fmkgb

Any current reviews of this property?

more4less

I stayed there a month ago.

My opinion is very similar to previous reports but I have to add that both wi-fi and wired internet were not working properly in my room, so I ended using the free computers in the business center.

I had a room at the end of a corridor so it was not noisy at all.

The property it is OK if you are going for business but I would never recommended for tourism.

dwcatty

Interesting comment. Can you elaborate? Or anyone else?

We are looking at five nights in Florence in late May and have just two choices with Hhonors points, this property or the Hilton. The Hilton gets mixed reviews due to location and it's shuttle, while this property you take the city bus (which I enjoy) downtown. A five night stay here would be a savings of 40,000 points. Is the Hilton worth that much more (he asks, knowing "worth" is a relative term)?

bamboola

I stayed at both properties in June 2010 and liked the HGI a little better. It's a short walk to the bus station and more convenient because we weren't tied to the shuttle schedule. Also, I thought the staff at the HGI were friendlier and we had a very nice room. Breakfast was good, but there is no Exec. Lounge. This is definitely more of a business hotel.

As for the Metropole, the Exec. Lounge is nice and the views were beautiful. The Lounge has both an indoor and an outdoor part. It was at this lounge that I learned to eat cheese with honey, and it was a delicious combination. I also enjoyed the Fernat Blanca, which I first tried in Buenos Aires where it is mixed with Coke. The attendant at the Metropole lounge was appalled.

We had a beautiful corner room at the Metropole. Being on a higher floor, we had lovely views. However, even as a Diamond, we were denied access to the spa. And the hotel ran out of shampoo so that for two days it didn't include shampoo during the daily housekeeping. Fortunately, I had brought my own.

If you have an AMEX, you could do four nights at one and one night at the other.

dwcatty

Thanks. That was the kicker - we'd rather pay a Euro or two and ride the bus than have our day revolve around catching the hotel shuttle. We realise we miss free drinks at the Exec lounge, but the best days on our trip to Paris and the ADT last year we were out until 10 or 11 at night and missed the free booze anyway.

As for 4 nts in 1 and 1 in the other, great idea but Mrs. dwcatty humors me with hotel hopping here at home, and the thought of 5 nights in one hotel is almost unheard of in our house (we must be FTers!). We'll change hotels when we change cities. Here's our itinerary:

CLT-EWR-FRA-VCE in C thanks to USAir's Grand Slam

Venice Molino Stucky - 2 nights with Q4FNs.
HGI Florence Novoli - 5 nights, 120,000 points
Rome Marriott Grand Flora - 2 nights, 80,000 points
Rome airport hotel - yet to be booked

FCO-EWR-CLT C class

A fairly typical FTer on vacation, I'm sure.

santarosaflyer

I stayed at the Metropole a couple of years ago. My room was upgraded and nice but I saw a 'regular' room. Very small. The bed was hard as a brick. I did not sleep well.

Lounge - nice

One time I took the shuttle back. Fortunately I was there early. I got a seat. When the shuttle is full, that's it. This was the last shuttle back and about eight people did not get seats and had to find their own way back. There is a public bus which I took one night because the shuttle ends earlier that I wanted to go back.

I am returning this year - so I am staying at the HGI. I can carry my own minis of alcohol.

mareh

I stayed at the HGI in 2010 and had a very pleasant experience. We arrived a day later than planned due to the "ash cloud" issue. The hotel was very accomodating. We rode the bus that stopped near the hotel, and only used cabs from the airport upon arrival and to the train station upon departure.

more4less

Sorry dwcatty, I did not see your post before but as you are going in May still I can comment.
I consider it is not convenient for tourism because very far away from all the main sites, so no comfortable if you want to go back to your room during the day to rest, drop shopping bags,...Apart from that, it is a nice HGI.

Enjoy your holiday!

ernie8575

I have stayed at the Hilton there several times and there is bus stop in front of the hotel or very near it that goes down to the train station so you are not limited to the shuttle and its set times. We took that bus back to the hotel after the shuttle quit running.

SimpleManToo

The Florence Novoli is located out of the hustle and bustle of Florence in a University setting with shops near by. You just take a simple bus ride in and back. There is a little walking. I liked it as it gave me a perspective of being outside of town and tourists. We went in 2010 and found it to be a perfectly acceptable no thrills HGI with good service and a good restaurant.^

dwcatty

Like a snowball rolling downhill gathering speed and size, our stay at the Hilton Garden Inn Florence-Novoli last week began poorly and got worse. There was no single factor that caused us to feel this way, just a series of little things that continued day after day. By the time we left I may never have been so happy to check out of a hotel.

This is also mostly a purely personal post. I realize many of my comments are over small matters; for me the cumulative effect was this is a property I will not return to and would not recommend. Others likely will not feel the same nor react the same as I did.

The Hilton Garden Inn Florence-Novoli is not located in downtown Florence but requires either a bus or cab ride to get to the property. I knew this ahead of time, and frankly this fact had little if any influence on my feelings about the property. We took a cab to and from the train station on our arrival and departure with our luggage, rode the bus the other four days we were there, and never had any transportation issues.

We were in Florence as tourists, and would depart the hotel in mid morning and not return until late at night. The purpose of our use of the property was to sleep and bathe. By the end of the week we were dreading returning to what I began to refer to as "our cell."

Walking up the short street from the bus stop one day I remarked to Mrs. dwcatty that the exterior architecture of the property reminded me of a prison guard tower. The prison theme continued with the buzzing sound that emanated from the room’s door latch after we unlocked it with the key, and the lowering of the electronic blackout curtain over the window gave the room the feel of a bomb shelter. To be fair, the blackout curtain performed its function remarkably well.

The room’s interior design was gulag inspired. The walls were solid white and completely devoid of art. All the horizontal surfaces were glass, with brushed metallic supports. There were three small safe deposit box sized drawers, two on short stands on either side of the bed and the third under the glass topped table opposite the bed. The bed itself was on a raised platform with sharp corners at the feet and was open underneath. The floor was wood with not a single piece of carpet. The entire décor was, I became convinced, designed so that I could not conceal the tools for my escape.

The bath can be best described as functional. The proximity of the toilet to the short, half glass wall next to the shower left no room for modesty. You had to reach through the shower cascade to adjust the water, so that you might either scald or freeze your arm as you attempted to regulate the temperature before climbing into the shower. The side wall of the tub was the highest I think I have ever seen, and while the huge shower head was delightful, the half glass wall did not prevent water from puddling on the bathroom floor. The sink basin was larger than the 19” wall mounted TV (the only thing on the bed room walls) and must have required running 2 gallons to get the water 2” deep to shave.

There was what we thought at first was a nice feature in the entry way in that there was an overhead light that turned on automatically when you entered the room with your key; however there was no switch for this light, it simply turned itself off after about 30 seconds. Thus when I left the room early one morning while Mrs. dwcatty was still asleep, both the door buzzer and automatic light conspired to disturb her slumber on my return, no matter how quiet I might have been. The room’s light switches may have made sense, although after five days we had little success in figuring out what that might have been.

As a Diamond member I was given a code for free wi-fi. We discovered that the only place we could get the most minimal signal to use our tablet was sitting on the toilet; there was no signal in the bedroom area. When using the hotel’s washer and dryer one morning I took the tablet with me to use while I waited on the laundry, however there was no signal in the basement.

We packed light this trip as we rode the train twice between cities and did not want to have to lug oversized suitcases. The washer was such a small size that we had to do three loads of laundry rather than two. While the desk clerks told me they would add a charge to our room for the special coins needed to use the washer and dryer, they did not say how much and it was my fault that I did not ask. I was later surprised at checkout to discover they were 5 Euro each; thus it cost 10 Euro for me to run a load of laundry. For that price they could have washed and folded my clothes for me. (I later discovered this was the going rate for laundry at HGIs in Italy, but at the time of checkout in Florence this was just another antagonizing occurrence.)

The front desk clerks we encountered were uneven in their responses and attitudes. While a few were helpful and gracious, others were smug. We had just left the Molino Stucky in Venice where every person we dealt with, from the doorman to the gift shop clerk to the folks restocking the executive lounge bent over backwards to make our stay enjoyable. In Florence we felt like we were being merely tolerated.

The entire hotel, from the exterior appearance to the staff to the room had a sterile, unwelcoming feel to it. We did not like being in the room, we did not look forward to coming back to the property at night, and ultimately we were glad to depart. This may have been the least enjoyable stay I have ever had at a Hilton property.

jabez

Thanks for the review. Next time try the Hilton. I've stayed there a number of times ,and think it is well worth the points.

houstonhusker

Just as a data point, I stayed at this property last week on points and I'm an HH Gold. The hotel overall is ok. It is a very modern design and not particularly our taste but it was functional. The best part had to be the wi-fi...it was the fastest we experienced on our 12 day trip through Italy. The breakfast was just ok...decent, but nothing to write home about. We took a taxi to the center of town each day because we had an infant and didn't want to deal with the bus and stroller. The taxi ranged from 8 to 14 Euro depending on time and day. There was a nice supermarket just up the street that we used to stock up on a few supplies needed for the remainder of our trip. Overall, the hotel and staff were just ok but I would stay here again if I was in Florence and using points.

Argonott

We just completed a five night award stay here. It is a nice, modern hotel hotel. The rooms have a very modern design, which we liked, but some others have commented about not liking. The hotel staff were friendly and helpful. As Diamond members, we received free breakfast, and the buffet was good but not special--typical mix of hot and cold items. The bacon was raw by American tastes but seems to be the way they eat it there.

The biggest downside to the hotel is the location. It is in what appears to be a mixed use complex of condos, offices, and retail, but it appears largely empty and not completed. Probably hit by the economic downturn. There's not much retail close, other than a supermarket, and very few restaurants. You need to take a taxi or bus to the center of town for most meals. The hotel will call you a taxi, and they come very quickly. They cost 10-15 euros to downtown. There are two buses that come close. You buy bus tickets at the front desk for something like 1.2 euros. The buses can get very crowded and uncomfortable. They take 15-30 min to downtown, depending upon time of day. For this reason, we used a mix of taxis and buses. We did eat dinner at the hotel restaurant one night, as we were tired and didn't want to go back downtown. They food was acceptable but not as good as at restaurants in town, and was more expensive. The wife and I did enjoy a few drinks at the hotel bar, which was nicely appointed. The front desk did suggest a local restaurant that we enjoyed. It was a small family restaurant with basic but tasty local food that was very well priced. We'd recommend it, but there's not much else around.

Overall, it's a nice hotel, but the location isn't great. We'd hoped there would be more around it, and cabs and busses to downtown can get to be expensive or tiring.

anandrag

I am spending 27 hours in Florence next week on vaca. Doesn't sound like location of hotel is very conducive to tourism. Having to take bus to center of town doesn't seem very efficient.
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