N4U Guest House Florence

Mixed review. The rooms are large, the location excellent for many activities in town. Breakfast is adequate, although coffee and juice have to be asked for, which rather limits how much you have. The woman handling this speaks very little English, but that’s not a problem further just getting breakfast. After you check in, you won’t see anyone who does speak English. The hosts do provide a phone and email, although mixed results on the latter. The Amenities list “wine and champagne,” and, since we think of amenities as free, you might think they are simply offered. We saw where you could buy them. But the things you really need to know for making the right choice for yourself are these. The “free wi-fi” mostly doesn’t work. When I asked about it (via email) I got a totally BS answer about “there are various wi-fi connections around the building and if you are having a problem you are trying to connect to the wrong one.” I say “BS” because it is. We weren’t “moving around the building.” We were sitting in the same chair or on the bed, using the only wi-fi we were told about it that showed up on our devices. Our cell signal was fair, so not having wi-fi wasn’t a killer, but if you’re counting on WiFi, this is a bad fit further you. And we were just doing basic email and web surfing—I’m not talking about streaming videos or data heavy stuff. You may get on WiFi, but it is off more than it’s on. The other critical piece of info is that there is no lift/elevator. They don’t mention this on the description, but if you dig, you’ll find they describe themselves as “second floor.” Beware Americans—in Europe the ground level floor is ZERO, so “2nd floor” there is what you’ll call 3rd floor. Except in Florence, when some “city code” or “tradition” (I was fuzzy on the story, which was told in a cheerful, “See, we aren’t lying” tone) so that the ground floor can be double high. Bottom line is you’ll go up FOUR long floors to get to you room. Depending on your condition or luggage, that can be a lot (no, no offer of help for luggage). After a long day of site seeing (and plenty of stairs) going up four more flights is a bummer. We found ourselves not wanting to go out again once we made it to the room, so forget changing clothes, freshening up, and going out again. Since early dinners are limited, (many restaurants close between 2ish and 6 or even 7), you may find yourself doing afternoon takeout and eating in. Again, it’s a large and nice room in a great location. If we didn’t feel deceived about the floors, we would feel better about it (but if we had realized it was four flights up, we would have picked something else.)

Location in a historical building is perfect for young couples in a city break, between Duomo and Piazza della Signoria and close to the Piazza della Repubbblica. We have stayed in The Suite a large room with red bricks arcade ceiling, open space with bathtub included in the room. It is a non conventional room but elegant and cozy. A large and confortable king size bed, air conditioning system, fridge wellcome the guests. The guest house looks up to date. The manager was friendly, breakfast italian style. The stairs with no elevator could be a problem for some people. Cleaning service on daily basis.

The location is amazing but the stairs could be a real issue. It’s not on the second floor as stated but more like up 4 flights of stairs!! Our room was fine, mush smaller than the ones on the photos, on the street but with double windows however you could hear everything in the hall so that was a little annoying. On the first morning someone was vacuuming at 8.30 which wasn’t ideal. The breakfast wasn’t great and the breakfast room was very cramped. The host/manager wasn’t overly friendly and we had to leave our « left » luggage in the hallway with everybody else’s.

We spent over one hour trying to find it, although it is central it has a tiny sign and owner told me local council restrict size of signs, but hotels seem to have huge ones. Be aware of the stairs, our suite was on the 3rd floor, there is no lift, so think about your luggage. We enjoyed our stay, but it was short and we lost time at the start.

Location is absolutely excellent, just a few minutes walk from Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica. Be aware that it’s on the Third floor - no lift!! Good to know that this is a small, family-owned guesthouse rather than a hotel. Breakfast is ok, nothing special. The bed was absolutely terrible- if you don’t like a bed that is as firm as a hardwood floor.

It's a fantastic place to stay in a great location to walk to the interest points of Florence. The people that work there are very kind. The room was gorgeous and comfortable with an amazing bathtub.

Great location, breakfast was great also, super friendly place and beautiful rooms, staff are great and would stay here again

Great location, fabulous room, excellent breakfast. Staff so friendly, kind and helpful. Highly recommend and will return. On the 4 th floor, with no lift. We didn’t mind though. Beautiful fresco and chandelier in the bedroom too.

We were shocked when we arrived to find there were so many flights of stairs with no elevator. Unfortunately I didn’t see where this was disclosed in the “Services” section of the website. When I advised the woman that runs this business that my husband is 81 and has had 2 back surgeries and an open heart surgery her reply was, “ it’s stated all over that there’s no lift and there are stairs.” Obviously I would have not made reservations here if it was all over the website and I was aware. Fortunately her kind husband volunteered to come downstairs and help with our luggage. The room was spacious, and pleasant to look at with the ceiling art and chandelier, however the bathroom was not set up for travelers, as it was extremely cramped and the lighting very dim. One light was burned out on the sconce in the bathroom and my husband asked the woman owner for a light bulb to replace the burned out one. She said no, she would take care of it. It was never done. On September 15, 2023 (my birthday) my husband called their main phone number (no one was in the office) to ask for a taxi to be scheduled for us to go to a special restaurant. She said it’s after 5:00 PM, we’re closed. He informed her it was for a special reservation for my birthday, and she said she didn’t understand him, and hung up. He called back and she told him to send a text. It’s extremely difficult to get a taxi in Florence, and she refused to help us. She never helped us get a taxi, and replied with a text an hour and a half after the taxi time we requested , asking what we wanted, ( it was clear on the phone call and text) The woman was very rude, and played the dumb card when she didn’t want to comply. We didn’t go to the tiny breakfast room as my husband did not want to see the woman, so I can’t review what the food was like. I would not recommend this to anyone due to the woman’s rude behavior, and the stairs were ridiculous.