Bavaria

If you like modern surroundings and amenities this is not the Hotel for you. You need to bear in mind the age of the hotel and as such not all rooms have en suite (if any?) and there are no televisions (not in ours anyway). However, presumably you would, like us, be visiting Florence to explore the beautiful city and not sit in a Hotel room, as such no TV was necessary and we managed with the shared bathroom. There is however a sink in the bedroom for teeth brushing etc. The Hotelier was very friendly and provided us with a map with the main points of interest as well as kindly leaving a bottle of wine in the room to help us celebrate our anniversary. They also provided a lovely buffet continental breakfast with plenty to choose from and plenty of tea bags/coffee on offer. All in all, we enjoyed our stay here and the character of the building it's in and the rooms. We slept well however there were inconsiderate guests who felt at 6am it was appropriate to talk loudly outside the bedroom! This happened on both mornings of our stay however this was totally outside of the Hotelier's control. Whether a sign could be put up to ask guests to be considerate of others outside the times of 8am-10pm perhaps?

I had only two days in Florence and I wanted to optimize my stay by booking a place that was close to everything and could allow me a glance into the local life. I needed a single room with single bed. Hotel Bavaria offered the perfect deal - it is located on one of the floors of a period residential building and staying there felt like staying at someone's home. It gave me a glimpse of the inside atmosphere of local life in typical buildings that would otherwise remain facades hiding mysteries. The room was perfect - bright and cozy. The bathroom was shared but adjacent to the room so, I didn't feel inconvenienced. The only shortcoming was the breakfast - it was extremely basic and cheap, focusing on spreads and crackers that are usually free in North American diners. I mostly ate yogurt and cereal but cereal is not a thing I would usually consider, unless hunger looms. Although I suspected the breakfast might be substandard, I could not book the room without the breakfast (there was no such option). However, there are so many nice little cafes and places to eat well and affordably around that this is not a big minus. All in all, I had a great time in this hotel and it was everything I had hoped it would be.

We booked this property, a room with a shared bathroom, with a sense of false economy. There was nothing wrong with checking in or out, and the staff member that checked us in provided good information about places to see. One, the shared bathroom was not a good idea on our part as there was one for that level. It did get to be a challenge to use it when necessary. The shower, too, was about 10 inches above the floor, which made it somewhat treachorous to get in and out of. Two, the buffet was generally disappointing. Going to a bar for espresso and patries was worth the 2-3 euros over eating there. Finally, three, a great deal of southern Europe was in the midst of a heat wave. The room, being on the second level of the hotel never truly cooled down with or without windows opened or closed and the use of the fan. In truth, the hallway was cooler as was the bathroom that faced the street and the common area on that level. We had to cover ourselves at night with wet towels and direct the fan over them in order to be cool enough to sleep. It was cooler outside in the morning than in the room. This was so unpleasant that we booked another hotel after the second night of our stay, which was scheduled to be 7 nights. We are fortunate that we could do so. Of course, we were not offered a refund.

In a way you get what you pay for. This feels almost like a hostel rather than anything else. We shared a couple of toilets on the same floor as the room only had a basin. Breakfast was as basic as it can get. Florence is hot in Summer and the stairs to reach the hotel feel never ending, almost like climbing a mountain. The room had a fan, which wasn’t ideal given the temperature. The fittings in the room were very unfortunate as the building is beautiful and details as towel rails, etc are on the very cheap contemporary side... a pity they didn’t get something more adequate. The same applies to the toilets... awkward in a word. My room was always serviced very late which was inconvenient. Would I stay again? Yes, in spite of everything. The location is ideal and in September I guess it wouldn’t be too bad in terms of their current suffocating temperatures.

I think the pros and cons list will work here. Pros: Excellent location. Very easy/short walks to everything Florence has to offer. Beautiful hotel..... Loved the old building and the cute furniture People.... The employees were very nice and very helpful Room... I had a very large room with it's own bathroom. Views of the cathedral from a couple of the windows. Cons: Stairs.... Too many stairs to climb especially after walking around Florence all day. No AC.... It was very hot and humid in Florence and there was no AC. We had an oscillating fan in the room but it was loud and the room was too large for it to help anyway. If we tried opening the windows for air we would get attacked by mosquitoes. Shower..... The water was either super hot or super cold, even if we didn't move the nozzle.... The water temp would change. I mean burning hot and freezing cold. So strange.... Overall: Even though it was hard to shower and hard to sleep I would still recommend staying here. The location, hotel charm, and the employees make it a nice hotel.