following nights, I came to find that these little imperfections added a certain personality and authenticity to the property. The place is incredibly charming and has a wonderful personality that is not quite apparent immediately, or was not to me.

The staff - the staff is superb. Everyone (I mean everyone) has real smiles and seems to authentically care about you and your stay. You can absolutely sense a feeling of pride that they have for the place and your stay. This is not at all common in the States. Everyone was so accommodating.

It feels like you are staying in someone's house. There are fresh from the garden flower arrangements everywhere - small and large.

The grounds are beautiful. The pool is quiet and completely like relaxing in a backyard.

The views of Firenze are stunning and abundant.

There is a van that takes you in and out of town every hour. This makes things so easy. A cab ride after dinner was about 25€ to get back to the hotel (shuttle stops around 730 or 8).

Breakfast was delicious and has a diverse array of choices. We had dinner there the first night and the food and service were excellent.

So, while I was somewhat harsh at the onset of our stay, I quickly changed my mind and found this to be an unexpectedly charming and wonderful property. We would absolutely stay here again and I hope to one day do so. This place is very...