I am looking for affordable but decent hotels (good location is more important than comfort)to stay at in Florence, Venice and Rome. Any suggestions if I wish to spend no more than 225 Euros a night? Any suggestions are greatly welcomed!

I really enjoyed the Locarno in Rome and the Pensione Accademia in Venice. We walked to all major sites from them, and the areas were not as busy as some of the main tourist areas.
cheers,
CC

Florence Hotel Casci (www.hotelcasci.com)

Special weekend offers at Cesari (in Rome) - - Jan/Feb/Mar; Jun/Jul/Aug and Nov/Dec - - see http://www.venere.com/cgi/ihr/offert...ef=0&lg=en for details.

Best wishes,

Rex

In Venice, La Calcina (lacalcina.com) and Locanda Orseolo (locandaorseolo.com) should also be within your budget depending on season, room size etc. La Calcina is near Pensione Accademia alraedy mentioned. Locanda Orseolo is closer to San Marco & has been receiving rave reviews. Look at tripadvisor.com for reviews & links. Venere.com is a popular website to "shop" hotels in Italy. Also ahve a look at the hotel section here on Fodors.

I second Capt_Canuck's recommendations. We also stayed at Hotel Hermitage in Florence. Might be a few euros more than 225. Near Ponte Vecchio. Great staff. Nice rooms. Rooftop breakfast (and wine drinking in the afternoon) if you go between May and early October. I think the cheaper rooms don't face the Arno, but the location is great, and I believe you can see the Duomo from the rooms on the other side.

locanda barbarigo in Venice - not too expensive.

locanda starlite in florence - inexpensive, 5 mts from train station and walking distance to major sights like Academia and Duomo - and shared bathroom which was very clean - there are two shared bathrooms.

Rome - stayed in an apartment in Campo di Fior which is center to all the attractions but cost was a little high but we split it 4 ways - plus beds sucked. no hot water - got all these hotels off of venere.com. Try eurocheapo.com too.

I have a FAVORITE in Florence and one I also highly recommend in Venice, both of which SHOULD be in your price range (they were before the dollar fell!).

Hotel Paris in Florence - one of my favorite hotels.

Most of the rooms have high ceilings and interesting architectural features like frescoes on the ceiling or exposed brick archways (I don't know if they ALL have them, but poked my head in several doors and they were all as nice as ours). The room also had handpainted wood furniture and huge burgundy taffeta-like drapes pulled back around the windows. The hallways & breakfast room are similarly nice, with spectacular frescoes in the breakfast room.
http://www.florenceby.com/paris/pages/apart.htm

(This site does have a picture of one room that doesn't look very nice - when I booked, I wanted the one with the arch over the bed, but it was booked, and they assured me I'd like the one It also has a great location - just two minutes away from the Duomo, on a very quiet side street just off a main shopping street.
they chose, and I did - so you may want to specify).

We paid, I believe, $150 US in February of 2003. I can?t remember which website I used to find the best rate, but it was not through florenceby.

Good luck!

Venice: Locanda Art Deco

http://www.veniceby.com/locandaartdeco/index.html

A lovely hotel off Campo Saint Stefano, just 5 ? 10 minutes to San Marco. Many of the rooms have exposed beams, and the bathrooms are all modern. A great deal for Venice ? good location, good price (about $125 US for a double including breakfast and tax in October 2002) and charm, too. Again, I got a better rate NOT through the veniceby site.


Good luck!

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful suggestions and advice. I wish I could take you with me to lead the way!

"Thanks to everyone for your wonderful suggestions and advice. I wish I could take you with me to lead the way!"

What makes you think you can't? I think we're all available to go.

We stayed at the Albergo Firenze in Florence in 2000. It is about 2 blocks from the Duomo in the pedestrian zone, so it's pretty quiet. We had a large room with 4 beds. It was about $100/night at that time. There was a nice room with two beds that had a view of the Duomo.

For Rome, we're staying at Residenza Canali ai Coronari at a rate of 165E per day. Also check on Hotel Julia.

In Venice, we're deciding between Locanda Barbarigo and Locanda Antico Fiore.

I've only been twice to Venice and stayed at Pensione La Calcina both times.

A real gem of a hotel in a good central location but a tiny bit off the beaten path on the Guidecca canal but easy walk to San Marcos etc. Nice breakfast, helpful staff. www.lacalcina.com

Venice: We stayed at Locanda San Trovaso, and enjoyed our stay. The owner (Mark) was super helpful, which really made a difference. Quiet location, cute place, reasonable price.

Florence: We stayed at the Hotel Maxim, which is right in the center of town on the main street. We got a room in their new annex, which was very basic, but clean. One of the nicest bathrooms on our entire trip. It was a great deal for the location. We were right around the corner from the Duomo.

Rome: We stayed at the Hotel Santa Prassede, which was a 5-10 minute walk from the Termini. We took long walks to the Colosseum, Forum, and other sights. The hotel had been recently remodeled, but I wasn't thrilled with it. Our room was on a busy street side and kind of dark. But the price was good, and they had laundry service, which helped us a lot. If I do Rome again, I will pay more money and get a fancier room in a more central location. In that city, I think it's worth it to do so.