Has anyone ever stayed here or have any knowledge of this hotel? We're planning a couple of days in Florence in September and have read varying reviews on review websites, but many of the reviews were not in english and I couldn't decipher whether they were favorable or not.

If my friends and I cannot find a place in Florence within our budget (we need 2 rooms - no more than 150 Euro per night per room), we thought about staying in a nearby town such as Fiesole and then making our way into Florence each day.

Any thoughts on this or experience with lodging without our budget? Thanks.

Have you tried the Relais Cavalcanti? It's right near the Ponte Vecchio and Uffizi, a very nice little hotel. I think it's in your price range. (I wrote a detailed trip report about it, posted here.)
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Thank you for the suggestion, Maureen. I've already contacted them and they have availability for my group. Now, I just need to catch up with the others to make sure these accommodations will suit them.

Reviews on tripadvisor.com and your report are very good and I appreciate your response.

Many, many thanks.

Note that the Relais Cavalcanti doesn't serve a breakfast, but instead offers a very nice dining room/kitchen for your use, with complimentary, self-serve hot drinks, cold milk in the mornings, packaged mini-sweet cakes. (There are mini-frigs in the rooms.) We used the pretty dining room one evening for a wine and cheese break.

The little Relais feels like being in a nice, private Italian home. We thought it was a very good value. Francesca, the Relais Cavalcanti owner/proprietor told us about her new business and about the building, which has been in her family for a long time. (In fact, I showed her Fodors Travel Talk, TripAdvisor, and how to search for comments about her Relais, so she could get some feedback.)
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Tourist House Ghiberti is 158 euros a night in September, but that rate includes a good breakfast.

www.touristhouseghiberti.com

No one in my group are breakfast eaters -- except for coffee -- so the Relais cavalcanti sounds perfect for us.

From what I have read, it sounds very similar in atmosphere to a place my husband and I stayed in Bath last year. No one on staff during the night, but we didn't need anyone - actually didn't WANT anyone hovering around -- we were perfectly content.

I really do appreciate the excellent advice from this forum. My friends are amazed at my level of travel expertise, and why shouldn't they be? I have the best advisors!

What rate did you get? We also received a ten percent discount for paying in cash Euros, which you can ask Francesca about.
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Correction: five percent discount for cash.
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120 Euro per night for the double and 150 Euro per night for the triple. We also have been offered a 5% discount for paying in cash, which we are planning to do. Our travel companions and we are very pleased.

I think that's the same price I paid for a twin room in May 2006. Be sure to report back about it, ok? Have fun. Florence is great. Did you read my trip report with restaurant recommendations? In particular, Trattoria Garga was good.
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Maureen, I haven't really paid a lot of attention to restaurant reviews at this point -- I've been so focused on finding a place for us to stay. Now that that's done, I will go back and read and make notes on restaurants.

Is there such a thing as too much research?

I'll definitely do a trip report when I get back.

Thanks again.