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Bologna, IT Hotels?

My wife, Sonja, and I traveled with the Rick Steve’s tour last September best of Italy in 9 days. It was amazing. We are going to return in September to Italy and we are looking for accommodations for two nights in Bologna Italy. Are there any Rick Steve’s (or other) recommended hotels to stay in there?
Thank you, Steve and Sonja
Downtown Kirkland, WA, USA

Posted by
5687 posts

Hi Steve. I don't think Bologna is in Rick's book, so he's not going to have hotel recommendations for it.

What I usually do is hop on the Booking.com website for a city I plan to visit and check prices for my dates of stay. I then use the map feature and start browsing available properties in my price range. Figure out where the center of town is and start hunting for properties and see what pops up. I usually avoid anything that's not "Very Good" or "Excellent" on that website. I browse the reviews there (written by people who have actually stayed there) and then also cross check by finding the same property on TripAdvisor, if it's there, and reading the reviews there, too.

You can sometimes contact the hotels directly and see if you can get a better price than using the booking websites.

You might also search this forum for "Bologna hotel" and see what comes up - people have probably asked this question before. Maybe someone who isn't reading this now posted a hotel recommendation a year or two ago and you can check it out.

Bologna gets a lot of trade fairs during the year, so during those periods hotels tend to book up and prices are high. So it's best to check your intended dates soon to make sure you aren't visiting at a busy time.

Posted by
11052 posts

We enjoyed staying at Hotel Novecento right in the center of the historic area. There was a garage adjacent where we left our car. Bologna is a walkable city, great dining too.

Posted by
32171 posts

It's unfortunate that the RS guidebooks don't include even a short section on Bologna, as I believe it's worth a visit.

I can't remember how I chose hotels in Bologna, but two you could look at are.....

I've stayed at Hotel Holiday and it was clean and comfortable and within easy walking distance to the sights.

Posted by
62 posts

I've stayed at 2 hotels in Bologna, Nuovo Hotel del Porto and Hotel Paradise. Nuovo del Porto was more modern and clean, situated about halfway between the center and the train station. The front desk staff were very helpful when I needed to deal with a credit card fraud situation. (My phone wasn't working and they allowed me to use theirs to contact the card company at no charge to me.) Hotel Paradise was also very clean but smaller, somewhat less modern and more quaint. The front desk staff was multilingual and also very helpful. It is also about halfway between the center and the train station. I would stay at either again. Hope you enjoy Bologna - it is one of my favorites for the less touristy feel and easy transportation connections.

Posted by
26829 posts

I believe Bologna is a city where weekend hotel rates are often much lower than rates on days with a lot of business traffic.

Posted by
475 posts

I can definitely tell you where not to stay, this was a post I did earlier this year. Don't get me wrong, Bologna is a fantastic place to visit, the food of course is spectacular but, it's away from the common tourist crowds and it has a cool college town vibe layer with all the history. I look forward to returning and spending more time.

I very much enjoyed my time in Bologna but, I've dropped the Albergo Centrale from my list of places to stay.
While I did not have any problems with my stay, I had recommended the place to some close friends, in which they had an incident where they caught a maid riffling through their bags. They stepped-out of the hotel but, upon hitting the streets, she realized she forgot her packable shopping bag. They turn around and go back up to their room, upon entering there was a housekeeper with a guilty look on her face; door was not propped open, nor was there a cleaning supply trolley outside. Asking what she was doing there (at 5pm) she replied she was dropping off some towels. Friend goes to her bag to retrieve her shopping bag and notices the purchased ornaments that were wrapped-up in paper and taped-up, had been opened and appeared to have been hurriedly wrapped back up.
They reported the incident to the front desk and the person shrugged it off as a misunderstanding she was delivering 'complementary towels'. They checked-out and found another location, no effort made by the hotel to remedy the situation. They surmised the front desk clerk was in cahoots with the housekeeper.