Although the people at Pucci were lovely to us--upgrading us because it was our honeymoon, providing excellent information, etc--we were shocked at an episode that occurred one night that made us wonder how safe it really was there. We heard yelling and running on the stairs, and someone shouting. I finally went outside to investigate and a young woman was in hysterics outside her room. She had emerged to use the bathroom (not all rooms have them inside), and a man had gone into her room where her parents were sleeping (!!) and had robbed them. She had surprised him in the act and he had run off down the stairs, having managed to steal their cash and some other items in the short time she had been gone. In the morning, I was surprised to hear the receptionists poo-pooing this story, asking her how her parents could have slept through an intruder in their room, dismissing it and basically doubting the veracity of her account! The family ended up leaving, of course, but the staff there treated them as if it was their fault. The question remained, how did this guy get into the hotel? Each guest has a key to the front door, which is kept locked at all times. How did he know that that particular room has an exterior bathroom? This girl was lucky that she wasn't hurt. Although it has a great location, etc, I wouldn't stay here now, having witnessed what I did.

This is our second trip to Florence in two years and we love staying at the Residenza Dei Pucci. Why? Its only one block from the Duomo, the rooms are lovely and so are the staff. The receptionists Marina, Rosella and Elena are always very friendly and helpful as is Daniella who looks after guests at breakfast and services the rooms. In addition to being in Daniella's delightful company at breakfast the food and coffee are excellent. Wi-Fi is also available at a reasonable rate. We wouldn't stay anywhere else in Florence - when we come to the Residenza Dei Pucci we feel like we're coming home. Please consider staying here when in Florence - you won't regret it.

We stayed here 3 nights in June in a triple room facing the street. Although I thought it would be noisy, the windows (when tightly closed) keep the noise out. The room and bathroom were spacious, clean, well lit, and had a large armoire to hang clothes. TV did not work well, but don't watch it much. Excellent Internet service (I think it cost 6 euros). Marina is very nice, pleasant and knowledgable. She was able to book us a bike tour on short notice. The rest of the staff are not very courteous and generally unhelpful (they would rather ignore you). The hotel is on the first floor (second floor to Americans) so you have to carry your luggage up stairs. There is always fresh drinking water in the entryway, which is nice. You truly can't beat the location. One block from the Duomo. Would definitely stay here again. Concerning the negative review with the burglar, you have to be careful to not let people in with you when you enter (with your key) or watch you enter the password on keypad (after hours). I guess a weakness in the security of the hotel is that they have to give the password to the door keypad to travelers who arrive after hours so over time it probably becomes known others.

We stayed in room 12 (triple) and room 16 (double).

I woke up around 5am to use the restroom and saw the door of my room open to the hallway. I pushed the door open further and looked right into the face of a STRANGE MAN on the other side of the door. I started screaming as loud as I could and he ran down the stairs and out the front door. One of our backpacks was out in the hallway and the 120+Euro in cash inside was gone. When we went through our stuff, we found that he had dropped a lighter amongst our luggage. This means he was going through some things in the room and took the backpacks out to the hallway to go through them.

There is NO reception after 8pm and NO security camera on premise and NO safe within the rooms. When we first checked in four days before, we were concerned that there were no safes in the rooms but the front desk receptionist, Christina, assured us that there would be no problem and nobody was interested in our things…

Obviously it is extremely disturbing and frightening to think that there was someone in our room while we were sleeping. On top of all that, the attitude of Christina at the front desk was extremely disrespectful and infuriating. When we told her (at 9am when the reception office opened) her attitude was extremely condescending. First of all, she did not believe us (“what man? Nobody saw this man. You can’t describe him” was the reply to me saying that I did not have my contacts in when I was using the restroom). Our neighbor next door said that she can vouch for us because I woke up the entire floor when I was screaming but Christina and the owner of the property on the phone still did not believe us. They then tried to push the blame onto us, saying “you might have left your door open last night” and then on the other occupants in the hotel: “it might have been another guest”. When we questioned her further, she said “we are not responsible for the safety of the people in the hotel”. we asked her what if someone had gotten hurt and her response was, “then you can go to the police and they can deal with it”. She said if we really wanted to keep our belongings safe then we should “keep it in a safe”…I then reminded her that I asked her on the first day about the lack of a safe in the room and her reassuring me that nobody was interested in our things.

The owner kept saying that she was going to come in (apparently lives 10 min away) but she did not show up until two hours later when we demanded to speak to her because we wanted to leave early from our planned stay. We had two more nights in the hotel and wanted to leave a day early because we really did not feel safe on the property and also from the way we were being treated. When Christina said she could not refund us for the other room, we asked to speak to the owner who was supposedly coming in 2 hours ago. The owner finally made an appearance and said that she could only refund us for ONE ROOM since the man was “only in room 12 and not 16”. When we said that we wanted to leave both rooms because we are a family and traveling together, she said that she could not give us money back for room 16 but “nobody is keeping you here. You can leave.”

On a side note, we came back from a day trip two days before the incident and room 16’s door was open. Nothing was missing but when I spoke to the front desk (different woman), she seemed unconcerned and that it was “probably the maid”.

This has been, by far, the WORSE EXPERIENCE I have ever had in any hotel. Not just because it was frightening but because of the treatment from Christina and the owner. They were in denial of the situation and the gravity of its implication on this business and property. Not once did they take responsibility for what had happened or sound like they were interested in improving the security of the hotel because they claimed that their locks were completely impregnable.

Honestly, this hotel is NOT WORTH the time I wasted speaking to the reception, filing a report with the police, and losing sleep because I am afraid someone will come in while I do so.
Do yourself a favor: stay somewhere else and lock your money in a safe even while you sleep.