Students Welcome

We are more than happy to help students finding lodging in our beautiful city! This section is aimed at providing you the best information to securely book a property online or locally at the best rates and at secure conditions.

 icon-arrow-circle-right We partner with dozens of schools that direct to us their students looking for accommodation.

How do I rent from you?

It’s super easy to rent a room or an apartment with us as properties reply to your requests with an offer you can book online, this is how you do:

  • Contact the Property of your choice from the rental page, you can narrow the search using the filters on the right column.
  • Contact all the properties at once by sending your request from the home page, this is great time saving way to receive many offers!

 icon-arrow-circle-right Properties after receiving your requests will start making offers for your stay which are notified to your email address, simply click on the offer link and view it on the site.

I am already in Florence!

Great, so then we can take you to see the properties but the procedure does not change.  We do not know if the property you are looking on the web site is available or not.  You have to send a request and receive an offer.

Once again, use the site, contact properties, send generic request and receive many offers.  Once we have a good set of offers we can review and select which ones to go see.

How much a room or an apartment costs?

Students are often on a tight budget and Florence is quite an expensive city! Here’s a guideline updated on November 2013 with a hint on the price’s of rooms and apartments for rent in Florence.

  • Single room in a shared apartment goes from 250 € to 350 € a month (currently we have very few on our listing)
  • Double room in a shared apartment goes from 350 € to 550 € a month (currently we have very few on our listing)
  • Studio goes from 550 € to 650 €
  • One bedroom apartments go from 650 € to 850 € up depending on quality and features.
  • Two bedrooms apartments go from 900 € to 1200 € and up depending on quality and features.
  • Three bedrooms apartments go from 1300 € to 1800 € and up depending on quality and features.
  • Four bedrooms apartments go from 1500 € to 2500 € and up depending on quality and features.
  • Five bedrooms and larger apartments are rare and can cost from 1800 € to 3000 € and up, once again depending on the quality and features.

 icon-arrow-circle-right Please keep in mind these prices are indicative and can vary much from property to property.

Students often repeat their pattern when searching for rentals and here some tips to avoid bumping on rubber walls and make your search easy.

  1. Decide before searching if you want to stay alone or share an apartment.
  2. Choose your flat mates carefully, you don’t want one of them to back out at the very last minute when you have chosen the right property.
  3. When searching in team put in charge one person to do the search, on our site 4 different people searching for the same accommodation only creates confusion!
  4. Utilities for a long term will most likely be aside, not included in the price.
  5. You are here dealing with an agency, we charge a commission on the offered price.
  6. If you rent for longer term you get better rates on the properties you rent.

  icon-arrow-circle-right Please do not underestimate these tips as really make a difference between an easy search and a complicated one!

We take a commission on the offered price.

We take the following percentages on the total price offered by the Property for a request.

  1. The 15% of the offered price for daily and weekly rentals.
  2. The 10% of the offered price for stays over 21 days, up to 10 months.
  3. The 8% of the offered price for stays of 11 months and up.

Why this fee is the lowest you pay!

Our competitors always add their commission on top of the requested price set by the Property Owner or manager, giving us the advantage to keep rates down.  Generally these are the fees you would pay outside our service, for example on other web sites or locally through traditional agencies:

  • For daily and weekly rentals from 10% to 25% on top of the requested price by the Property.
  • For monthly rentals, at least the 15% or one month fee (even if you stay only 7 months)

Just to make this right, do yourself a comparison and let us know where you find a better commission and a better price on the property!

When do I pay this commission?

The commission is paid at the time of booking, when you have chosen the correct offer for your stay.  This fee is not negotiable and not refundable.

What is the security deposit?

The security deposit is an amount of cash the is hold by the landlord or landlady to protect any damages the tenant may cause by misusing the property. It’s an amount that is refundable at the departure minus any outstanding balance of utilities, final cleaning and in case any damage to the property.

The amount requested is usually:

  • 15% to 30% of the total price for daily and weekly rentals.
  • 50% of the monthly rate for stays of 30 days.
  • 1 month rent for long term rentals.

When do I pay it, when do I get it back?

Properties on our site have the faculty to ask for the security deposit to be paid upon booking, confirmation, it can also be paid locally at check in the property.

This amount when requested at booking also serves to protect against cancellation and it’s partially or non refundable on every offer you receive you will see the status of the security deposit when requested.

The security deposit is returned in full or minus outstanding extra utilities due and damages at the check out of the property.

It cannot be used to pay the last month of rent.

How can I arrange a viewing of properties locally?

If you are planning to be in our city to visit properties locally please make sure you read and understand the following:

  • We organize visits for stays of 60 days and up not for daily, weekly or one month rent.
  • We do organize visits for properties you have been offered, we do not organize visits for properties you do not have an active offer for.
  • We need an advanced notice from you of at least 5 business days to arrange the visits of the properties you have been offered.

 icon-exclamation-circle Please keep in mind that arranging viewing is quite not that simple: most properties have already tenants in, some property owners might be out of reach, some others are booked while you read this. We’ll do every thing possible to schedule visits accordingly to availability.

Are utilities included for my stay?

Smile Up Short Term Rentals: Generally Yes!

  • Experienced Property Owners usually tend to include most utilities in the given rate, left aside
    ,at times, final cleaning and Internet.
  • Other Property Owners, against our suggestion, do not include utilities for daily and weekly rate.
 Long Term Rentals: in most cases no!

  • Unfortunately utilities in Italy are pricey and include them in long term rate
    is a risk.
  • What you usually pay aside is gas for both heating and cooking, water, electricity, final
    cleaning and internet.
 Smile Down

Expect to pay between from 60 € – 80 € up to 90 € – 120 € per person on utilities: the more you save the less you spend!

Water goes around 1.75 € for m3, Electricity 0.50 for KW and Gas for 1.10 € for c3 (cube meter) it translates in around 40 € to 80 € / month of consumption per person, easy these figures can really increase if you lack attention on consumption.

How can you get discounts on monthly rates?

At times students think that staying for a couple of months while they search for a longer stay apartment would save the money! This could not be more wrong, learn why:

  • You will pay two commissions for two properties, plus the hassle to move from one place to the other one.
  • Property Owners and Partners love to have stable long term rentals over stays of a couple of months.
  • You get  a much better rate on a 9 month stay vs a 1 month rate, period.

If you are during your stay planning to sign off and go somewhere else, nobody can keep you where you don’t want to stay! Advise a month or two depending on your contract details that you will be leaving and that’s it!