Hotel Erina - Florence, Italy 

Nice hotel
Posted: Sun, Jul 15 2007
I have to tell you after reading these reviews I almost called my travel agent to get our hotel changed. I'm very glad I didn't! We arrived at the hotel a few hours before check in time at the hotel (3:30pm). They were kind enough to clean our room first and have us in by 1:30. After reading the review we were vigilent about bad smells and other unsanitary problems...we didn't find any of these problems. There was a bad smell a few hotels down though. The hotel is very close to the train station and is just outside of an area where buses park..so I am not suprised that such problems could exist. However, no problems on the day we were there. The room was beautifully decorated. Large and clean. In fact, we were given a triple room for the price of a double. The shower was tiny, but this is not the first time I have seen such a small shower in Italy. The bathroom looked new and was pleasantly decorated also. Breakfast was ok, simple but good enough. Staff was helpful in regards to questions about how to find places. We were given a map with directions. Various tourist information was made available. The only problem that I should mention is that I did find ants in the room. About 1/2 an hour before we were to check out. I did have sweets in my backpack..which may have attracted them...but I was dismayed none the less. No apologies were made for this problem...just a comment about letting the manager know. If I were to stay again I'd look really close for ants before checking in for good!

Pleasantly surprised
Posted: Sat, Jul 07 2007
This hotel does not offer what it promises on its website. The hotel is part of a consortium of hotels that advertise Florence accommodation and hence a generic posting is made; however, one is led to believe that the hotel you are booking into can offer many amenities, such as laundry facilties, phone in the room, internet connnections, night watchman, 24 hour reception, in room safe, air conditioning - none of which was actually available. We had booked into this hotel as part of a last minute deal. We had a terrible 2 days stay at this hotel. The first morning we attended breakfast at 8.45 am, only to learn that there was no more cereals, the cold meat was finished and we got what seemed to be the left over croiisants from another visitors bread basket. When we enquired about restocking the cereals and meats we were met by a disinterested shrug by the gum chewing girl who was serving. Our shower had a black film of soap scum all around the edge and when we complained to the owner about this, he denied that it was dirt and said that it was black plastic sealant (which seems to dissolve when you spray hot water on to it ...) We noticed however that later that day that shower had had a film of white sealant added to it - and this time it really was sealant! The hotel is situated on the third floor and the lift was out of order for most of the time that we were there.The area outside of the hotel, although conveniently close to the station had a very strong smell of urine around it. When we arrived back in the evening there was a used syringe on the stairs. When we checked out we confronted the owner about his misleading advertising. His reply was that the laundrette was about 3 street blocks away from the hotel, similarly there was an internet cafe further down the street and we have our own mobile phones, why would we want to use a room phone then? He became very rude and insisted that there was nothing wrong with his hotel, stating that after all, we had paid a lower rate and should therefore be satisfied with what we got. He even added that seeing as we got 2 cappucinos at breakfast we should consider ourselves doubly privileged to have stayed at his hotel. Needless to say , we did not get an apology or amendment to the bill to compensate for a very bad experience. Do not stay at this hotel, even if you are offered discount rates, it definitely is not worth it.