Relais Hotel Centrale

"Excellent reception staff - always helpful, friendly and efficient. A good breakfast and consistent wifi. Great location. Loved the guide book written for the hotel. A very comfortable bed. The room itself seemed clean but there was a thick build up of dust on the top front of the pelmet drapery. I had some horrible insect bites on my face and eye lid which were discovered the first morning. Not sure if stay here again due to this."

"Our stay at Relais Hotel Centrale in Florence has been nothing short of outstanding. From the moment we arrived, we were welcomed with genuine warmth, professionalism, and a level of hospitality that immediately set this hotel apart. After experiencing a very disappointing stay in Rome at Hotel 87, arriving at Hotel Centrale felt like a breath of fresh air. The difference was remarkable. A very special thank you goes to Silvia, the first person who greeted us. She is truly exceptional—warm, passionate, welcoming, and incredibly helpful. Her kindness transformed our entire experience and made us feel instantly at home. Silvia represents the very best of Italian hospitality, and because of her, we have been recommending Hotel"

"I've stayed in probably over 200 hotels in my life and this was among the worst 5. Let me sum it up : - After arrival (which was fine, greeted fine, reservation found, no issues), the trouble started : first I was given a literal old-school key (not exactly what you expect in a hotel nowadays... at the same time it does have a card to activate the electricity in the room, so why not fit the doors with decent locks, they are not expensive at all anymore). I was then told to follow for explanation about the elevator - The elevator was barely large enough to fit my suitcase (see picture) - It requires a code to be entered with very precise timing, just before pressing the floor you want to go to. If you don't enter it at the right moment, the other door of the elevator opens on the same floor, but you're in the stairway of an office building - I was given room 8. Possibly I got unlucky and was given the worst room in the entire hotel, but it was on the 2nd floor, which also houses the breakfast area. It is right NEXT to the breakfast area on one side, NEXT to some staff room (which they seem to use early in the morning to prep breakfast probably), NEXT to some other staff room (also in use early in the morning). In other words, avoidable at all cost. - Noise starting at 6:30 in the hallway, constant slamming of doors, loud talking, dropping of things and I don't know what else. - You can hear talking through the walls, water running, toilets flushing. The walls are extremely thin. - There is NO insulation whatsoever under/around the door, so anything from the hallway gets through. Given that I was on the breakfast floor and the staff was very loud in prepping everything and going between the staff rooms and breakfast room, this was loud enough to keep wake me up and keep me awake (even with earplugs, white noise generator on the phone and noise cancelling headphones on !) - The 'safe' isn't even large enough to hold an iPad, an absolute joke - The bathroom seems to have been rebuilt 3 times, because there's old plumbing that ends everywhere - The bathroom sink tablet is not label. When you wash your hands, the water starts dripping on the floor (or your feet of course) - On top of that, the shower leaks. Even if you close the door properly, the floor gets wet and it leaks up into the room itself - The airco didn't work. Had to go downstairs 4 times before they managed to get it to work - The so-called "blinds" are basically a curtain that don't hold back the light at all - The heating element on which you're supposed to be able to dry your towels, is disgusting beyond belief - The plints are off the wall, the light switches are filthy, overall the state of the place is absolutely dirty - If another person flushes their toilet, the toilet starts gurgling. Maybe it's a room 8 problem, maybe it's not. Who knows at this point ? - The mattresses are (as is typical in Italy) very very firm. - Is there anything positive to say about the place : I honestly can't think of anything. The owners of the hotel will probably respond saying that I should have gone down to complain and they would have given me another room. But after having gone down 4 times to get the airco going on arrival, having seen the state of the room I was in, having noticed first-hard how thin the walls were, there was no poing in attempting to have another very short night with possibly different, new problems. In essence : stay away. Even good ear plugs, a sleeping mask and Dettol won't help you in a place like this."