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hotel reviews : 2) Hotel Centrale (Florence 2*) - This hotel was strongly recommendedby my Frommer's Italy on $70/day guidebook. It was nice, but I am notso sure that I would give it as strong a recommendation. The nicestthing about our room was that it was very large. The air conditiongwas a portable unit that didn't really work. The bathroom was verysmall and dated. The hotel had some nice character, and the staff wasvery friendly, but there was nothing so charming about this place thatwould make me want to return.3) Villa Nencini (Volterra 3*) - Another great find. This hotel islocated just a couple of minutes walk from the old city walls. Thewalk is straight uphill, so you will get some exercise! The hotel hasa great view for miles and miles, as it sits on top of a ridge. Theview from the pool is fantastic as well. The restaurant was verygood, although the atmosphere was a little bit of a banquet hall. Breakfast is not worth the price. Our room was in the older wing, andhad quite a bit of charm, as well as some great views. Everything wasvery clean. The staff was very friendly, even when it came torectifying a discrepency with my bill.
hotel reviews : 4) B&B (out of respect to the owner, I won't say where) - This is justa general warning to those who stay in B&Bs. We stayed in a verysmall town, where there is a B&B. The owner was extremely friendly,but she was a chain smoker. The place reeked of smoke. It was alsoAfter several bad/poor experiances at BestWesterns in different places -they are now firmly OFF my list.Pity you didn't have one of those Marriott cameras you could have shown uswhat was going on.P.S. - If the stay was really that bad - it is worth writing a letter ofcomplaint, especially to a big chain, you will usually get some type ofpartial refund as compensation.I can put in a good word for "La Gioconda", 4, Via Panzani, Florence (3*).If you are travelling there by rail, as we were, it is ideal, as it is in easy walking distance of Santa Maria Novella station.Via Panzani is a rather busy street, a short walk away from the Duomo.(Our room was at the back, with no "view", but we were later gratefulfor this, as we realised that a room on the front-street could have beena bit on the noisy side).
hotel reviews : We found this hotel on the internet, and you can book by internet(just do a search on "La Gioconda" and "Florence").I would say that its values are old-fashioned service. The room was spotless,the service excellent, the staff very friendly. The breakfast is standard"continental". Our bathroom was a bit on the small side. It has no lift,and no internet service is offered :-) Traditional values. It does takemajor credit cards though. We had no problems, but some US visitorsseemed to be having a little difficulty paying by card just before we did,which appeared to be a fault in the hotel's banking system, but it seemed tohave been rectified before we had problems, unless it was the other bank'sproblem.Oh yes, its main claim to fame is that it is where "Mona Lisa" (or "La Gioconda")was found after having been stolen, in the early part of the 20th century.Oh yes, just before we left, having some time to spare before the night train,we went and looked out the hotel that my wife's parents had stayed in,30 years before, Hotel Aprile (3*), also not far from the station, but I forgetthe street name. It looked rather interesting, being in what seemed to bea 15th century building, with interesting-looking paintings on the wall.We might just give this a try next time! :-)--
hotel reviews : From: ()Subject: Re: Itlay hotel reviews Newsgroups: Date: 2002-09-26 11:22:21 PST "Miss L.Toe" wrote in message...Best Western is not a chain in the sense that Holiday Inn, Hilton, etc. are.It is primarily a group of independently owned and operated hotels thataffiliate with BW, I think, to take advantage of their reservation systemand marketing. I did have a serious problem with a BW in Tarragona, Spainthat failed to refund a deposit when the reservation was cancelled monthsbefore the arrival date. After some prodding, BW in the US did issue acredit to my credit card and sent me a letter of apology. That hoteldisappeared from their listings shortly thereafter so I do think it would beuseful to let BW know of the problems during your stay. At the very least,they might drop the hotel and spare some future travelers.GGworking with a small chain of some 20 independently owned hotels, I confirm: hotels part of a chain must conform to a (more or less strict) quality standard: even more so for big chains like BW or such. If a hotel gets too much complaint letters, it's strongly encouraged to change its policies or be dropped.I stayed there four nights in July. I guess I was lucky, but I heard nonoises from other rooms or the hallway. Also, I didn't mind the location atall, as the bus ran often (usually every 8 minutes during the day) at a stopless than a block from a hotel, and it was two stops on the bus to the trainstation and onward into the city center. This was great for using Bolognaas rail hub to Florence, Venice, Ravenna, and Rimini (Ferrara and Parma arealso short rides from there), and the morning bus (and occasionally walk) tothe train station was really kinds of pleasant because it was so completelyuntouristed. The only thing that bugged me was that the air conditioningdidn't kick in until it got really warm, and then would chill the room untilit was really cold, and the body has a hard time getting adjusting to thatkind of yo-yo-ing all night long. It's hard to keep peeling back and addingon covers when you are trying to be asleep. The $50 per night rate wasn'tbad either though. Staff were great.
hotel reviews : I do not know what happened in details but I am sorry for what seems to havespoiled a wonderful holiday in a wonderful place like tuscany. Anyway, Ivisited the two sites of this hotel at e and, to be sincere, I have seen much worse hotels. Idid some security in London in a pseudo-posh hotel near the Strand whichdoes not have half the fascination the small but picturesque hotel in Sienahas, and they charged a minimum of 350 british pounds a night for a single!!They are ambiguos about prices because they have a minimum and a maximum butit is not specified how they apply these two categories of prices. I do notwant to seem defending them, but are you sure that, because of imperfectEnglish, there was no misunderstanding about prices from the start?You can however complain and writing to those who advertise the hotel inparticular seems to me the best thing to do. Writing to the council anditalian institutions dealing with tourism would not be a bad idea too.Last but not least, and I ask you this as a friend, do you think it isworthwhile changing hotel to save 20.000 lire=about 10 dollars/euros orabout 7 british pounds? I have travelled but I learned that the traps andmisunderstandigs of tourism are so many and so widespread all around theworld that, when abroad, I always remember the old saying: better the devilyou already know.One thing haunts me, how is it possible that with so many professional consaround the world, you always find somebody cursing on Italy and Italians? Iwonder if such controversial facts do not happen in, say, Cambodia, Turkey,Spain, Portugal, Mexico, etc...I have seen so many mistreatments of touristsin a "civilised" city like London that I am getting a bit skeptical.
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