My daughter had a very disappointing semester stay in the Buontalenti Exclusive apartment. While the apartment was nice and as pictured in the online photos, there was a MAJOR mechanical disruption in the apartment for over 6 weeks of her stay! A very loud, high pitched drilling noise that CONSTANTLY came from the HVAC unit. My daughter and I contacted the agency over and over, and the noise was NEVER repaired. It truly was torturous. My daughter was given the run around for weeks and weeks and kept being told parts were ordered and mechanics were going to repair the noise. I called and emailed from the US dozens of times and never communicated with the same person. I asked to speak with the owner and this was never allowed. Their attitude was "this is beyond our control" and all we can do is"strongly urge" the owner to repair the noise. At exam time when it became obvious the agency had no intention of helping my daughter, I asked for her to use another nearby empty apartment to study and sleep. At first this request was completely denied despite all she had suffered for weeks. After a few days, they said she would have to completely move out of her present apartment into the new apartment during finals. Mind you, this was with only a week left of the lease. After all of the inconvenience and complete failure to help in any way or offer any solution for my daughter,, I asked for a fair credit on the rent (which was over $3500 a month). All they offered was a $150 credit on the already sky high utility bills. I stated this was not acceptable for the months long unlivable condition, and they seriously did not care and offered nothing else. Please take my advice and do NOT rent from this poorly managed agency. Don't let the nice photos online fool you- if anything major goes wrong in the apartment, they will not follow through with repairs. Several of my daughter's friends also rented from Apartments Florence and also had serious maintenance issues. One friend went without hot water for over 2 weeks. My security deposit also wasn't returned within the 30 days specified in the lease, and I had to contact the agency several times inquiring about the refund. I'm sad to say that this agency seems to take advantage of American students. read more

The following is my opinion based upon my experiences as described below. The costs to get in to the apartment were a deposit of 4,000€, a cleaning fee of 312 €, and the first month's payment (1,360 € rent + 100 € condo fee + 40 € wifi = total of 1,500 €). The agency fee was 1800 €, this did not seem unreasonable as they were to be the property managers through whom rent and other issues were to be managed. Certainly, the owners pay another fee for the management of the property. That being said, I have two cats and requested that they be considered. The agency made it seem that the owners insisted on a higher security deposit in order to allow the cats. Upon meeting the owners, they assured me that they had told the agency that they had no problem allowing the pets and no discussion of any additional fee had taken place. Upon moving in, I found that there was no key to the post box and no key to throw away the trash (Florence has controlled bins for trash and various recycling). I messaged and emailed at least once a week regarding both of these necessities. After four (4) weeks of wandering the streets with my garbage and recycling, searching for an open bin, they finally secured a control key for me. It took nearly 8 weeks for a key to open my post box. This ONLY occurred because after sending an email listing the many problems with the apartment, they finally contacted the property owners and arranged for them to meet me at the apartment. When I mentioned the post box key to them, they knew nothing about it. They were able to resolve the problem within 2 days! The property owners also seemed surprised at several elements within the home that the agency had not appraised them of. Of lesser importance, but to explain the lack of quality provided by Apartments Florence SRL, this is an excerpt from an email sent to them: I hope to address some outstanding issues and to communicate very clearly that things are off to a difficult start in regards to our professional relationship. This will also serve as proof of communication of the state of the apartment for assessment at end of the lease. After four weeks of repeated requests, I received the means to properly dispose of garbage. We are into the fifth week and I still do not have the means to open the postbox. Fortunately, I was home when the registered letter from the Questura arrived, but that does not negate the need to provide all of the necessary elements of a normal rental. I have spent many hours cleaning the apartment. I have date/time stamped video of every inch of the apartment and can say without doubt that it was not properly clean upon moving in. Issues include: * The walls are in a terrible state. They are filthy (sudicio) and damaged in places . I wiped fourteen mosquito corpses from the walls upon arrival. * Under the beds and under the refrigerator were not clean, there were areas of dried liquid and dirt which I have cleaned. * The beautiful tile backsplash in the kitchen is not properly sealed where it meets the plastic strip at the bottom, the area is open to water damage which has already occurred behind the faucet and to the right of the sink. * The pergola in the kitchen and anteroom to the bathroom is separating, creating a place for the growth of bacteria . *The window in the door leading to the terrace is broken. . * The outside area under the windows (where clothes should hang) is filthy, including someone's old underwear that they hung out and let fall, this seems like a matter covered by the condominium fee Within the contract I agreed, and will uphold my part, to pay their stated utility rates which are: Gas 1,50 € x mc / water 4,00 € x mc / electricity 0,60 € x kWh). Having looked at various offers in the free market, comparing three of the most popular companies for gas and electricity, rate ranges were: gas from 0,5311 to 1,05 € x mc and electricity from 0,115 to 0,129 x kWh). As to water, the rates set are best outlined by Publiacqua. I do not take issue necessarily with the prices, as I had no choice but to agree in order to secure the lease. The problem is Apartments Florence SRL's complete lack of transparency. I requested a copy of the statement from the utility companies for my records, showing that what I paid is what the utility actually charge. The agency refused, stating that my payment rates were agreed upon in the contract. I very much like the apartment and the zone. I recently met the owners of the property who were incredibly helpful and kind. That being said, I am most pleased that the contract has a clause requiring only a three-month written notice in order to terminate the contract, which I have given, cutting my one year lease down to 5 months. read more

Very traumatic experience! Our apartment was broken into, and all our valuables were stolen due to a complete lack of security on their part. Yet, they refused to take any responsibility. read more

We liked the location. Dirty Apartment with mis-guided advertising regarding its features. Apartment is called Ghibellina Balcony. Yet, the balcony is narrirow, leaves cover a large vent and there is no view. Many light bulbs are missing or don't work. All surfaces in apartment have heavy dust including under the bed. Their advertising photos are mis-leading both about the balcony and more. They show one picture of what looks like a bed and has a velvet cover. Yet, it is a couch that opens. Since the bed was the only thing shown, we thought there were two bedrooms. The couch is in the living room-kitchen. We paid top dollar and rented for six weeks but left after five weeks. A very disappointing experienced. read more