Family-friendly Hotels in Metropolitan City of Bologna

We reserved a week (6 nights) at this hotel. The reservation process was not easy. Any question you ask, they ask you to send an email. That’s fine as that is the way things work in Italy. However, they did not answer emails. We thought to ourselves that if the reservation process is that challenging, maybe that is a sign. Nonetheless, my wife decided to try one last time and all fell into place. We should have listened to our first impression and instinct. The hotel is beautifully located on an elevation which gives nice views. The rooms are modern and nicely decorated and equipped. However, the service is far from the 5 stars they claim to be. Prior to our trip, we tried to enlist their help to recommend and possibly reserve visits fro prosciutto tasting, cheese tasting, and wine tasting. The front desk staff was not responsive. Called and spoke to the manager. She managed to reserve wine tasting but none of the others. “They never got back to me” she said. Hmmm. OK. A little strange that a 5-star hotel of this size would not be able to reserve these things, which are super common in the area as we found out upon taking on the task ourselves. We served as our own Concierge. Reserved visits and it was not as hard as she made it seem. The prosciutto and cheese makers got back to us just fine and reserved a visit. We had reserved a suite and a room. Upon arrival, we were informed that the room was upgraded to a suite. Nice! Unfortunately, after the first night, using the shower resulted in flooding the room. The night person who was on duty was very nice and did his best to help clean the water but could not fix anything. The next morning, we informed the day staff and they were to look into it. In the interim, we were told not to use the shower. Not the response we had hoped for. No “we can move you to another room. Sorry for the inconvenience, etc..” The next day, workers came to fix it - supposedly. Upon returning after a hot day visiting the area, we tried to shower: flood again! Next day, spoke to the same front desk manager. It turned out that they “fixed” the bathtub, which was not at all leaking. She acknowledged this was miscommunication between her staff and herself. She did not offer anything more than “I will speak to them”. We are now 3 days without a functioning shower. Workers returned the next day and we were informed by email that the shower cannot be fixed. They offered to move us to 2 different rooms. We are now nearing the end of our stay. And the prospect of packing everything and moving when we have 2 nights left was less than appealing. Had this bee offered initially, rather than 2-3 days later, it might have been better. We explained this. We also expressed dissatisfaction about the whole situation, including the miscommunication that took place that led to further delay to figure out the issue, our inability to use the shower in the room, etc. The manage simply offered “I will speak to them”. No show of any apolo

Two stars because it is a nice hotel with comfortable beds. Thats about it. It is certainly not a five star hotel, which it purports to be. We arrived around 8pm and advised reception that we needed to leave for the airport at five am. At some point reception advises that the booking was for one person and they had to charge us for the second. I have never heard of this! So for the extra person for our 8 hour stay, they wanted €100! What the hell for? I looked on a booking sight and showed the receptionist that I could still book a room (which would come with a free bottle of wine) for two people for exactly what I paid. Receptionist kept saying that it would be more if i booked through the hotel. Lets follow the logic here. Why would i book directly through the hotel if the same room is less on a booking sight? The most irritating part is that she kept laughing inappropriately for some unknown reason. The male receptionist kept insisting that the € 100 was for the ”free” hot breakfast. We reminded him that we had to leave before breakfast was served. He assured us that there would be a cart full of food in the morning before we left. Long story short, that did not happen. There was a cart with coffee and a few pastries. But wait, there's more! The man at the reception in the morning told us that if we had asked, they would have made us breakfast. That would have been nice if it was ever suggested by reception at check in! A real five star hotel would have just taken the initiative to prepare the bagged breakfast for us given the conversation had the night before. I also enjoyed how the staff talked down to us insisting that a €100 per person euro fee is totally normal. Because I've never stayed in a hotel before! Thats sarcasm btw. Again, this certainly was not a five star experience. And just to compare apples to apples, we stayed at a four star hotel when we arrived in bologna 10 days earlier. It was 1/5 the cost, the staff much more accommodating and was just as comfortable and nice. So do yourself a favor and ignore the alleged five star rating and save your money and nerves by staying anywhere else.

The hotel's location is excellent, a stone's throw from Piazza Maggiore and via dell'Indipendenza (shopping street). Clean and well-kept rooms with modern furnishings and excellent room services (breakfast and pillow menu) Careful and very good breakfast (both salty and sweet) with the classics of traditional Emilian cuisine

The service in the hotel is excellent, people are kind and nice and very helpful. always mobilized for help and assistance. A room equipped with the minimum necessary for the night, a refrigerator with two bottles of water at no cost and a safe. There is public transportation near the hotel, which allows for easy movement. At the reception, bus tickets are sold at the same price that you bought outside, which makes it easier to get around. I was very satisfied with the stay at the hotel

Very polite and responsive staff. Delicious breakfasts, always fresh fruit. If you come back late and haven’t had time to have dinner, it’s very convenient to go down to the restaurant on the first floor and have dinner there. The restaurant serves delicious food. There is a stop nearby, 15 minutes by bus to the train station. I really liked it, we stayed for a long time, 12 days. Grazie mille ❤️

That was perfect choice comparing price to what you get. We could park for free in front of hotel. Room was great with everything inside. 24h reception and very kind people working there. Breakfast was really great with high quality product. I reccommend this hotel warmly.

Tutto molto buono. Accoglienza e servizi ottimi, colazione abbondante e varia, sala congressi e coffee break buoni. Inoltre è ben collegata col centro cittadino tramite il servizio di trasporto pubblico in circa 20 minuti.

The Starhotel Excelsior is located directly across the street from the central train station, thus is very convenient for those arriving to Bologna by rail. It is also very easy to come in by car without having to battle the traffic of central Bologna and parking is very easy. The hotel is a 15 minute walk to the central square. The walk is pleasant day or night on streets lined with shops and restaurants. The area around central station is lively at any time and feels reasonably safe. The hotel itself is quite modern. Rooms are large and quiet despite its proximity to the bustle of the train station. The quality of the rooms and service is extremely good for the price.

On our round trip through northern Italy, we stopped in Bologna from 24.7.-25.7.22. We had booked a Classic double room at UNAHotels Bologna Centro via an online platform. Likewise, we already know UNAHotels from previous stays in other cities. The hotel is located outside the old town. It's a comfortable 20-minute walk. Unfortunately, the check-in did not work smoothly. The room was not ready at 13.15. The reception could not even check us in. They could only do that when the room was ready. I have never experienced anything like this and it has never happened in any other UNA hotel. Fortunately, we were able to drop off the luggage. A garage is also an advantage in Bologna. The reservation worked without a problem here, cost 22 euros per night. The room was very good. Size, comfort and cleanliness were perfect. The bathroom is also good. Everything necessary is available. Modern furnishings. Our request for a room on the upper floors was met. Wifi is good. The breakfast has everything you could want. Despite the discrepancies at check in, we can recommend the UNAHotels Bologna Centro.

On first approach, it was clear to see that this hotel is quite far out from the city centre however explains why the prices are a lot cheaper. My partner and I stayed here in July 2022 for 4 nights and I must admit, we loved the room and overall feel of the hotel. Rooms were very clean and beds were very comfortable. We slept amazingly!! If it was just based on rooms alone, we would give this hotel five stars. However… We booked this hotel mainly because it had a pool. When we asked about the pool, we were informed we needed to book a 1 hour slot if we wanted to use it during that day. This was due to covid measures which were still in place at the hotel. So we did. Booked a 1 hour slot for the pool the following evening. When we arrived at the pool on the lower level, we noticed that the changing rooms were locked and the showers were turned off…due to Covid. Now I would typically understand some reasoning for certain covid rules but this just seemed ridiculous. A couple who were using the pool in the hour slot before us informed us to use the small shower cubicle to get changed as this had a frosted glass door on it and is the only bit of privacy you get down there. So we did! We ended up booking the pool out another two times on our stay but as reception advised following our first pool visit, get changed in your rooms then head down to the pool (assuming you don’t need to get the key from reception to unlock the pool). Towels were provided by poolside although on the first day, there was only one towel left for the two of us. On my final visit to the pool on the morning before we left, I had to go to reception in my swimming trunks because the pool was locked. Something I felt uncomfortable doing in the first place but as there was no changing facilities and the towels were locked by poolside, I reluctantly went to reception where the man behind the desk got angry at me being there in my swimming trunks. Simple solution would be to open up the changing facilities down by poolside to prevent this but hey, that was too obvious. Upon pointing out the fact that the changing facilities in his hotel were locked because they won’t open them due to Covid (which he should have known), he eventually calmed down and mentioned he understood. On our visit we also used the electric bikes which were at reception for a full day at the cost of €25 per bike per day. The system is far to complicated for what it needs to be and should be made simpler by just having reception deal with the booking. Once eventually booked, we were given the keys to the 2 bike locks, helmets and some netting for our hair (another odd covid measure which doesn’t make much sense as you will sweat through the netting anyway). As I was away to take the bikes out, I noticed that all four tyres were flat. Surely this should be inspected by the staff before the bikes are taken out?! Unfortunately staff appeared clueless on what PSI the tires had to be at and as he pumped up the first