I Quattro Poeti

The building is still very beautiful, though the house I live in is older, from around 1884. We knew about the stairs, so those weren't an issue. The real problem was communication, especially for arrivals after 21:00. The manager handling reservations apparently isn't notified about arrivals, and you can't enter without the room key. That key is kept in a reception room locked with a code, but they forgot to send us the code for the key. The same thing happened to our neighbours. We were lucky to get inside after two flights and in rainy weather only because someone else with keys happened to enter the building. After 21:00, there seems to be no other way in except waiting and hoping. The manager was VERY HARD to reach, and the listed phone numbers aren't available at night. They tell you to try contacting them the next morning. For the price, it was too much trouble, and breakfast was very poor. I'd only choose this place again if I couldn't find a better one that was available.

The one good thing was the location. Check-in was awful: I knew reception wasn't open 24/7, but I was supposed to receive online check-in details and never got them. After arriving, I spent 40 mins calling the number they gave us and ringing the bell before someone finally answered and let us in. Breakfast was poor, with no vegetables, fruit, or eggs, just baked goods and coffee. They also don't have irons to lend, and the walls do nothing to block noise. We could hear everyone talking, so I had to knock on the neighbors' door.

If you're bringing luggage, do yourself a favor and avoid this place. We arrived with bags for a 5 night stay, and the building has no elevator. The guesthouse is on the highest floor. I asked the host whether anyone could come down to help us. She said nobody was there then, but she'd let me know if she could arrange help on checkout day. She never followed up, so I messaged her the day before checkout. She replied, “Unfortunately our guesthouse doesn't not have a porter service, we are deeply Sorry.” I definitely wouldn't recommend staying here. Terrible service!

I stayed here a few years ago under different management. The location is perfect, breakfast is more than fair for such a simple B&B, and the man at reception was kind and spoke good English. My wife doesn't speak Italian, so I felt sorry for him. The reception is only open for a few hours in the afternoon, though, and the third-floor walk-up could be hard for older guests or people with small kids, especially in Summer. It wasn't an issue for us, but I wouldn't go May to September. The bigger problems started with communication and the room. I messaged at 11 PM asking about early check-in and luggage storage, but didn't get a reply until 1 PM the next day. There was no help available when we needed it, and the A/C was off. That should be stated in the listing, since guests pay for it even if they want A/C in March. We were put in a different, worse room than the one we booked. The receptionist understood and tried VERY hard to help, but our room had been sold to someone else. He called his boss, and I could hear the whole loud conversation. The boss said the booking was through booking.com, so if I wanted a better room I had to pay the difference to switch on the second night. We could leave, but there'd be no refund from them, and we'd have to ask booking.com. We stayed in the basic but cute room we were given, which wasn't what we booked: it was smaller and had only a skylight, no window. I called booking.com. They said they couldn't refund me, but the hotel could. The contract clearly says extra requests aren't guaranteed and have to be made to the property. They also said the booking came through a partner, though the property had uploaded the room to that partner's site, or sold it to them already. Logically, if it wasn't sold directly by booking.com, someone had to upload the property. If it were a fake listing, a scam, or unpaid, the hotel wouldn't have given me the room at all. I don't think the manager meant to keep the money without giving us a room, but I'm sure he was careless and rude. Putting the same room in two systems can lead to a first come, only served situation, and if we'd left, I don't think we'd ever have seen our money back. There are hundreds of options in Florence, so I'd look for somewhere more reliable. It's a shame given the good location, because this was easy to fix: give us a better room for two nights while it was available, then let us change rooms on night two. That's what serious managers do when guests don't get what they paid for, whatever the amount. Otherwise, give a full refund on the spot. That's basic service, and working A/C should be part of it too.