Hotel Privilege

I couldn’t recommend this hotel enough! From the moment we entered I felt like I was coming home. Barbara and Emanuele are the perfect combination of charming and professional. They both went well out of their way to accommodate my companions and I, and made us feel truly welcome!
The hotel itself is clean, tasteful and comfortable. The complimentary breakfast and snacks during cocktail hour were just as delicious as you would expect in Tuscany. Located in Santa Croce, hotel privilege is close enough to all of the tourist attractions to walk, while being far enough away to not be kept up all night by the hoards of drunk teenagers stumbling out of bars. Directly across from the hotel is the best part of the city: the oltrarno. Just across the bridge you can enjoy a more laid back artistic and culturally rich contemporary florence. It is the perfect location and the accommodation if you truly want a sense of what Florence had to offer.
You will not regret your stay here. In fact, I am looking forward to my return and to the heartfelt reunion with Barbara and Emanuele who I now consider dear friends!

From the moment I arrived with my 3 traveling companions, I knew we had found our sanctuary.
Our journey to Hotel Privilege came after five hours of research the night and day before trying to find one single place to stay in the city *just for the night*, much less the three total nights we had planned to spend in Florence originally. Unbeknownst to us when we started the search, Pitti Uomo (aka Men’s Fashion Week) was in full swing. Everyone was in Florence. Everything was booked (except for some impossibly exorbitantly priced options).
We ended up booking one night at the Hotel Privilege, because that’s all we could get within a decent price range in a central part of the city. The World Cup was underway, so that night we headed to the pretty outdoor patio bar where we were greeted by the talented in-​house bartender Stefano and the delicious spread of gratis aperitivos the hotel provides to snack on while we watched. The bar was ours, so we had the full and undivided attention of Stefano, followed by Emanuele (one of the owners) who joined us outside. He struck up a conversation with us, and soon all 6 of us engaged in conversation, cracking jokes and making friends.
We explained our situation to Emanuele and he was completely sympathetic. He not only offered (without us asking) to let us know the next day if anything opened up in house BUT he additionally promised to call other local hotels to see if they had any availability. We were invited to store our luggage safely at the hotel while we went out the next day and he conducted his search. He is the champion of customer service.
By the following afternoon, it wasn’t looking so good as we hadn’t heard anything yet. We checked in with Emanuele, and he said he was still looking. But what do you know… he called later to let us know they had a room for the 4 of us! We were ecstatic. We spent that same evening at the bar watching more soccer, and receiving compliments from Stefano spurred on by our loud cheers and penchant for whisky (Stefano: «You are like men» …in a good way).
By then, we had also become friendly with Barbara, Emanuele’s wife and fellow owner of the hotel. Barbara proved to be an equally gracious host, going so far as to call and book a salon appointment for one of my companions. She was completely accommodating, greeting us pleasantly even when we returned to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning.
I should also mention that the complimentary breakfast is well above average — cured meats, hardboiled eggs, fresh fruit, juice, yogurt, grains, pastries, coffee, etc. The rooms and beds are comfortable and the bathrooms are clean. The air conditioning works like a dream (it was hot).
At the end of our stay, our new and dear friends presented us with a bottle of Chianti from their personal collection and signed the label for us so we wouldn’t forget them. How could we? Hugs were shared all-​around, and we were advised when to return in the low season when the weather is still nice and tourists are more scarce. I can’t wait to come back.