c-hotels Joy Firenze — Hotel in Florence

Bedbugs, Bad Internet, and Broken Promises – Avoid at All Costs!!!!!

My stay at C-Hotels Joy in Florence was a nightmare, and I strongly urge anyone considering this hotel to look elsewhere. From the very first day, I experienced severe itching and noticed bites on my body. Despite my growing concern, it wasn’t until the third evening that I discovered the horrifying truth: my room, Unit 204, was infested with bedbugs.

The health risk and discomfort this caused were intolerable, but what followed was even worse. During my stay, I also had to deal with a terrible internet connection. Despite informing the staff about the poor Wi-Fi in my room, they dismissed my concern, claiming that no other guests had reported this issue. This lack of basic customer service made an already bad situation even worse.

To add insult to injury, the hotel manager, Ambra Agostini, personally promised me a refund due to the bedbug infestation. Since I booked the hotel through a third-party site, she asked me to email her my receipt after I checked out. However, once I left the hotel and sent her the receipt as requested, Ms. Agostini suddenly denied that there were any bedbugs in the room and refused to honor the promised refund. This blatant change of stance and lack of accountability is completely unacceptable, especially for a hotel that claims to value its guests.

Despite the clear evidence of bites on my body and the bug I found, Ms. Agostini and her team dismissed the issue altogether. Their response was to move me to another room and offer a complimentary breakfast—an offer I refused because it did nothing to address the real problem: a bedbug-infested room and their failure to protect their guests' well-being.

This hotel’s indifference to serious health concerns, coupled with their dishonesty and unwillingness to stand by their word, is shocking. No guest should ever have to endure what I went through, and I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone. There are plenty of other hotels in Florence that will treat you with the care and respect you deserve—this one isn’t worth the risk.

Save yourself the trouble and...

The Good: Overall, the hotel is very clean. From lobby, elevator, hallways and room, all are clean and orderly. The hotel staff is also very friendly and helpful as well. Location-wise, it's across the street from the train station so ideal if you have large luggage. Carrefour Express is also conveniently near by as well. This is ideal to get water.

The Bad: I didn't like the bathroom and housekeeping.

On the first night, I found out that the shower head in the bathtub wasn't working. The water only came out of the tub spout. I had to notify the hotel staff the next day to have it fixed.

The use of space in the bathroom is absolutely horrific. First of all, there is absolutely no countertop space in the bathroom. The design is pretty bad in my opinion. There is no space to put clothing when showering. It's a daily struggle on how to manage showering in this bathroom. Some Japanese hotel bathroom has less space and yet they manage to create small countertop space

Second thing I hated about the bathroom is the placement of the trash bin. I know this may sound stupid, but let me explain. For some reason, they decided to put the trash bin on a shelf under the sink. Under normal circumstances, it's not a big issue. But the problem is the trash bin has a lid that can only be opened by the foot pedal. There's no way to toss items into the bin without moving it from shelf to floor, see uploaded picture. Housekeeping moves the trash bin back under the sink every day. So I had to move it out every day after housekeeping is done. It's a huge daily hassle.

Last thing is how housekeeping keep pushing the beds together. I intentionally split the 2 single beds apart to create a small gap. But housekeeping pushes it back together every day. So every day after housekeeping is finished, I had to split the beds. Again, it's a huge daily hassle. I expect housekeeping to realize the beds are intentionally split, so not move...

I don’t really want to write any negative review about a hotel before staying in but I cannot find a way to express my disappointment on my booking experience.

I booked my stay via a third-party website A and I knew it was a non-refundable booking. I made a mistake on the booking the dates and I contacted the website and the hotel immediately after the booking. I was already very frustrated about my own mistake and only wanted to seek for the best solution. The hotel kept telling me to contact website A, so I only had main communication with A. Based on our communication via email, I understood charges would be required for the changing, and I agreed to pay any price difference. After waiting over 2 days, I received a reply only from website A confirming the hotel required me to pay for an extra amount of 678€ for changing the stay. I re-checked with the agency that it doesn’t count on the amount I had already paid for the original booking. I was so surprised that the ‘extra fees’ were even higher than its official price of 2-night stay on the exact dates (663€ and it was a real-time price), which means I have to pay an unreasonable amount of money on top of the amount I’ve already paid. That is not ‘pay the price difference’. That is paying more than the original price.

I have never experienced such unfair negotiation with other hotels before, even though it should be my responsibility on making wrong dates. So I have already paid my own price, but if you are deciding whether to choose this hotel and you’re concerning about anything related to the charging policy or future amendments etc., please be aware that this hotel will not have a fair deal and there will not be room for negotiation.

I’m sorry but I have to give one-star for the customer service of this 4-star hotel, which is the only thing I’ve...