The Social Hub Florence Lavagnini — Hotel in Florence

The check in: After a full day of travel we looked forward to getting to the room and enjoying a cocktail on the heavily promoted rooftop bar. Upon arrival there was a line for checkin but luckily they had two self checkin kiosks. After a frustrating ten minutes of entering and reentering information there was an error and it was unable to make our room keys. So we waited in the line and we were told “oh those machines don’t work”. And so it began. A hotel experience where every single step of the way, everything we wanted to do, was a broken hassle!

Pool reservations: During check in we were told that Saturday’s slots, 2 hours each until 17h were all full but nothing was booked on Sunday. Fine. We would think about our plans and let them know in the morning. In the morning there was a line at reception ten deep (there is almost always a line) and so we decided to call a little later while we walked to the old town. We called twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon and waited on hold 30 minutes each time. We didn’t want this to take away from the beautiful day in Florence and decided to try reception in the late afternoon. We were told Sunday was now full! And so we grabbed the Monday 11-13 slot with reception saying, “No worries, take your time, enjoy the pool and check out later.” More on this to come.

The room: We were given a small, hot room directly across from the elevator and entered a very basic room. The pictures on the website did a good job of making the room seem rather nice and larger than actuality. We decided to let the room cool down and grab a much needed cocktail on the roof. “Closed sir” we were told. At a little before 23h. And so we decided to give up and start fresh tomorrow. The room was supplied with two paper cups and an empty fridge. So warm tap water for us tonight and we would grab coffee at the included breakfast tomorrow. Why not supply glasses and coffee mugs if you have a Nespresso machine or cold water bottles in the fridge? The bed, probably the hardest I’ve ever slept on, only had two small rocks for pillows. And so we called for more and 20 minutes later received two couch cushions. The AC ran all night and only reached 26 by morning.

The bathroom: A very basic bathroom with nowhere to put anything except one small glass shelf below the mirror. The shower head was broken and the soap and shampoo were empty. The bathroom was lit by a single, intense led bulb that made brushing our hair or even looking at ourselves difficult.

The gym: Probably one of the best views of a gym I’ve been to looking out over the old town. No towels and no water however. Luckily there are vending machines on the lower level. Unfortunately the card reader was broken and after running all the way back to the room, the machine ate my €2. So a very warm and thirsty workout!

Rooftop bar: On Sunday evening, or last in town, we tried the rooftop bar again but were told they were closing for 30 minutes to clean and then they would reopen but were fully booked. So no rooftop cocktails again today and there isn’t much close by.

Breakfast: Breakfast was decent enough although I would like to …. (review limited by word count)

This is a long review because I think this review is important. This hotel is deceptive and an annoyance. I’ve never had such a hard stay at another hotel and it’s the first time I’ve voiced that opinion at checkout. So much of our time was wasted - so much of our trip and our impressions of Florence were affected by this frustrating stay. I very much would have preferred to stay anywhere else, even a place that didn’t seem as nice so we would know what to expect and to not be disappointed. For the amount we spent we could have stayed in a smaller, family run hotel in the center and been much happier and not have had this sour taste remaining. Please take this into consideration if you’ve read this far and don’t be fooled by the nice photos and promise of a pool as you likely won’t be able to use and and leave beautiful...

Modern, chic hotel with a lively and vibrant crowd.

Room is ready starting at 15.00. Thankfully it's 24 hours receptionist, which is a rarity in Florence, so you can check in anytime. Night shift staff are especially kind and helpful! Matteo and his colleague in particular. I had electrical issues in my room and I was moved to another seamlessly. Security is always around. You can drop your luggage here, there's a storage room. Service is top notch.

The location is not quite strategic. It's 15-20 minutes walk from the city center, and 10 minutes tram ride to the station. However this hotel is partly a student dorm so there is always a lively crowd even until midnight.

They have rooftop bar and pool (open until 00:00) with fantastic view that oversees Florence. Great sight of the Duomo from here. They also have two co-working spaces open 24 hours, just beside the receptionist. A water refill is available in the space. It's perfect for remote workers doing workcation. There's also piano and ping pong table. Kids love them. Very vibrant at night, again, such a rare vibe in the usually quiet and empty hotels in Florence.

Breakfast is amazing. It's mainly intercontinental breakfast with selection of cheese, cake, milk, nuts, salad, ham, etc. There is only slight variation each day, but the diversity is enough compared to other hotels at this price range (100-120 EUR).

Room is enough for what I need. More details below, but if there's only slight price difference between Single Standard and Queen, go for Queen. More space with the exact same furniture. I appreciate the bathroom space because the toilet space could be quite tight in Single.

One minor complain though is the electricity in the 3rd floor seems to be always down at random hours. Sometimes at 03.00, sometimes at 22.00, etc. Doesn't affect the rooms, only the corridors, but it's quite weird.

Also, they have separate lifts for different floors. Floor 4-5 have their own, as well as the rooftop at 6th flooe. My advice is just get a room either in floor 0, 1, 2, 3. So you don't have to switch around.

I left the hotel with a heavy heart. I've changed hotels 4 times in Florence and this is the one hotel perfect for me. But I sure will return to The Social...

I would give this hotel a total of 4/4.5 out of 5. I was proud of the staff for their happy and outgoing attitudes and didn’t have any issues in the that sense. Check in time was a little hectic, and we had to wait around 20minutes to sit in line. Room was ready ride around 3pm. The hotel property itself was beautiful and well maintained. The room was exactly what I expected except for the very weird shower design which didn’t have a door or anything blocking the water from leaving the bathroom and spilling out into the middle of the hotel room floor. Was a little worried about the shower issue as i was warming up the shower and it was on full pressure and had leaked out into the hotel room and I had to use towels to clean up the hide puddles. Other than that, I also had issues with only some of the lights in the room working, and the television remote did not work. I’m not a very picky person therefore I didn’t complain to anyone as I felt I shouldn’t complain about something to minuscule.(I mean come on I’m in damn florence in a hotel with a rooftop pool and bar!!) the pool reservation was a bit interesting as others have noted. We were able to book a 10-11AM session which was all we could do as everything later in the day was completely booked. The prices at the rooftop bar were cheaper than what some had mentioned. Around 8Euros for a cocktail. You can go up there at night and relax and watch the view we just asked if we could sit down and their was an open deck sofa so we did. The rooftop if I remember correctly was open till 1AM. We had also left a wallet there and had issues contacting the property, we had sat on hold for an hour and a half on the phone trying to reach the hotel as we had landed in rome and forgot a wallet!! After contacting the hotel on booking.com as calling them by phone was not worth the wait being on hold for more than an hour and a half (and called multiple times never once reached an actual person) where someone finally responded and was super helpful in helping us get the wallet shipped to our next destination. Overall there were a few cons but I feel like the pros definitely outnumber them. I would book this hotel again for the atmosphere,...