Hotel Grifone Firenze — Hotel in Florence

I go straight to the point: booked a single room for 1 night, at my arrival in the evening i found the sink of the bathroom obstructed. I kindly asked at the reception to fix it while I was exiting for dinner, they replied they would haven sent someone immediatly. When i came back at midnight I found the sink still broken plus, when I opened the water, a lot of hair of other persons started to exit fron the dumping. The day after, coming back from breakfast, i found the plumber in my room that was fixing the problem, exactly in the moment of the day in which a guest need the bathroom to prepare himself for the day (and they knew i was having the check out that day!). Above all, the plumber left all the hairs that were blocking the sink in the bathroom, scattered in the sink, on the floor and in the toilette (he didnt even flush it and he knew I was in the room with him). I asked explanations at the reception, they just replied they are sorry and it can happen. Aside from this, I found the scarf of another person under my mattress, the balcony of the room was dirty and when I entered the room for the first time it was very hot and the air smelled bad. The level of the breakfast is very low, not so many staff and the quality of the food is the one of cheap supermarket (im italian, i can say). Most of the staff is very young and not experienced/trained enough for a 4 stars hotel and it seems there are not organized. While i was asking to fix the sink another guest ordered a beer, it took 15 minutes to bring it to him and it was funny that at the phone they asked to the guy who should have repaired my sink to go also in the kitchen to pick up the beer. Then the day after i saw this guy that was also cleaning the room. For the price they asked you can find far...

We stayed for 2 nights at Hotel Grifone and were extremely pleased with our experience. We stayed in the Annex next door to the main hotel building, and our room was spacious and very clean - perfect! I would only mention that the stairs up to our room were very steep (there is no lift in the annex) so bear this in mind when booking at The Grifone if you are elderly or have impaired mobility (although the porter will carry your bags for you). Breakfast is taken in the main building in a very pleasant breakfast room. Breakfast was generous, and was the usual Continental selection of breads, fruits, pastries, cheeses, cereals, yogurts etc with a couple of hot options (sausages and bacon). The hotel kindly supplied breakfasts to take with us on our final morning when we had to depart early before breakfast.

All staff were incredibly friendly and helpful, and spoke good English (unlike our awful Italian!!). They booked a taxi for us, told us all about the bus services, and even sold us bus tickets to make our journey into town a little easier. There is a nearby bus route (No.14) that takes you right to The Duomo, or you can walk along The Arno to Ponte Vecchio in around 40 minutes. The cost of the bus was 1.7 euros each way. Remember the buses won't stop unless you hail them, and don't forget to stamp your ticket in the machine just inside the bus - you then have 20 minutes if you want to connect to another bus service for no extra charge.

Lastly, 2 excellent restaurants literally a minute's walk from the hotel - one Italian (with jazz music occasionally), and one Thai with great food and a lovely atmosphere.

We would certainly consider returning to the The Grifone if we...

We came in August, which is not the peak season in Florence. Nevertheless the hotel did not have the right infrastructure to welcome all the guests: our room was in an annex in a patio which was overcrowded with guests' cars, which made it hard to enter the building because of the tightly parked cars in front of the door (believe me, I am thin and it was still hard to pass). If you are attracted to what you see on trip advisor, the beautiful pool that you see on the pictures: it is not a pool but a small part of the spa that is fully booked for premium rooms. As a classic room there was barely any chance to book it even though we have to pay 29 euro to use it. After several rounds of negotiations and a lot of uncertainty we managed to book it once, for 5 days later for 7:30 in the morning (we stayed 7 days). Unlike what is written on trip advisor, there is no bar on site (but adjacent, yes). Reminder for non-Italians: you can eat at the nearby restaurant (no restaurant onsite) exclusively during strict lunch hours, then after 19:30. On the plus side, everybody at the reception speaks very good English, as well as some additional languages. Wonderful maintenance team and everybody is polite and friendly. The outside and the inside of the hotel are not pretty but the location is good...