Hotel Centro

What People are saying

Know what you're getting before booking

Lori B on 06/07/2015 20:30

I was backpacking through Europe and when my friend and I booked this place to stay for 2 nights for about 50 euro a night. Just know: there are two Hotel Centros in Florence, one inside the city and one on the outskirts in Campi Bisenzio. Unfortunately I didn't notice that I booked the one in Campi Bisenzio rather than the city center, so it was a bit inconvenient. This hotel isn't super far out of the way, just not in the best location. I would not plan to stay here if you want to go to and from your hotel throughout the day - with a 30min bus ride into the city, you really can only take the bus in the morning and at night (taxis would be crazy expensive, but the bus is just a little over a euro). Luckily, Campi Bisenzio is a charming enough, safe, small area, but everything closes super early so if you come back from the city late, there is no place to eat or go out.

How to get there:
We arrived via train, so the station you will want to stop at is Santa Maria Novella (SMN). This station is in a good place, so you can just roam the city on foot from there. Leaving the station, you will want to go to the back side of the building and find the Number 30A or 30B bus on one of the side streets. From the stop you walk straight for about 10 minutes and you'll come across the hotel in a little plaza on the left hand side (they have a red canopy on the top of the door). I would look at a map before hand because it's kind of hard to find if you don't know where you are going. Luckily a woman on our bus knew where it was and took us there.

Checking In:
We only saw one employee, an older man, who helped us check into our room. He doesn't speak any English, but if you are polite and smile, he is helpful. He gave us our room key, but we had to give him our passports every time we wanted to take the key (essentially for collateral). They have little cubbies that you leave your passport in behind the front desk (which did not seem very safe at ALL - anyone could just pop behind there when no one was at the desk and take them....) and when you leave the hotel, you put your key in the cubbie and can take your passport back. They give you an access code for the front door so you can get back into the hotel, and then you have to swap your passport for the key again.

Room Review:
We had a 2 bed room, and got what we paid for, really. It was clean, the beds were comfy, and it was cool enough once you gave the room a chance to cool down (you have to put your key in a wall port for the electricity and fan to turn on...it was odd). The bathroom is small, and is essentially just one room with a shower, bidet, toilet, and sink, but the shower was not separated from the rest of the room, so when you shower you are literally standing over the bidet and water is splashing on the toilet with just a drain in the middle of the floor to capture the water. I had to make sure I moved my clothes and towel outside of the bathroom because literally everything gets wet. However (if you don't look at the ceiling or chipped paint/stained walls) it was very clean, the water was hot, and towels, shampoo/conditioner/body wash was provided. There is no fridge in the room - which was annoying, but we asked if we could put some stuff in the front desk mini fridge and the old man let us. Since the place is so small, it was hard to fall asleep because there are TVs and a little sitting/dining area in the lobby, and people were loudly talking there all night and the walls are very thin.

Beware the Wifi:
I am mainly disappointed in this hotel because the Wifi DID NOT WORK!!! I specifically looked for a hotel with wifi, and expect it to work, but we could not get connected. The first night we asked multiple times for them to reset the router or fix the problem, but they said it wasn't their fault, and that the lines sometimes just go out and they didn't know when it would come back on. I almost asked for a partial refund, but knew my lack of Italian skills would have made it too difficult. Luckily it we were able to connect the second night, but it was a bit slow.

TL;DR: Overall the place is pretty average for what you pay for, the staff wasn't horrible, and the rooms were clean. Wifi didn't work, the location is outside the city, place can be difficult to find, and the walls are thin. It is what it is.

great little place

Kjten on 18/04/2015 23:40

we booked this place because all of the cheaper hostels and hotels in florence were full, and if i hadnt lost all of my maps prior to arriving in florence we would have been great. directions given by booking.com were terrible and google did no better, so all we had was the address and no one in campi bisenzio seemed to know where the road was, or if the hotel even existed, which is odd because there are only two hotels in the town. a very nice man helped us out and we finally made it about an hour after last check in and the man at the desk looked at us with pity and seemed to understand we had a rough time. he didnt charge us for being late or question us, he gave us our key and we went to the room. we have room 36 and it's very clean, has a queen bed and a twin bed, and decently spacious bathroom. there arent any weird smells or cracks in things, wifi works brilliantly, and what i've seen of the building i find very neat and tidy. i'm giving 4 stars because of the poor/nonexistent signage to the place. one sign at the end of a road does not equal directions. because you have to go down that road then take a right, then another right then the actual road it's on is an alley into a semi closed courtyard. it was very difficult to find, but we're here, and that's my only complaint. i suggest adding a few more signs since it's easy to get lost here when not familiar with the area.

Disappointing

roziehurst on 20/08/2014 22:30

One room stunk and was full of mosquitos. The other was very drab. The photos on the website are very misleading. The hotel was close to the bus line to Florence but there were no restaurants or stores nearby. Very boring location.

You can't ask anything more for the price

pottone on 17/09/2013 23:00

at first touch it look a very shady and old maintained hole but when you first have to deal with the old man at the reception it change your prospective completely. Not only he is the kindest guy ever but , whenever you need something, he will bother you until he is sure you got it.
the place is safe, clean, the room are spacious and overlooking the town square which is a true Italian experience, there was a different festival or show every night , people walking with their kids, person selling some old fashion food specialty....I mean....for that price you really are in a nice safe place. The Hotel has also his Parking lot close to the square ..

Far from the city but good value for money

Jashnzindagi on 09/06/2013 09:58

We stayed as a couple here for our trip to Florence and the region.

This was the cheapest 2-3 star option for us. It is far from the city. There is just 1 bus. Number 30 which brings to Buozzi station which is about 500 mtrs from the hotel. The bus departs near the Santa Maria Novella station but that station also requires some walking.bus journey takes 25 minutes approx.

The location Campi Bisenzio is excellent though. Very pretty outskirts of Florence where you get a chance to see how locals live. There is a local flea market too. Most of the things are cheaper than Florence city so you can buy your food, drinks in the market. There is a supermarket Coop near the Buozzi bus stop too.

Wifi is free in the hotel and is a big plus point.

Rooms are not extremely quiet but manageable for us after a tiring day of walking.

Make sure you know the last bus to Buozzi in the evening as otherwise taxi would be the only expensive option.
We liked the place in spite being far as the surrounding area was pretty for evening walks.