We spent a week in this hotel in may 2011. We liked our room, it was really nice and clean. All receptionists were incredibly nice and helpfull, they gave us important information about public transport and the excursions outside Florence (there were many bruchures on the first floor of the hotel + one extra at the reception, which has also a detailed map of the city). Also, all of them spoke english well, especially the 2 girls. The hotel is located near Arno river, and you have to walk about 25 minutes to get to the center of Florence. Or you can take the bus nr 14 (it's nearby, like 2 street below the hotel) - you can use it to get near the dome and also to Santa Maria Novella train station. The only thing we did not like that much was the breakfast. First of all, its variery was a problem (one type of ham - incredibly thin slices, one type of salami which they did not have every morning, one type of cheese, butter, cereals, milk, sometimes yogurt, american type bread that tasted like rubber, croissants, and 2 types of cake). Well, the other problem, even bigger, was the fact that each food was on a small plate. When the 15 slices of cheese / ham finished nobody came to refill the plate, many tourists had to ask the lady who worked in the restaurant to do that, and she did not seemed so happy about that. This thing happed almost everyday. As I've already said, the salami was not present every morning, and if they put it on the plate, there were maximum 6-7 slices. The bread for sandwiches was american type, which tasted like rubber. It's a pitty, because the italians have excelent homemade bread. The toaster worked only the first 2 days, then stopped working and in the end it misteriously dissappeared :) They did NOT have eggs (boiled, scrambled etc) and the jud of milk was enough to fill 3-4 small glasses. After that, of course that nobody cared to refill it, you had to ask the lady once again. If the hotel was a little closer to the center of the town and got better breakfast, it would've been the perfect choice.

We made a reservation and prepaid our stay to Lido about 2 months before our stay there. On the day we arrived to this hotel we were informed by the receptionist that our had a "problem that happened just the day before" and we couldn't stay there. Instead they offered to transfer us to hotel river, a hotel of the same chain.
We really had not any other choice than accept that though it seemed more like an excuse of overbooking.

P.S. Hotel river btw is a good hotel.

this is a nice hotel, very clean and modern with friendly helpful staff, who speak good english, and will do all they can to help you, provide directions and book taxis!
the breakfast is lovely with a good selction for european standards. the room was small but comfortable with a bed, wardrobe, desk, bathroom with a jet shower, i was in a single room, so other rooms in hotel may be larger. there is a nice terrace for guests to use, there is free wifi for hotel guests to use, you just need to get a code from reception! the only problem i had with this hotel was the location, it is about 25-30min away from the center with not much around in the form of restaurants and shops. in the daytime i had no problem walking back to hotel, but at night i would much rather getting a taxi as i was a solo traveler. overall this was a nice hotel just not a great location!

the hotel is in a very nice position, not too far from the center (10 minutes walk, worth it because of the traffic limitations in the city center)
nice deal for medium/short trips, we booked for 3 nights and the last night was 50% off.
good breakfast, excellent service (the staff is very kind, knows a lot of places to suggest, called 2 places for us just to ask if they're open and how much the entrance costs).
the staff speaks at least english and french very well.

the room we were in was awesome, very big, clean (without moquette, tiled floor)
internet is wi-fi and free (and also VERY fast)

they have a huge balcony and a very nice garden