Palazzo Oliveto

The rooms were really nice, with an attached bathroom and AC that worked well. It’s in a quieter part of Florence, with lots of good restaurants within a 10-minute walk. The center took us about 30 minutes on foot, which was a bit of a trek but manageable. This is more of a self-service B&B: you get a door code and collect your key from a locked box. Staff are fairly hands-off, so being self-sufficient helps. We didn’t need much from them or have special requests, and they didn’t seem to speak much English, but that was fine for us. It was a decent stay.

We booked through agoda because the listing said there was a 24-hour front desk, which was the main reason we chose it. Arriving around 23h-00h, we found nobody at reception, and we were left without a room for the whole night. There was no contact information before arrival, and the number we found online didn’t work. Only once we were at the building did we find numbers written outside. We called repeatedly, but nobody answered, then they rejected our calls and eventually switched off the phone. We were three girls, cold and tired, with no food, spending the night outside because we had nowhere else to go. We stayed at reception trying to reach them until around 5am, and I didn’t feel safe. We had hoped to sleep after a busy day and see Florence, but got no sleep and missed that. There were lockers, and we wondered if we needed a code, but none had been given. We later found they opened without a code and one key was inside. That room clearly wasn’t ours, so we put the keys back. It seemed anyone could enter the rooms, which felt unsafe. The host eventually messaged us in the morning with a short note. We replied at length explaining everything, but they saw our messages and never responded. They couldn’t have cared less. It was the worst experience. Never book this place, avoid it at all costs. The host was totally careless.

The guesthouse was clean enough and well located, but the security problems were unacceptable, and the host seemed completely careless about guests. The apartment keys were left in an unlocked postbox outside for anyone to take. During the day, the building’s front door was left open because it couldn’t be opened from inside without a key, so anyone could walk in. The room doors were also very easy to open and felt unsafe. Nothing was stolen, but that doesn’t make it okay. The host blamed a recent front door lock problem and slow Italian workers, though I’d seen similar complaints in much older reviews, so that explanation seemed untrue. We were also given just one key, which was especially inconvenient since the front door couldn’t be opened from inside without one.

Florence has plenty of better places, so I wouldn’t recommend staying here. The room doors didn’t lock properly, the windows could be pushed open from outside, and there was no sound insulation in the doors, so we heard every word from the hallway and neighboring rooms. The toilet kept running too. Reception was hardly ever staffed, and we never got a receipt for the tourist tax we had to pay. When we raised these problems on the morning we left, the owner called us “the worst guests ever” and literally threw us out. The staff were rude and unprofessional. A true horror hotel. It’s no surprise it’s no longer listed on MisterB&B. Do yourself a favor and avoid it.