Imhandlinit
April 7, 2024
We spent months planning our Tuscany + Rome trip to Italy and researched at least a dozen hotels in Florence before selecting. We chose the Relais Santa Croce for our two night stay over Easter weekend 2024. We arrived ahead of the standard checkin time and were pleased that our room was unexpectedly ready for us. The staff were all very welcoming and accommodating. On initial impression, our room (211) seemed fantastic. It was spacious and well appointed. We were shown the thermostat controls (which are a bit dated) and told that "auto" was best; however, it was not at all made clear that air conditioning is only available in certain months due to government regulations (be sure to check before your stay). That evening, we noticed that despite setting the temperature to 18C (~68F), the display continued to read 25C (~82F). We never felt any air circulating at all... no fan, no A/C. Given that temps outside were a good 20-30 degrees cooler, we were shocked that the room remained so hot. Desperate to cool off, we opened the large windows not realizing that in addition to the cool air, we were also inviting in both an extraordinary amount of street noise and mosquitos. Until well after 2am, we were serenaded by car horns, emergency vehicles, motorbikes and loud voices from the busy street below. Given temps were in the 40s/50sF at night we hadn't expected a mosquito problem would prevent us from enjoying the fresh air. Our sleep, which had been thwarted by heat, was now also disrupted by buzzing and biting. In addition to challenges with regulating the room temperature, we also had problems with the toilet gurgling and not reliably flushing. The next morning, we complained. From a 5-star hotel, one expects better. In fact, we spent a single night in Florence the week before and had equally impressive accommodations, and the same problems with noise and mosquitos, for half the price. Had we known we were in for more of the same, we would not have opted for this higher priced option. In response to our complaint, the hotel did agree to move us to another room for our second night - this room was on a higher floor and overlooked a courtyard instead of the street; however, it was smaller and we still couldn't open the window due to the bugs. We requested a free-standing fan, which was provided along with a plug-in bug repellent. These items could have been furnished in our original room allowing us to enjoy the spaciousness of that room and not having the inconvenience of moving rooms during such a brief stay, but this was not suggested. For the inconvenience of a lost night of sleep and a room change, the hotel refused to make any accommodation on the room rate, though they did remove some minor incidental fees. On the up side, the included breakfast (buffet style) was very good; the location was convenient and the service was exceptional across the board (doormen, servers, reception) - there were even nice touches like champagne in the room. If stayi