Hotel Berchielli

We stayed three nights. Our room was very large and had a river view. Excellent location close to everything. Also a easy walk across the river to many great restaurants. The breakfast was very good as well

The good:
Excellent location within easy walking distance of the Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio, and Uffizi Gallery. Also walkable to the Duomo.
Clean facilities, friendly staff, free breakfast (that’s actually fairly decent!)
Very affordable compared to other hotels in the area.
The bad:
The hotel rooms are very, very, very outdated. It’s not dirty… just extremely old and tired looking. They probably should have remodelled 10 years ago.
Regardless, I think we overall had a better experience than the rest of my family on our large group trip to Florence. My parents paid twice as much and got a room half the size at Gallery Hotel Art, while my sister had an amazing room but paid 4x as much at Portrait Firenze, which are all hotels on the same street at Hotel Berchielli.

A really great place to stay while visiting Florence! The staff is extremely helpful at any time of day or night. The room was air conditioned well and very clean and comfortable. Great views of the city across the river and so close to the ponte vecchio. I would absolutely recommend this place. Only negative is that if you want a late night drink (or ice which is what needed) it’s not possible once they close the bar. Also, no iron in the room. Other than those small things, was a wonderful hotel to stay at while in Florence!

Pros: Good location.. . annnnd breakfast included.
Cons: Need help with your bags? Too bad. The four men at the front desk are too busy supervising each other to give you a hand.
Have a question about the city? Too bad. Dont inconvenience them with your petty questions.
Have a rental car? Too bad. No parking. $ 35 across the street per night. (and don’t ask them where to find parking, petty.)
Like to take a shower? Good luck! Baby bath tub. Pain in the a**.
Rooms, meh.
All in all you get less than you pay for. Not that this place was high priced but I’ve had better customer service at much cheaper hotels. We stayed in 6 hotels throughout the main cities of Italy and this one was by far the most uncomfortable and unwelcoming.

Probably one of the best hotels we stayed at throughout Europe. Reasonably priced and in a great location to most everything you would want to see in Florence. The Berchielli is walking distance to all sorts of restaurants and shopping from high end to mid level. It’s also close to many attractions in Florence such as the Piazza del Duomo, Pizza della Signoria, Piazza Vecchio and the Uffizi Museum to name a few. The hotel is located right on the waterfront overlooking the Arno River so you get some spectacular views. We had a 2 story room with a private patio. The room itself was comfortable and spacious but far from modern. Overall it was clean and well kept. The free breakfast buffet and free Wi-​Fi is also a nice touch. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. I would certainly recommend staying at the Berchielli

Lobby is OK. I struggled with my luggage and several employees stood and watched me. The room on the 6^th floor was too stuffy and with the window open, the street noise made it impossible to sleep. The room was dingy and tiny. They offered to switch me to an interior room but it was equally grim. I switched hotels.

Good location everything you need to see is walking distance, big rooms and can’t beat the price free breakfast and WIFI.

Good location. However I could not find the place even with GPS because of all the one way street. They were nice to send someone to direct me to hotel and get the luggage.
Place was little but noisy but it’s understandable considering the location.
I would stay here again.

This hotel is located in the heart of Florence — great location near Ponte Vecchio and great shopping. The hotel’s prices are reasonable for this area. Although it’s apparently a four star hotel (by Italian standards, not American), you wouldn’t have guessed it was above three stars. We arrived at 2:15pm and were told we needed to come back in an hour to check-​in. In general, the front desk staff seem preoccupied to be very helpful to us, we were barely given a welcome greeting when we were checking in, almost as if we were inconveniencing them. We had to inquire about the WiFi, safe deposit box, etc. They didn’t even mention the breakfast which was included for all hotel guests (according to tripadvisor reviews it’s on the 2^nd floor from 7−11am). I’ve never felt so unwelcomed at a hotel in my life.
We were on the fourth floor so the noise from the street was not an issue. However, the mornings were very loud with people checking out (I presume) and slamming doors — nothing the hotel can really do about this. However, the maid staff vacuuming the hallways and floors (mind you this is all before 9am) is something they can prevent.
Further, one morning we had a maintenance person DRILLING and changing a light fixture right outside our door for over an hour (again, well before 9am). I understand work needs to get done but it’s a bit unnerving to be woken up in this way. Also, the light fixture was not an urgent light fixture (e.g., like an EXIT sign), it was just a normal one that lights up the hallway and was actually next to another one that was working. Again, it’s in the morning and surrounding light fixtures were working so this was a non-​urgent issue that could be done in the afternoon once guests are awake. Unacceptable in my opinion.
Now onto the rooms. The rooms themselves are very large (by European standards) and bathrooms and bathtubs are adequate sizes as well. I was pleased with the linens as they were all adequate for a hotel of this class. The hotel itself has three entrances and a hotel bar. The wireless internet is available at no charge (just be sure to inquire about a username and password for each device upon checking in) and the speed was adequate.
The hotel and rooms are seemingly clean, with the exception of about 10 BUGS (mosquitoes, ants, spiders — even found some in the BED! sheets) we found in our fourth floor room upon arrival (I thus slept in long sleeves and long pants to avoid getting bitten). It was the most uncomfortable and sleepless stay I’ve ever had at a hotel.
Bottom line, I had high hopes for Hotel Berchielli and unfortunately, they did not live up to them. I wouldn’t stay here again and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else. I think you would have better luck paying just a bit more and staying at a reputable hotel like the St. Regis or Westin just up the street.
Tip:
Bring bug spray as there tends to be lots of spiders, mosquitoes, ants in the room (we killed over 10 on our first night and at least a couple each night after) — our room was also next to the garden court area which most probably contributed to the problem. We kept the windows closed the ENTIRE time to prevent any more bugs from getting in and kept our room door closed (even put the «do not disturb sign» up so the maids wouldn’t clean our room and subsequently leave the room door open, allowing the mosquitoes from the hallway to enter our room — it was such a pain. Further, the maid staff does open windows to «air out the rooms» which probably contributes to all of the bugs.
When we complained to the front desk staff within an hour of checking in, they told us that apparently the hotel was all booked up for the night (not sure how true this was as the hotel seemed only half full at best) and the front desk staff wouldn’t allow us to switch rooms, but instead gave us a bottle of bug spray. How generous.
Further, the front desk staff did not offer to switch our rooms after the first night when they were apparently «booked» or remedy the problem in anyway (or even check-​up with us to verify the outcome of the problem). It’s obvious that they know that bugs are a problem in their hotel or they wouldn’t have bug spray on hand. It’s also obvious that they knew the problem wouldn’t be solved, which is why they LEFT us a bottle of bug spray.
This hotel and the manager will not take responsibility for any of the flaws with our stay and instead created lies to cover up their mistakes (claiming an EXIT sign was being fixed, etc.) and blamed us by accusing us of leaving windows open and saying that we needed to go above his staff and go directly to him to complain (he obviously does not have much faith in his own staff’s ability to solve guest’s problems). This would never happen at any other hotel. They solve the problem right away, no questions asked. I wouldn’t waste your time with these clowns, stay elsewhere.