Florence Hotels

Check out Katti House.

This is where a good guidebook, like Rick Steves' Florence Guidebook, comes in so handy. Instead of pages and pages of places to take pot luck from, you can get a dozen or so places recommended by a team who actually check each place. There is always a variety. If you rely on random strangers you may be successful. Or not.

If you don't mind carrying your luggage up 3 flights of stairs (no lift/elevator) in building then I can recommend Soggiorno Battistero. Very convenient to the train station.....no more than 10 or 15 minutes even while dragging luggage behind you. Right on the piazza with the Duomo and Baptistry. Very convenient to most of the sites you will probably want to see in Florence and in a good neighborhood for restaurants and such. http://www.soggiornobattistero.it/

We stayed at DeiMori B&B in October. It is located between the Duomo and Uffizzi and is recomended by RS. We walked to it from the train station. Lovely place with a congenial host that welcomed us with a glass of prosecco and an orientation to Florence. It is also a 2 or 3 story walkup, but worth it. We paid around $150 for a very nice room with a private bath. Check out there web site.

Try the Kattie House.
Maria is terrific. She also makes fresh pasta for her daughter's restaurant. If language is a problem, see her daughter at the restaurant two doors to the left. The simple test of "Would you stay there again?" would be "yes." The rooms are close to the rail station/bus and market with decent food close by. Be sure to visit the gelato place to the north on your right.

Check out the hotel delle telle, a short walk from the train station. Has a lift and Charlie and Paulo will be terrific hosts and guides for your trip, and you will have no language problems as Charlie is a former New Yorker!

We stayed at the Hotel Basilea near the central market. Free breakfast. It was quite nice for the price. It's about 4 blocks from the main train station and well within walking distance of the main sites. It's in the RS book. Our rate was 114Eu/night a couple of years ago.

Thanks for the info everyone-checked your suggestions and came up with another - Hotel Centrale has anyone stayed there and can comment on yeh or ney.

I second Judy's recommendation of Soggiorno Battistero. The proprietor, Kelly, is from the USA, so communicating with her is easy. She arranged all my museum reservations and made my stay there most memorable. And it was wonderful to open my window in the morning and look out upon the Baptistery and the Duomo.

We stayed at the Soggiorno Battistero which we were very please with. Clean and close to everything.