travelphile

I've looked at many on old threads, but Milan doesn't get much play on the board(dates are Oct 28-30, need two rooms).

Currently Hotel Gritti is looking the best, but rooms/baths are said to be TINY. Hotel Berna, Spadari and Demidorff all over 200EU that weekend. Hotel Star looks great but is 170 EU, we'd like to not spend more than 150EU. If no better suggestions come up I may email and ask for deal with cash (worth a try?).

Hotel Speronari sounds great from Rick Steve's descrpition, but has no website and I'm wary of going totally unseen - anyone stayed there??


Other thoughts welcome! I've played around on Venere and Trip advisor, but often someone hear has something great to recommend that I wouldn't find on eithe of those!

faredolce

Hi travelphile! This may not mean anything, but a good friend of mine travels to Milan about 6 times a year and he always, always stays at the Gritti. He loves that hotel. If they have a room in your price range, you may want to snap it up. Milan can be a tough town for hotel rooms in the fall - lots of trade fairs.

SRS

Take a look at Hotel Straf. We stayed there for a night this past May. It is ultra modern (concrete walls, etc,) and we loved it. It is a very new hotel - I think in the last year or two.

I just ran your dates and came up with a standard room for 160.

It is about a block from the Duomo.

If you want to know more about it, I am happy to answer questions.

Best wishes,
Sally

SRS

The website is www.straf.it.

BTilke

Whenever I am in Milan on business, I stay at the Jolly Hotel President, a short walk from the Duomo. It's your basic business class hotel, you won't be overwhelmed by its ambience, but the service is good, rooms are comfortable and you should be able to find rooms in your price range.
Generally, however, I find hotels in Milan, except at the top range (like the Bulgari) are not as good as equivalent hotels in other cities--that is, I've stayed in 4-star hotels in Milan that probably would have been categorized 3-star in Paris. So don't expect *too* much from your hotel.
One of the things I liked best about the Jolly is that it's around the corner from a terrific restaurant, Mauro's on via Collontta (or Collinetti, I forget which). Warm welcome, good service, excellent food=--they served the best seafood salad I've ever had.

eliztrav

Try the Hotel Lloyd. It is within walking distance of the Duomo, and you can sometimes get good weekend and/or August rates. It is a business type hotel, too, in style. Rooms have that Marriott look. But, it was pleasant and the bathroom was enormous. Good buffet breakfast was included in our weekend rate several years ago. Regular rates are probably higher than you'll want, but they do frequently have specials.

travelphile

Thanks to all for the ideas - not much time to check them at work today, but will when I get home tonight.

I believe the Jolly hotels are popular in Ireland as well BT.

SRS - I would love to experience that, but I can tell you DH would balk - sigh, difficult men!

faredolce - That is great to know about the Gritti.

Eliztrav - there isn't a direct website for the Lloyd is there? I'd like to know more about the 'suite' Venere is offering, but 3 google searches don't give me a direct website, only discounters.

subcon

i've stayed at the gritti and can recommend it highly...

as i recall the room was substantially larger than some other equivalently priced european hotels (particularly for italy). it was immaculately clean and rather nicely if not lavishly furnished.

contrary to complaints on tripadvisor.com, it is NOT hard to find if one simply plans ahead and checks a map. for christsake, it's only a block or so off the piazza del duomo (fascade side).

if the price is as competitive as it was a couple of years ago, i'd snap up a reservation now!

eliztrav

travelphile: I'm not certain about whether the Lloyd Hotel has a separate website. Now that I think about it, I believe I did go through a booking service (the only time we did that) when we stayed there. Had no problems with that, and got a good weekend rate with breakfast in early August. But, I did manage to get the hotel's direct phone line in case we had difficulties (we were arriving close to midnight on a train from Rome) but never had to use it and had no trouble. They expected our late arrival as we gave that info at the time of our reservation.

eliztrav

I looked at venere's Lloyd info. We had a double room, not the suite, so I can't help you with that. I can tell you the picture of the double room is a fair representation of what we had. And, our bathroom was two thirds the size of our bedroom, and included a telephone! Our view was nothing to speak of....we did not spring for the "panoramic" view. I can also tell you one end of the breakfast room looks just like the photo....I can pick out our table next to the window! But the room is larger than it looks in the photo. We could easily walk to the Duomo. And, we had no trouble with taxis when we wanted one. If I could get a good rate, I would stay here again. Good a/c, too. I classified it as much like our city Marriott hotels which cater to the business & trade fair crowds but to tourists on weekends and August vacation month.

zozozo

I use hotel.de for many hotel reservations and just used your dates for a double for hotel Berna and the rates are 75 euro a night for a double including breakfast not 200. I really like this hotel because of all the extras they provide apples in lobby, free internet, tea coffee and snacks in reading area, free mini bar and really close to metro and train station and connections to Malpensa. I used hotel.de this year because I got a better rate than on hotel website. There was no problems on checking out. I got the 75 rate and it is a four star hotel and I also need 2 rooms and you can make requests which I did for a quiet room. Some reservation sites do not let you make additional requests. I did get a very quiet room.

Clark55

1st of all you're very lucky with your dates because there's no big fairs on at that time, this means you'll be able to find a 4 star hotel for a very low price, I would therefore go for the Dome area because your near everything.
Check out Tripadvisor for hotel reviews, choose a hotel then

Clark55

Sorry, don't know what happened my screen just went blank. Anyway as I was saying check out the hotel reviews on Tripadvisor, when you've decided on a hotel run it through google & check out all the various reservation web sites. these are nearly always cheaper than with the hotels directly, it pays to shop around because there is a lot of difference prices for the same hotel.
BTW I find Venere is always more expensive that the others.

roamer

We've stayed at the Speronari twice. It's on a quiet, small back street (taxi driver had a hard time finding it--doesn't look like a hotel from outside). Rooms are small, but clean, there is no elevator, staff friendly and helpful. It's right around the corner from the Duomo. Very popular since Rick Steve's mention, but we would stay there again, as we have a sentimental attachment--was the first hotel we stayed in our first time in Italy.

travelphile

Y'all have me so torn! I've been busy, but am checking again now. last night I checked the budget and got thinking I should just go with the Speronari, but I think Clark is right that with my dates and a discounter I can go cheaper with more stars! And I'm just learning it isn't always better to contact the hotels - I've heard there can be better service if you book through them, but many hotels in Milan seem to use the agents VERY regularly. I'll keep you all posted! Trav

This afternoon I was frustrated and was think

travelphile

Not sure about the end of that last message...

Tried to go with the Lloyd but request was denied as hotel is full (?). Am now getting TONS of offers from Venere.com partners. Will go back and try Berna, and one offer, the Windsor is also looking good.

The Gritti is 142EU a night, have offers for 90EU, so it doesn't seem like I need to spend the additional money.

subcon

in my earlier post i suggested that the gritti was fine when their rate was competitive (95 E)...

142 E does seem too steep for this basically businessman's hotel. i can only wonder as to what they've done to deserve that kind of increase...

travelphile

They must be doing ok subcon, as I haven't seen them listed on any of the discounters.

Hotel Dei Cavalieri is the newest choice, seems posh even and is $117 on a discounter site. I emailed the hotel directly and then will hopefully have a place! I thought I had that settled with the Lloyd - sigh.

julie_Colorado

The Hotel Speroni is fine (I liked the location) but it is very, very basic. And our rooms faced the road which was extremely noisy. We would stay again if we had a room facing the interior.

This is a hotel that is for people that don't mind a true one star, very plain hotel in a nice location with a helpful staff.

travelphile

Thanks Julie - I really did want to check out the Speronari, but for even less money, I ended up with the 4* Hotel Berna. Their website was over 200 EU, but they sent me a 79EU offer through Venere.com - so I couldn't pass it up!

Thanks to all for working through this 'with' me