MarWolve

From reading comments on TripAdvisor, I've gotten the impression that there is a regulation that mandates the time of year when hotel air conditioning is turned off. Can this be true? If so, does anyone know when that date is in 2008? I'm in Italy last two weeks of Sept. and really like air conditioning. Thanks!

Luisah

I don't know if there is an actual mandate about a/c and heat but I was in Italy in October a few years ago and there was no heat. One of the hotel owners told me hotels don't turn on the heat until November but could if it became extremely cold. It was pretty chilly, especially at night.

I hope someone responds about the a/c.

zeppole

I don't think there is, but in Italy, so much is governed from town to town, you never know! Or it could be that the power companies have restrictions on capacity, but I doubt that.

What is true is that in some towns, the winter heat is supplied by the town, governed by a central switch. That way everybody in town is guaranteed heat, but it isn't turned on by temperature, but by calendar, and you can't control the thermostat. If you want to install your own heat you can (there are private suppliers).

MarWolve,

you need to communicate with your hotel about whether or not air conditioning is avaliable in your room with a switch you control. Many hotel rooms have independent units, rather than central air in the building. (It means your room will be as cool as you like, but the breakfast room might be sticky in a heat wave).

If your hotel tells you they have central air, ask them if it is on in late September, and ask how hot it has to be before they use it (better to ask in Celsius).

ellenem

I don't think there's an actual mandate that hotels must turn air conditioning or heat on or off at a certain date, but rather that they are not required to supply it before or after a certain date.

I live in NYC and we have a similar law regarding heat in apartment buildings since it is usually controlled by the landlord. Landlords are not required to turn on the heat before a certain date. If there was an early cold spell, some landlords might not turn on the heat to save money since it wouldn't be legally required.

zeppole

ellenem,

I think the Italian situation differs from the New York one is that a town government actually controls the thermostat in many locations. I suspect the commune has it on the books when the heat is turned on and off.

Dukey

Since nobody knows for certain I suspect it may depend on the hotel, too.

If you have a particular hotel in mind I suggest you e-mail and ask THEM. I think you'd probably get an honest answer but that "answer" might scare you to death.

Once, we asked a hotel in GERMANY about the presence/absence of air conditioning..their "answer" was: (I kid you not)..."The hotel does not need air conditioning because the guests can open the windows."

zeppole

Makes sense to me!

nona1

and me

november_moon

Yep - although it may not have been the answer you were looking for, it was a valid answer none the less. If a person can get fresh air from outside and the climate is not overly warm or humid, then there really isn't any need to pipe in air.

logos999

and me! .
Why the heck would that answer be funny.

suz123nj

I think it depends on the hotel. One year in Rome one hotel at which we stayed only turned in on from 10Am to Midnight. Another hotel at the same time of the year had it on full time.

quokka

To me the answer makes perfect sense, too.
Why waste energy?

As for Italy, there is a law concering heating which obliges landlords to turn it on from November 1.

nytraveler

We were stuck in a hotel in Venice once - now under different ownership - that advetised AC. And they did have AC. from 8am to 10 pm - to cool off the staff. Then they turned in off at 10 pm - so you were awake all night sweating.

It took us 2 days to figure this out - since they first gave us all sorts of stories about it being broken, or switched off accidentally. Finally, a group us talked at breakfast and realized what tey were doing. We demanded the manager - and told him if they didn;t leave the AC on at night - we would 1) leave and 2) file a complaint about deceptive advertising. It stayed on the other 3 nights we were there.

dutyfree

The hotel that I stay at on my layovers in Rome and Milan only turns the A/C on AFTER May 15th-its been this ways for years and needless to say, its horrible when they get their heatwaves in late March or April.
The hotel that we stay at in Paris and Frankfurt turns the A/C off between 2am and 6am-our crews were always getting up at 230am and thought it was interesting until we talked to the front desk and figured out that we were all dying of heat stroke by that time.

CasaDelCipresso

Where will you be? I'm usually thinking about heating by the last weeks in Sept.

The average high temp. in Naples for the entire month of Sept. is 79f and the average low is 59f - those last two weeks will most likely be much cooler than that (since the average would include the first two weeks, which are usually very warm). Weather is beautiful (usually) in Sept. - I've never stayed in a hotel that had the AC on at the end of the month...only ones I know would/could would be the chains, like Sheraton, where you can control your own (don't know many hotels, but I have stayed in a couple Starwood properties that had thermostats in the rooms in Italy)

zeppole

Four star London hotels I've stayed in have either not air conditioned their common areas, making the halls, elevators and breakfast room steam baths, or turned off the AC between midnight and six.

I once stayed in a cheap hotel in SF that turned off the heat between midnight and 5am, and when it came back on, the pipes banged like Balinese drummers at ear-bursting decibels.

calabia

I believe it's true (not sure if law but do know that some places do not run a/c or even have a/c). Remember, Rome is an old city and some of these places were built before a/c became the norm as it is today. You'll need to ask which is what I did when I planned my trip to Europe (this also applies to other countries outside of Italy). Someone told me to inquiry about a/c and elevators, two things we Americans take for granted and don't think about asking because we assume the amenity is provided when planning a trip to Europe (unless you can afford to stay at a 5-star hotel)!

I was in Rome last year this time. We actually rented a 2-bdr, 2-bath apartment for four days for about 500 Euro in total and paid an additional 5 Euros per day for air conditioning near the Via Veneto. I made sure that the apartment had an elevator as well since my parents were with my husband and I and did not want them to climb up 6 flights of stairs with heavy luggage. Since we did day trips and did sightseeing during the day, the a/c was off. When we got back in the evening, we turned it on and kept it on until we left the apartment the next day. Doesn't make sense to leave it on when you're not going to be in the room. Renting was the best way to go in Rome (vs. hotel which would have been really expensive for four days--we would have had to reserve two rooms for almost $500US per day vs. the $750US we spent for four days in an apartment--and a nice one at that!). I know this is off track of the a/c inquiry but we had a great experiencing with renting that we're thinking of doing it again when we're in Tokyo this fall. Don't know if this helps but it's my 2 cents! Enjoy your trip to Italy.

PeaceOut

We had A/C in our hotel rooms in Rome and Florence, with controls inside our room for our use. Both rooms had systems that turned off the electricity when you left the room.

You'd have to turn it off with a key, in order to take the room key with you. I thought that was a reasonable way to manage it, so the hotels weren't paying huge bills when people left their rooms with the A/C cranking.

wyostiv

Don't know if the windows answer was all that "funny," but opening hotel windows can be a problem if there's a lot of street noise or insects. And it can be futile if temperatures and/or humidity are above average. Of course, heat and humidity won't kill most tourists, and one can certainly survive in such conditions, uncomfortably.

But who wants to just "survive" while on vacation? We don't usually stay in places with A/C when visiting most parts of Europe, but we have had some very miserable nights and groggy, lost days because of the lack of A/C.

ellenem

On a late-October trip to Rome, there was an unseasonal heat wave. Our room has an air conditioner mounted high on the wall, but no way to turn it on or off. Even though it was uncomfortably warm (mid 80s and humid), we were told it was after the season so no air conditioning. We opened the windows wide during the night. I remember this breakfast conversation with my companion:

"Did you hear that cart go by on the cobblestones last night?"

"You mean the wire cart full of empty glass bottles?"

Otherwise it was a thankfully quiet street.