Staying at Hotels – love ‘em; hate ‘em?

Osso - those pictures are amazing...that's about as close as I am going to get to seeing anything like that I suppose.

I like B&B's too...but only when my husband and I are together. Too difficult with the kids.

I actually was smiling when I read that typo, mismi. You spoke of your
boys and then "sweet" which is so understandable. That was a good
Freudian slip

It made me laugh - My synapses aren't connecting today.

Thank you Jane...I really hate it when I do that...you would think I would be use to it by now

Mismi, most of the places we stayed in Italy were cheapo, though not all of those pictured were (Casalta was and I think still is), but I haven't been there since the Euro.. Anyway, I liked the cheapo ones too. Only place I didn't like in some way was in Arezzo, and even that was saved by the genuine niceness of the staff. The super fancy one, Villa Viloresi, is not that bad relative to a lot of other ordinary hotels, indeed quite competitive. First built in 1260, as I remember.

That's the place where we were chicken to go to the dining room, and went looking instead for a restaurant in the town. Turned out most restaurants in Sesto Fiorentino are closed on Mondays. We ate at a bowling alley, where I ordered my first ital pizza. Mushrooms that flew off the pizza as you lifted it..

I got the tiny room at the Loggiati dei Serviti when I arrived in Florence two days early and checked what was available at the Tourist Info place at the train station. I recognized the name from my guidebook poring over (pre-internet).. and got a major deal. That room is probably a hard sell since it is so tiny. Gorgeous, though.

I was thinking you may have intentionally wrote sweet as a pun.

Ha...I'm not that clever.

Osso - that sounds wonderful to me. One day I hope I can get to Italy. I would stay in a hole in the wall to be able to. To Dream....

Do they have Motel 6 in Italy?

No but some of the B&Bs/Inns are very cheap - you may have to share a bathroom though.

Heh, I was teasing mismi because on another thread I told her she had won a trip and would be staying at a motel 6.

"Motel 6" is just one brand of the French-European group 'accor'. In Europe, such hotels/motels mainly are called "Etap" or Hotel Formule 1", but you my find "Motel 6" as well. (There were/are actually some in Italy, mostly renamed to their former names now, however.))

We'll leave the light on for you.

I love staying at hotels. Room service especially.

Isn't room service great!

We have a picture of my daughter getting room service - her smile was from ear to ear!

Just like me!

I absolutely adore hotels. Even have a dream of one day owning one (we'll see!).

One of the most important parts of a good hotel experience to me and one of the first places to check out is the Pool Room(s) and etc.
Bathroom facilities, restaurants in the area, perfect linen and bed and cleaning staff is important too!

I don't like hotels that are too 'familiar'. I don't like that at a hotel. I don't want tochat as though I am at home or on the streets - to me, a good hotel experience is like a safe place to be anon and to almost slip out of the world for a while.

Clean, bright, and if the place is pretty that is a bonus. Good local, yup, that's good too, though a decent motel can be fine for me too.

Now let's order some drinks and hit the hot tub before sinking into a sweet anticipatory sleep.

For me, mushyp, it depends. I've stayed at the Hilton in Sacramento not all that long ago (can't remember why, was I delivering paintings the next day, or what) and it was an anonymous experience that I liked that way.

I stayed at the Travelodge in Chicago (for A2k meet in 2006); that is a lower priced hotel, but still enjoyable to me. Part of what I liked about it was the repartee that started to happen with myself and the desk staff. That made the ordinary place a little homey.

And bets on anonymity or not were off for Italy. I've enjoyed many a fumbling conversation with albergo owners or staff there, with an especially memorable one in a tiny pensione in Perugia.. the owner with halting but understandable english and me with my halting hard to fathom italian. We ended up talking for an hour, somewhat in both languages. She was not invasive as a host, but helpful. Then again, I liked being anonymous at a hotel in Ivrea, a city I didn't like on my one day's perusal, not fair but...

In the Villa san Pio, shown earlier, the then-desk clerk sat down with us in the lobby seating area one night, as more and more guests wandered in and joined us. The people who stay there are often having something to do with the nearby FAO (UN food and agriculture) down the hill... interesting people doing interesting things, to me. And I liked that level of camaraderie..

That sure makes a lot of sense. There are experiences that are hard to say you like or not until you are actually having them, and finding yourself thinking "that was nice".

I've just had some unfortunate experiences with familiarity of staff at hotels. Too cozy, too much, (and there are different lines for everyone and at different times too for everyone) is one of my main complaints of bad experiences, really. Other than sanitation! ha.

It is really nice though to have areas in the hotel that are friendly and more socially based IMO - the bar(s), the breaky restaurants and buffets, etc.

It's just the general staff that I don't really want referring to me by first name, or getting to know me too well. Maybe I'm a snob. *shrug*

Doubletrees have really good food.

I agree - I had my wedding at a really nice one and it was the best wedding food I have had.

I stayed in one last year and there really wasn't any reason to go out for dinner. The Doubletree's food was as good or better than any restaurant. They even made me a great pizza.