Spent three nights with my family of four in mid-July. Our room (four beds) was clean and comfortable. Shared bath was fine (there were two on our floor) but one toilet was missing a seat and the other did not have a lock on its door. The kitchen was certainly serviceable and good to have. Location is a good 20 minute walk to the Duomo, but of course we knew it was a bit of a walk. The immediate area was fine, felt safe walking to/from. Our room was a bit noisy with road traffic though. Staff was very helpful and friendly and of course the price was right.

We stayed here for two nights whilst in Florence. The location was fairly convenient, walking distance to the train station and the historic centre. Each dorm has a number of single beds, rather than bunk-beds, which were comfortable and made for a nice change. Our floor (and I'm assuming the other floors also) had two bathrooms with showers and a well equipped kitchen and nice communal area, which were all clean. Security is fairly good, you need a key to access your floor and your room. However, there are no lockers in the rooms which is inconvenient. The staff behind the counter were nice and allowed us to store our laptop behind the desk, but some lockers would have been better. Overall, our stay at Ciao Hostel was really good and we would recommend it. Note that reception is not 24 hours. Also there are a few mosquitoes in the building so maybe bring insect repellent!

Hostel is what you would expect, if not a bit more. There are very helpful receptionists willing to advise you on where to go, book you on to anything and answer any questions.

The room was very spacious, with a big mirror, clean, modern and white. We stayed there 3 days and our only issue with the rooms was there was no maid service so it got a bit messy.

The kitchen is communal, basic pots and pans, 2 fridges. Strangely you have to walk through a living area to use one of the two bathrooms. But it was a nice space to use with a fire exit also. The showers are very good but there are 4 rooms in your block for 3/4 people per room so it's a bit of a fight to get a bathroom at times. Also toilet paper ran out very quickly and showers got a bit dirty quickly.

This hostel would be much better if situated nearer to the city, it became a bit of a trek walking to and from the hostel. At night this is a bit scary and the road crossing are a bit awkward - the roads are very busy and you cannot avoid crossing to get into the city.

Another issue is how noisy the room is at night as you are based next to a main road... so noisy that my friend asked me to close the window – but it was already closed!

Overall, it was good value for money, but location not great. Perfect for young people travelling - not couples.

I did not actually stay at this hostel, however, I accidentally made a booking with them while I was trying to book for Mary's Hotel in Paris. After my confirmations were sent and I double checked everything, it came to my attention that I had booked for Ciao Hostel. Realizing that the two had completely different addresses and were not even in the same city, I quickly emailed them to ask for a clarification. Not only were they very prompt in replying my email - I received a response in 16 minutes, they immediately assured me that my reservation will be cancelled. Worrying that my credit card would still be charged, I asked again to make sure there would be no charges, and surely enough, a very prompt reply was received confirming with me that no charges were made to my credit card.

If I were to ever visit Florence, I would definitely stay with Ciao Hostel judging by this awesome experience. Thank you so much!