Alamanni Hotel

It’s more like a Jolly 1BR apartment

You need to go fairly high-end in Italy before you see the "always new" gloss you expect in the cheapest American chain hotels. You also can’t expect a lot of personal space. However, the "Jolly Room" at the Alamanni delivers a quiet, well appointed, very spacious one-bedroom apartment for the very reasonable rate. You’re across the street from the main train station (which sits between you and downtown, necessitating detours) but the thick walls and windows keep out the noise. You get a bed and several fold-outs, a full kitchen, a giant bathroom with plenty of hot water and a real stand-up shower, and two adjustable air conditioners, at least one of which seems to work. Great place to drag yourself before or after a train ride. Downside is the service--don’t expect early check-in, since "2pm" means "2pm" and your early arrival is certainly "not their problem." You can stack luggage in a corner until the time is right. But this isn’t surprising at the price--service and amenities carry steep prices around here.

Great location and good deal for the price

We stayed in a Jolly room, which was an apartment about a block from the main hotel. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of space and the completeness of the kitchenette. However, the mattress needed replaced and the shower curtain holder was coming out of the wall. There was only one set of keys, which made it difficult for me to go to my meetings and my friend to go exploring. This made for some very long waits at the gate, since room buzzer at the gate didn’t ring in our room.

Stay here if you like the sauna

PROS: hotel is just up a short hill away from the station on the right. -is about 30 mins walk from most places; all the attractions in Florence is accessible by walking. CONS: -terrible service. Our hotel room had AC but was more like the sauna room. The AC was pumped up to the max but was hardly blowing any air at all and the air that was blowing was warm like the outside’s summer heat! Our small travel alarm clock/temperature meter was reading 29*C overnight. -I had asked if we could at least get a mosquito repellent plug so we can open the balcony door and don’t get mosquito bites everywhere by morning... that seemed impossible for them to accommodate. -Our bathroom light also busted - same thing, nothing was done. We showered in the dark. -hotel’s situated on the 2nd floor of a very old and rundown building. There is an elevator but it’s very small and slow -with luggages, you’d have to make 2 or more trips. We had pre-paid through Expedia so to move to another hotel would’ve been more money and higher rate. We sucked it up as we only had 3 nights there but from the reviews I read prior to booking, it seemed okay. Had I known better, I would not have booked let alone stayed at Hotel Alammani.

Traveler's tip on saving a few bucks

They offer breakfast for something like 8 euros -- it’s expensive for what you get which is mostly cold breakfast (croissant, toast, etc). You can walk down the street when you’re ready to start your day and grab a sandwich at one of the grocery stores or snack stands for 2-3 euros.