We stayed in this hotel in May 2005 and really enjoyed it. The Hotel is in the perfect location. The Vatican is a 10 minute walk, as is the Trevi fountain, Piazza Venezia and Trastevere . It is 5 minutes to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and Piazza Campo di Fiori. It takes about 15 minutes to the Forum and Piazza di Colosseo. Only two rooms have a terrace (501 and 502) but there is a little used guest terrace. Good views from the terrace. Breakfast was standard Italian buffet and was good quality and variety. Staff excellent. The room faces the road, so it was noisy with the aircon off. With the windows shut and the aircon on, it was the same as anywhere else and you need the aircon on in May - Sept. They also have rooms on the back of the hotel which lack a view but are quieter. I would definately stay here again. The room cost 202 euros a night, cheaper without the terrace. Set that against not having to catch taxis and queueing for buses, being central in a safe area and having great nightlife minutes away.
This was my first visit to Rome (5/2006) so it's difficult to judge how many other hotels in the area might have been a better choice. We did not find the hotel staff to be pleasant or helpful until pressed to the point where we were almost forced to be rude. There was only one person at the front desk and it seemed we arrived at a time when there were several other guests with issues.
Air conditioning was a problem. We arrived on an 85 degree day. Our ac didn't work. Only the fan. They told us it did. We politely told them it didn't. They told us they hadn't turned on the right room. They asked us to please wait, it would cool down. We waited..it didn't work, in fact the room was getting hotter. After almost two hours they reluctantly changed our room.
We actually were moved to a much nicer room in the back of the hotel. The room was larger, the bed was very comfortable and the AC worked beautifully. The downside was the bathroom, it had a persistant smell of sewer gas. Another issue was the shower floor. The edges were rimmed with black mold that looked like it had never met a clorox bottle. I can understand rooms with humidity levels these rooms have would be prone to mold. I am not overly concerned by it, but this was very unclean. Daily maid service consisted of fresh bed linens (very nice) and clean towels (2). The bathroom mirror was cleaned once in 3 days. The room never looked vacuumed.
At the entrance to the hotel is a bus stop. I found elbowing my way through 15-30 people to get to the front door tiresome. The sidewalk on this block is particularly dirty as well. In general, I found most of the streets and piazza's to be quite clean. That was not the case in front of the hotel.
Overall, I would never recommend this hotel. We were there to enjoy the city and it didn't put a damper on that, but the hotel was a disappointment. At $275.00 a night my lack of experience with Rome prevents me from saying whether or not it was overpriced.
The hotel has a good location for seeing many important sights.
