We stayed at the Regina Baglioni hotel for our 6 day honeymoon in Rome. Overall, we have been quite satisfied with the room and the hotel in general. The staff was very friendly and almost always smiling.
We had booked a grand deluxe room through a website (booking.com) and asked for a room with a view to the streets (and not the inner courtyard) and a double bed. The hotel mailed us, back assuring us that both requests would be met and that upon arrival a bottle of spumante (sort of champagne) would be waiting in our room.
Indeed, our room was facing the street to the side of the hotel and equipped with a double bed. No spumante was in the room however, so I asked the person at the reception who said that the maids would probably place it at their 6pm visit to clean the room. Indeed, when we got back later that night the bottle was there. Sadly, even though the bed looked like a double one, when we laid down that night I found out that it was formed of 2 single mattresses placed side-by-side.
Our room was no. 211, indeed a grand deluxe room identical to the one shown at the hotels' website (the red one). I am pretty sure that the room shown in that picture is the one we stayed at. My first impression of the room was partly negative: I expected it to be a bit bigger and certainly quite brighter, but I have to admit that I was comparing it to the suite we stayed at back in Greece after our wedding (for one night) which was fabulous, brightly lit and full of windows. Our room at Regina, like all rooms in Rome (I assume), had only one (relatively narrow, yet tall) window, therefore little light was entering the room. But do not expect something different since all buildings in the centre of Rome have small windows because of the old-style architecture.
The room was a bit dark, but quite aristocratic and classy; marble floor, marble bathroom with 2 sinks, good quality polished wood and leather chairs, Murano glass lights (and a big chandelier), minibar, safe, TV and a desk. Everything in the room was good quality and overall we felt as we were living in a quite luxurious environment. I would prefer it, however, that we were given the other type of deluxe room since judging from the photos at the website it looked quite brighter.
On the second day, I asked for a brighter room with one single mattress, but we were told that there was no other room vacant and that they found it weird since our room was recently renovated and most people prefer it. I guess it must have been one of the hotel's best rooms.
Since I was not too happy with our room, we went to see two other hotels in the area (not on Via Veneto but close to it). We asked to see a deluxe room in both hotels. The first one (Eden) was quite lighter and felt more "happy". For a moment I was ready to book it for the rest of our stay in Rome. The room at the other hotel (Splendide Royale) gave me a good first impression, but it seemed kind of "fake" and using medium quality materials (e.g. the wood looked quite cheap).
When we returned to our room, comparing it to the other two rooms we saw in the other hotels, I started to appreciate it more. It was a lot classier than the others and quite better quality. Even though the Eden was brighter and happier, our room was much more aristocratic; it looked more like a luxurious room in a palace, than a lux room in a hotel. The Eden was a lux room in a hotel (moquette floor).
So we decided to stay at the Regina Baglioni and I became more and more happy with it. We had a good time and had no problems with the room or the hotel (besides the mattress). It is worthy to mention that the room was cleaned up twice; once in the morning, and a second time around 6pm in the afternoon, where they also left close to our pillows a weather forecast for the next day and a small (bitter) chocolate for each one of us. Nice.
The hotel is very close to the Spanish steps, about 10 minutes or so and it is within walking distance to the whole historical center of Rome, if you like walking! At first we thought that we'd have to use the bus or metro, but Rome is a lovely city to walk and we often walked from the Hotel to Piazza Navona, or from Campo Di Fiori to the hotel at night. If you don't want to walk, the metro station is 2 minutes from the hotel, and the bus stop to go to the center is 3 minutes (on Via Tritone, route 62).
The location of the hotel was brilliant; Via Veneto must be the nicest street in the whole Rome! A classy area of Rome with restaurants and stores, tall green trees, little traffic and lovely "atmosphere". Hard Rock Cafe is on the next block to the hotel.
The hotel was not too big. Upon entering, do not expect a huge lobby or the wow-factor. It is aristocratic yet kind of small. A lobby can be found if you walk further inside, an oval room with no windows (I think). The restaurant-bar is named "Brunello" and can be accessed either from inside the hotel or from the street. It's nicely (in a modern way) decorated and the food is good, yet quite expensive. Our room didn't include breakfast and we opted not to pay for it since it's quite pricey for a buffet breakfast.
Overall our stay at the Regina Baglioni was quite good. Had it been for a real double bed and a brighter room, I would dare to rate it "excellent". Keep in mind though that my review is based on the Grand Deluxe room that we stayed at - I did not have the chance to see how the standard room was.
