Residence hotels in Florence

Setting up housekeeping—without the housekeeping—serviced apartments, suite hotels, and residential townhouse hotels in Florence

A "residence" or residenza—sometimes called an "ApartHotel" or "serviced apartment" or an "all-suite hotel"—is a cross between an apartment building and a traditional hotel.

It's an apartment available for short-term rentals, usually with a hotel-like front desk and some level of housekeeping service—kind of like the all-suites hotels in America beloved by business travelers (and savvy traveling families).

How to book residence hotels in Rome

Booking.com (www.booking.com) - This top booking engine is one of the few which actually lists residence hotels, under the Guesthouses category, which has 824 entries in total. Even if this weren't our partner site, I'd suggest it as the best one-stop shopping for residence hotels.

Biz-stay.com (www.biz-stay.com) - Keeps (farily well) updated lists of links to serviced apartment chains. The page that covers the world a bit better is at this link.

What is an Italian residence hotel like?

Accommodations are at least studios with kitchenette, if not full-blown mini-apartments, and might sleep anywhere for one to six people.

They are usually rented by the week or month, and they are usually cleaned weekly (sometimes more frequently).

Essentially, it's a bit like getting a time share just for the week or month—only without the whole annoying sales pitch.

They are often used by folks in town on business for an extended period. (In fact, when I studied abroad in Italy in college, a "residence" near the school served as student housing for the program.)

That does not mean lesiure travelers can't shack up in a residence as well. You just have to plan to stick around town for a bit longer than the average tourist.

Is there a minimum stay in Italian residence hotels?

Usually, residence hotels are an option for longer stays (often a week minimum, though plenty have three-night or even nightly rates), and they work a bit like having your own efficiency apartment in a doorman building.

How is a residence hotel different from a rental apartment?

The reason this page is separate from that on apartments is because I consider apartment rentals to be where you are getting a private apartment in a building surrounded by flats inhabited by actual local residents, whereas in one of these "residence" hotels, most everyone is a visitor from out of town.

Not that this is a bad thing. For about three months back in 1993, I lived Rome's Residence Medaglie d'Oro, a serviceable, if otherwise unforgettable, place in the un-touristy, middle-class Prati neighborhood north of the Vatican.

First day there, I was leaning over the railing of my balcony and happened to look up. Two floors above me, a young woman was also leaning on her balcony rail, so I called up, "Buongiorno!" She looked down and replied, "I don't speak Italian." Turns out she was from, of all places, Tampa, Florida.

Reader, I married her. I can't wait to bring our sons to Rome one day and show them the residence where Mommy and Daddy met.

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