We have visited the Four Seasons Firenze 5 years ago, without kids and after a long series of complicated and exotic travels the last few years, we were ready to do a grand tour of Switzerland and northern Italy. Florence was the last stop of our 8 (!) stop city tour and we had booked a full week there. We are travelling two adults and two kids - aged 10 & 16. We had booked twin interconnected rooms (Premier Rooms) and was certainly looking forward to our stay. Upon arrival it was good to see that the hard product is still really good. It’s apparent that the property is being very well maintained and in all respects the hotel looked identical to what we had visited five years ago. We were quickly assigned our rooms (earlier than we expected) and service was strong from the start. In every aspect there is no doubt that this hotel is one of the strongest FS properties in Europe (And I have tried most, either privately or through work). It is certainly one of the finest properties in Italy and as such, the team behind it should be proud.
Unfortunately our stay was still not without hiccups and bumps along the road. Let’s be clear, we are fussy travellers. I don’t mind paying top dollar for a product, but I also expect a top product. The combination of having recent high end trips to compare with, and the fact that we were there for a full week, certainly made things creep out that should have been caught by management. In general I prioritised enjoying my vacation instead of trying to get the FS team to perform to the standard they should have, but quite a few of the issues we encountered were rectified or partially rectified. Many were just ignored, which was disappointing to say the least.
One of the main draws for FS Florence during summer is the park and pool. Both are unique in Florence. The last time we stayed, the pool was secluded, quiet and exquisite. This week it was mayhem. Friday, Saturday & Sunday had a massive influx of guests. I am sure that this is partially due to the high temperatures in Europe at that time. However all (minor) attempts made by hotel staff to moderate the horseplay in the pool failed. Imagine 20-30 children in the pool throwing balls, jumping, diving, screaming, etc etc. It was mad. I mean, we have kids, ours are not especially well behaved, but this was crazy.
I spoke to a few staff and apparently the SPA is selling pool access to locals as well, so if you are a SPA/Fitness Center member you can pay for pool access. While I’m sure its great for profitability, it is beyond me why a hotel who charges thousands of euro a night would do something like that. It’s quite surprising to me.
The second area where we experienced som issues were in the Food and Beverage section. In general the quality is *decent* at most venues. However service at times seemed clumsy, forgetful and more often than not, orders had missing components or weird outcomes. In general most Bread rolls served with food were stale / dry / hard as rocks, we had tons of minor inconsistencies on billing (nothing crazy, just lazy errors) and food quality in general was not particularly impressive compared to the quality level of florence in general. The saddest though was certainly breakfast. We went twice. Both times were massive disappointments. Egg dishes were in one instance inedible and the second time both dishes ordered came out wrong.
The fruit choices are meagre, the juices were okay. Cereals were okay. Considering the prices, low amount of guests at the breakfast venue and high amount of wait staff, it was unacceptable.
Considering that this is a 1500’s renaissance palace, it is of course given that the design features and the style of the hotel is - well - old. What surprised me the most was the lack of technology implementation. There were no Four Seasons tablets as seen elsewhere. There was only a meagre interface between the Four Seasons App and the local services. (Basically menus and limited food ordering). And worst of all, the internet connectivity was stuck in the dark ages. This was actually one of the areas I did try to work with staff on. First I though, well, I must be doing it wrong. Well, with a wide range of devices, it became clear that the Wifi in the hotel is actually really good, however the internet connection itself is abysmal. And I wondered why no one else noticed this? However I quickly saw that many guests stay here for a short time - or maybe they just do emails on their phones, however if you travel for months, like I do, it is sometimes necessary to do REAL work. On the “High Speed Plan” I was able to consistently get 4-6mbit/sec in the morning and during the evening it dropped to half or sometimes under a third of that capacity. After tests and trials the conclusion was “THIS IS HOW IT IS IN ITALY” as an employee exclaimed in frustration. Well, that’s just not good enough. Every single place we visited in Italy had 10-20x or more speed. The consequence - well - Imagine downloading a 30 minute low resolution iTunes TV show, and it taking 150 minutes to download. Kids wanted a full length movie to watch one night. Took 5 hours to download. The kids were not amused. And I was certainly annoyed not being able to work properly. Stuff like this should be a non-issue at a property of this caliber.
When you book rooms, be sure to be very careful when selecting rooms. Almost none of the rooms have balconies. Quite a few of them have no view - or rather they have a view of a street or a building. If you are in the main building and want sunlight, you will want a garden view. I specifically booked Premier rooms to avoid a view of the street. On their website it lists specifically that Premier rooms view is “The Hotel Park or neighbouring gardens or neighbouring residence building”. While the cheaper Superior Room category is
“Surrounding residences and streets or internal courtyard”. So imagine my surprise when I got a street view of Borgo Pinti.
I discussed this with reception staff and their claim was, if there are buildings, there are streets. So street view is what you pay for.
In general service offered from the concierge desk was above and beyond expectations. All restaurant recommendations were really great. I got a less than stellar vibe from front desk.
Today, the day before check-out I asked for a folio to be sent so that I didn’t have to mess around with doing the math at checkout as we were leaving early in the morning. The folio took 6 hours to appear. And had masssive errors. Like over 9000 dollars worth of errors. So be sure to check your bill before leaving.
