I recently took my girlfriend away for valentines weekend and used TripAdvisor to help me decide which hotel to stay in, therefore I felt it only fair that I write a review of my own personal experience for others to make any potential decisions upon.
The weather was really good for mid February, it was a bit chilly, still need for a thick jumper but when the sun shines it's absolutely fine, and it did shine for pretty much the entire of the weekend.
Upon arriving in Rome with a suitcase and planning to use public transport the hotel isn't situated in the most ideal of locations as it involves three forms of transport taking around an hour and a bit. This is the cheaper option and if I went back i'd still do it that way however when first getting out of Leonardo Davinci airport I would recommend getting a mini bus that will most likely be offered to you. That isn't a taxi, I wouldn't advise getting a taxi because they're a rip off to put it short.
So after getting off at Flamino metro station and taking the number 2 tram for 3 stops like I researched, my girlfriend and I found ourselves completely lost. If this happens to you go to the visable petrol station with your back to the door and the hotel is located at the far right end of the road which is first on the right from where you're looking.
The hotel itself was better than I expected, we were met with a big smile from the reception lady who was there throughout the duration of our stay and she was very helpful & polite. The whole hotel looked as though it was made of marble which was very aesthetically pleasing and gave the place quite a nice feel to it. There is someone manning reception 24 hours a day so that's very helpful
Before going to the lift to go to the rooms, there is a metal door which can be opened by the receptionist when she sees you enter, this makes the whole hotel feel very safe and it was a nice touch when away in a unfamiliar city.
The lift is very retro with metal manual doors which you must open before getting in the lift (at first it reminded me of titanic) and this was a nice touch.
The bedroom was everything you needed for a weekend stay. Because of the way the building has been built half of the rooms look out onto the lovely views of the River Tevere, however the other half look out onto a deserted courtyard used for the generators. These weren't an issue, I didn't hear them once, just guessed they were generators. The room was very clean and decorated nicely, there was more than enough storage space, there was a nice and secure lock on the door , and the beds were made every day. There was even this cool electronic thing on the in and outside of the doors saying do not disturb / please make my room which you could control at the touch of a button.
The bathroom was nice and clean & the shower was lovely and powerful, unlike my expectations which were that it would be a weak drizzly european one. The only downside with the bathroom was that I found the floor got wet quite quickly and with tiles this could be quite dangerous.
My girlfriend tells me that the hairdryer was more than powerful enough?!
The rooms include quite relatively new television which has 30 odd channels of which about 5 are in English, including CNN and National Geographic channel. One thing about the hotel that I found very handy indeed is that there was a complimentary mini bar which is refilled every day when you're room is cleaned. Included were 2 bottles of still water, 2 bottles of sparking water, 2 fizzy cans, and a bottle of juice, this was quite a nice touch as drinks on the go in Rome were quite extortionately priced, especially seeing as the pound is so weak at the moment.
That leaves me with only the breakfast room to talk about. It's located on the fifth floor and is really quite pleasant. The food is what you would expect from a included breakfast on the continent, ham, cheese, bread, yogurts, cereal, orange juice, tea, or coffee. The room was lovely, there's a small balcony to sit on and this and the outside breakfast room which is covered look out over the river and the Vatican is clearly visible in the distance. This is one of the best parts of the hotel, especially when the sun's shining in the morning.
The location of the hotel is nice as it's out of the way of the hussle and bussle of central Rome and there is a convenient nice little restaurant 50 meters down the road to where you'd catch the tram back to Flamino. For the day time it's not close enough to continually keep popping back to but I found spending the majority of the day time walking around Rome was nice and you wouldn't really need to keep popping back to the hotel.
To sum up i'd say the hotel was clean, safe, friendly, in a good location, and had me feeling like i'd got value for money. Would definitely recommend it to anyone, whether young, old, with a family, or just on a group holiday, it's got to be a 4* hotel in my eyes.
Hope this was of help :)
