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Rini Hotel NotesA practical notebook of small hotels across Europe

Shelf I · Where to Stay

Where to stay in Europe, city by city

Quarter by quarter notes on small independent hotels: Alfama and Baixa in Lisbon, Neubau in Vienna and the station quarter of Bologna, with price bands.

Small hotel reception desk with room keys on brass hooks, a paper ledger open beside a bowl of lemons and a stair rail beyond

Nothing on this shelf is filed from a hotel bed. These are working notes on real geography: which quarters hold small independent houses under EUR 120, which streets carry the night noise, and how the walk from the station actually runs, measured on the map rather than copied from the listing. Lisbon is read through Alfama, Baixa and Santa Catarina, Vienna through Neubau and the U3, Bologna through the grid around the Centrale.

Every note runs the same method: what a given rate typically buys in each quarter, where the seasonal price turns, how the tram or metro changes the value of an address, and the six checks to run before any deposit. Cities change; the method does not.

On this shelf

  1. Narrow Alfama street in Lisbon climbing past a small tiled hotel entrance, potted plants on the steps and laundry strung between ochre walls in morning light

    Where to stay in Lisbon under EUR 120: Alfama or Baixa?

    Lisbon still holds twelve to twenty room townhouses at fair rates, and the difference between a quiet night and a tram rattled one is three streets. The quarters mapped, the bands by season, and the checks to run before paying.

  2. Quiet Viennese courtyard entrance of a small pension with a brass door bell row, bicycle leaning on plaster walls and plane trees overhead

    Where to stay in Vienna under EUR 120: Neubau

    Vienna stops being expensive one U-Bahn stop from the Ring: Neubau keeps pensionen and converted townhouses under EUR 120, the Neubaugasse at the door and the museums a ten minute walk away.

  3. Porticoed Bologna street in soft morning light with ochre columns, a small hotel sign above a wooden door and bicycles passing toward the station

    Bologna hotels near the station: what EUR 100 buys

    Bologna is the rare Italian city where sleeping by the trains is the smart move: a ring of family hotels within ten minutes of Bologna Centrale keeps doubles under EUR 105 with breakfast, and the porticoes start fifteen minutes from the pillow.

The neighbouring shelves, Mountain Stays and Breakfast Notes, work the same method from other angles, and the way every note is written is set out on the about page.