The influence of the nature of the metal precursor - platinum acetylacetonates and chloroplatinic acid - on the surface proper ties and catalytic activity of Pt/Al2O3 catalysts is reported. The obtained results indicate that the catalysts prepared by the organometallic route present higher metal dispersion and lower acidity compared with those prepared from H2PtCl6. On the other hand, XPS results showed that the state of platinum is essentially Pt-0 in the catalysts obtained from Pt(acac)(2) while in the solids prepared by impregnation of H2PtCl6 there exists an important contribution of Pt-delta+ species which plays a positive role in the hydrogenation of toluene. An additional hydrogen spillover due to the presence of more acidic support is also suggested as an explanation of the observed catalytic results.