Stay: February 2024

Paid: 36,000 Hyatt points per night (two-queen room when this property was in Category 6)

Status: Discoverist with a Guest of Honor award

Rooms: Two-bedroom king suite (upgraded from two-queen room)

Would I stay again: Yes, definitely.

Would I recommend to friends: Yes, definitely.

Il Tornabuoni, part of the Hyatt Unbound Collection, is a perfect choice for a Florence stay if you want luxury in an ideal central location—especially if you want the option to just book one room to sleep a family of four, which can be hard to find in Europe. This is one of those unicorn European hotels that’s bookable on points for a family of four (or maybe even five—email the hotel and ask to make sure, though). Look for a two-queen room, now bookable (after Hyatt’s March 2024 category adjustments) for 43,000 points per night off-peak. (Two standard rooms would amount to 50,000 points per night off-peak, so you’re saving points by booking the two-queen room instead of two separate rooms.) It’s gone up from being a Category 6 to a Category 7 award redemption, but it’s still worth it at the higher points price, in my opinion.

Check-in/service: The front desk staff was friendly and helpful, and even though our room wasn’t ready when we checked in early around 11:00 am, the front desk agent directed us to a lounge area for the ten minutes it took for the room to be readied. We were just happy to be allowed to check in that early at all, so the minor wait was no problem. The staff members we encountered throughout our stay were great and helpful whenever we had questions. The front doorman was particularly friendly and made sure we grabbed an umbrella from the stand whenever we left and it looked like rain.

There was a welcome amenity in our room when we checked in: some cookies, a note, and two complimentary bottles of water. (And because the cookies were gone faster than you can say “Wait, I need to take a photo first!,” there is no photo of the cookies. But they were good.). We also got turndown service each night—our charging cords were straightened up and chocolates were left on our pillows.

Room: We were upgraded from a two-queen room to a two-king suite because we had a Guest of Honor booking, so that was an amazing upgrade! Globalists, take note—this location comes through. The room was huge and included a living room, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. (One of the bathrooms was ensuite; the other bathroom was accessible to the entire suite.)

The room had all the typical amenities you’d expect from a fancy Hyatt property: minibar, coffeemaker, safe, hairdryer, plus bathrobes, slippers, etc. There was even a diffuser attachment that came with the hairdryer, which thrilled me to pieces. I never see that in hotels! (And when you have wavy or curly hair, that’s what you need to dry your hair without creating frizz and/or blowing out your curl.)

The room had a minibar with snacks and drinks, though none of them were included in the price of the room. We had just come from a Small Luxury Hotels of the World property in Rome where all the minibar snacks and drinks were included, so we had to remember not to touch these.

Hotel & amenities: The hotel has a restaurant, a terrace café/bar, a wine cave, and a gym. (The “Lucie” restaurant listed on this elevator plaque seems to no longer be open, so the main restaurant is Il Magnifico.)

Food/drink: Because our stay was a Guest of Honor booking by a friend who has Hyatt Globalist status, breakfast was included for two adults and two children under 12. Because our kids are over age 12, theirs wasn’t comped, so we paid out of pocket for them to have the breakfast buffet, which was €35 per person. (Yowch.) For us parents, our Globalist breakfast benefit included anything we wanted off of the à la carte menu in addition to the buffet. Coffee and tea were also included.

Everything we had was very good, and it was super-convenient to just be able to eat breakfast in the hotel before we set off on our day.

Parking/location/transportation: This hotel’s location is perfection. I can’t think of a more central place you could be. Seriously, look how it’s right in the middle of everything:

Florence is very walkable, so it was never more than 15 minutes, tops, to anything we wanted to see, and most things were within a 5-to-10-minute walk. Because of its central location, I would not advise driving to the hotel or trying to park there. We walked from the train station (Firenze Santa Maria Novella) with our rolling bags and it was fine, and not very far, but the cobblestone sidewalks and streets made it kind of annoying, so I’d recommend a taxi ride instead. It’s a short distance, so it’s not expensive. When we left Florence to head to Bologna via train, we took a taxi that the hotel front desk attendant called for us.

My take: Il Tornabuoni is a lovely choice for a luxurious stay in Florence in an amazing location. Cash rates for standard rooms vary from around $460 per night to over $1,000 per night (off-season to high season, respectively), so if you can book ahead for your next trip, you could save a significant amount of money by using points. This is an especially great hotel for families to look into with points, because you can actually book a two-queen-bed room using Hyatt points, which is a rare find in Europe in general, and especially so in such a central location.

How you can stay here on points: All of the points that you earn with Chase cards in the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem (Ink Business Preferred, Ink Business Cash, Ink Business Unlimited, Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited) are transferable to the World of Hyatt program, as well as the points you earn directly from either the World of Hyatt personal card or business card. Find the availability you need, check the Points Calendar to make sure you know how many points you’ll need for the whole stay, and then transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt. Because the transfer is usually instant, you can book immediately and have a great hotel stay to look forward to on your next trip to Florence!