Grand Hotel Cavour Florence — Hotel in Florence

The reception is swanky and the rooftop bar a unique enhancement, but everything in between is of a much lower standard.

LOCATION

As centrally located as it gets. Not only are all the shops and sights nearby, but they are easy to navigate to. Florence's labyrinth of medieval streets makes this hotel's location on the junction of two thoroughfares one of it's main advantages.

The street is full of tourists, even after dark, and so feels quite safe. It's not pedestrianised, but was not used by many cars.

ROOM

We were assigned what must be one of the hotel's worst rooms: 209. This second-floor, inward-facing double room was gloomy and basic. The room is better suited to single occupancy, especially because the bed is so narrow. The room gets no daylight either - see attached photo of the "view". That's the risk you take booking the lower room categories during high-occupancy times. It wasn't all bad - at least we were spared the street noise of the New Year's festivities and were hardly in the room except to sleep and shower - but it belongs in a three-star hotel. The bedding was low quality: very hard mattress, one flimsy pillow each and thin duvet. The hotel is spread across adjoining, centuries-old townhouses, so the rooms must vary in layout and quality far more than in purpose-built hotels.

Housekeeping was weirdly stingy. Sometimes even the toilet paper wasn't replaced. Used mugs were left on the desk for days, and it seems like shower gel/shampoo was being rationed and body lotion had completely run out.

SERVICE

The staff on reception, on breakfast and in the rooftop bar were all great: personable, attentive, efficient and happy to help.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

The breakfast buffet has a large selection of familiar continental breakfast components, especially baked goods, eggs and fruit. Gluten- and lactose intolerances are very well accommodated (there are 6 different types of milk, for example). On some days, coffee was made to order and on others it was self-service, but both are equally high-quality.

The rooftop bar doesn't serve food, but we enjoyed excellent cocktails there twice. It was busy both times, so worth reserving to ensure you get a seat (there's no space to stand other than the small, open smoker's corner). In Winter, the space is heated and covered in a temporary roof, so no coat is necessary.

FACILITIES

The gym is a joy here - the range of equipment is very limited (basic Technogym cardio machines, multi-gym, some freeweights up to 10 kg and a few kettlebells...), but is well taken care of. The highlight is the setting: the gym has been put in a palatial room room with high, vaulted and vividly frescoed ceilings.

Other than that, the spa seems like an afterthought, consisting of a toilet with no lock; single, open shower cubicle and...

Beautiful hotel & perfect location!

Before traveling to Italy, I did extensive research trying to find just the right hotels for my family. I was traveling with my elderly parents, so location was very important. Furthermore, we needed to ensure walk-in shower for my parents. The rooms were beautiful, and the bathrooms fit our needs. I will say, I was disappointed that after reaching out to the hotel to ensure we would have walk in shower for my elderly parents, the rooms we had required steps to get to the rooms. While it was only a few steps, every time we came or left the room, we had to deal with the steps. Not a big deal for us but for my parents (one with a walker) it was a bit difficult.

The location of the hotel was quite perfect. We were situated a couple of blocks from the Duomo, Piazza della Rupubblica and the Ponte Vecchio and all directions! Upon arrival to the hotel, there was a designated parking spot out front to allow us to unload our car. The lobby was elegant and welcoming. The desk staff was very helpful with our bags and the entire check in process. Good size lifts and the suites we booked were quite lovely. We had a sitting a room with a pull-out queen size bed, good size bedroom and both rooms beautiful large opening windows. The bathrooms were large and well stocked. Because we had family sleeping on the pull-out couches, Room 539 was preferable as you could enter the bathroom from the hallway vs. Room 535 where we had to walk thru the bedroom to access the bathroom. The typical breakfast buffet was redesigned to accommodate safety due to the pandemic. The dining room was equally as beautiful as the rest of the hotel. Without a double the most amazing part of the hotel was the rooftop Terraza with views of Florence in every direction. We literally felt like we could reach out and touch the Basilica in one direction and the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria and off in a little distance the Basilica of Santa Maria. We ended up having a nightcap each evening on the Terraza.

Based on the Terraza alone, not to mention the beautiful rooms and amazing location, we will be choosing the Grand Hotel Cavour the next time we...

Average. The hotel is quite pricey for what you get. The location is very good as is the food. However The basic facilities leave a lot to be desired. I stayed for 3 nights with my Mum in June. We arrived late on the first night and one of us used the toilet in the room. When then the second person tried to use it it would not flush. Not at all for 20 minutes! We asked the hotel to look at it and they said the maintenance person was not in. I asked to move rooms and they couldn’t as they were fully booked. The next day when went out for the day I asked the hotel if maintenance would look at the toilet whist we were out. When we returned they said they had and it was fine. When we got to the room same thing again, it would only flush once every 20 minutes! I asked a member of staff to look at this and ( as they couldn’t get it to flush either) they agreed there was a problem, but again same thing, maintenance has gone home and they couldn’t move us rooms as they were fully booked. Day 3 when we returned it was the same again but this time the hotel were adamant that it was not broken and said this was standard to allow the tank to fill! I said it was unacceptable ( my mother and I had spent the last 2 nights manually flushing the toilet ourselves by bailing water from the sink into the toilet and for the price we were paying for the room I was not prepared to spend a 3 rd night doing that)! Luckily they did have a spare room that night which we were moved into ( and that toilet flushed repeatedly no problem). Such a shame as this would otherwise have been a nice hotel but I cannot see how by anyone’s standard that a toilet that only flushes once every 20 minutes is acceptable. Maybe if you are travelling by yourself and not sharing a room?

Lovely breakfast and lovely roof top bar though with stunning views and very...