marymarathons

We are considering a one night stay in Florence at Istituto Gould. We have been offered a 4 bedded room with wc and shower for 23 euros each. Has anyone stayed at Istituto Gould- apparently it is south of the river not far from the Pitti Palace. Wondering about cleanliness, security? Is this close enough to walk to train station?

WillTravel

There are some positive reviews here:
http://www.bugeurope.com/reviews/Ita...t055/index.htm

I stayed close by. I did walk back to the train station, uphill, and it was fine, but it probably is about a mile or so. Check http://www.mappy.com .

You can take a bus or a taxi quite easily.

rkkwan

That seems relatively far from center Florence. Try do a search for quad room on activehotels.com and venere.com. You can probably get some more convenient for not much more.

fishee

Hotel Europa has quad rooms and is very well-located. I wasn't too happy with this hotel but it's cheap and clean (and many standard rooms even have a partial view of the Duomo.) Family that runs the hotel is very nice.

http://www.webhoteleuropa.com/old/english/Eng-Rates.htm

rex

question fvor rkk... (sorry to dredge up this old post)...

Have you used activehotels.com - - seem to do business also as hotels.uk.com or at least that's what the booking page says.

I am going to post a question about this website/company separately, but this post came up with your citing a suggestion to use their site.

Thanks in advance for any replies... and...

Best wishes,

Rex

rkkwan

Yes, rex, I used activehotels.com for my trip to Italy in December 2005. It is owned by Priceline.com, but it works like venere.com and other European-based booking sites.

Read the cancellation policy and payment information carefully, as those things totally depend on <b>each individual hotel</b>. Activehotels simply do the booking for you - they don't make the policies.

Another one I've used is booking.com for several hotels in Germany for my dad in April. Same deal, no problem whatsoever on the various times I've used these booking services.

rex

Thanks, rk... I went ahead with the booking - - I found other citations offering up their name here; and I _did_ read the cancellation policy carefully (no penalty if canceled more than 48 hours prior). Called the hotel afterwards also, asking for confirmation by e-mail on the availability of the bed we are seeking (160 or 180 cm; not that dreaded two 90 cm beds &quot;pushed together&quot; to make &quot;un grand lit&quot. Receptionist there seemed to have no reaction (negative nor positive) when I said that I booked through activehotels.com - - I have not received the e-mail from the hotel yet. I'll post here if I have any particularly good or bad experience with the company.

Appreciate your reply very much.

By the way, for those who are interested, the hotel is Marceau Bastille in Paris 75012. The sdavings is modest (260 euro _with breakfast_ versus rack rate of 250 plus 20 euro for each breakfast) - - only 30 euro savings per couple...

...still, 30 euro is 30 euro.

rex

Well, initially discouraging news regarding our attempts to book this particular hotel through activehotels.com - -

In two rounds of e-mail, so far, I feel like we are getting a bit of double speak, on the matter of assuring us the &quot;double&quot; (queen) bed (160 cm) rooms we request...

&lt;&lt; Nous le ferons avec plaisir tout notre possible pour vous donner des
chambres double si nous en avons la possibilit&eacute;. &gt;&gt;

&quot;We will do everything we possibly can... if we have the possibility of it&quot;

!!!

...and they refer directly to the fact that we went through activehotels.com

&lt;&lt; Seulement par l'interm&eacute;diaire de ce site de r&eacute;servation en ligne nous ne pouvons vous garantir un grand lit. &gt;&gt;

My interpretation, though I will try writng back to them one more time (I will try all in english this time, maybe there are nuances, in language barrier that I am not conveying, or not understanding)...

...is that they are essentially blackmailing us, saying as long as we have this promotional rate through activehotels.com they cannot guarantee our choice of &quot;un grand lit&quot;.

Leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth...

Not exactly the fault of activehotels.com - - but a consequence of their negotiating the rate down with the hotel... bad business decision on the hotel's part, in my opinion.

As one final aside... _both_ activehotels.com and bookings.com are priceline &quot;brands&quot; - - bookings.com is more upfront about it (it's at the bottom of every web page on their site), though activehotels is not all secretive about it, on http://www.activereservations.com/ho.../en/about.html

rex

Re-reading this, it seems to need clarification... the &quot;two rounds of e-mail&quot; are with the hotel itself - - niot with activehotels.com