This hotel looks quite good - the rooms are spacious and comfortable, thought lacking in the extra's that you expect in a 4 star. Its very functional rather than luxurious. However any feelings you have about the building are over-ridden by the incredible rudeness and obnoxiousness of the staff. Two days in a row the person at the front desk in the morning claimed not to speak english, though we later heard him speak english on the phone. When we enquired about where a particular bus departed from they told us they didn't know, but did not offer to try to find out. They then gave us incorrect (or maybe confusing, anyway we didn't find it) directions to an internet cafe so that we could find out for ourselves.
When we asked to order an early morning taxi the night before they said this was not necessary and to do it in the morning. When we did, the taxi never appeared, then we were told that they only normally order taxi's for the airport and so could not be responsible for taxi's going elsewhere. This was not even 1 star service.

We booked and paid for our "stay" at the Hotel Ripa in December of 2004 .The hotel looked lovely but sadly all we saw of it was the lobby. We had booked for April 22nd for 3 nights for my Birthday celebration. We were pleased to have booked so far in advance as that weekend turned out to be the new Pope's inaugaral mass. We arrived and had our passports and credit card processed by the receptionist who then asked us to wait to see if our room was ready. Ten minutes later she told us that we did not have a booking in our name. We showed her the confirmation from our travel agent but she said the hotel had no contract with that agent ( we discovered later that she had lied) . She refused to telephone the agent but she somehow knew that we had a confirmed booking at the Best Western in Termini. We were convinced that there was a mix up and contacted our agent on my mobile phone. They advised that the Ripa had confirmed our booking and that they knew nothing of the booking at the Best Western.
So we were left with the idea that we would have nowhere to stay on one of the busiest weekends Rome had ever known. We noticed that a steady procession of Catholic Priests had no such problems getting the keys for the rooms they had clearly only booked a few days before!
After a tearful hour and a half we realised that the hotel Ripa had decided to transfer us to the Best Western ( which was horrible by the way) . They had bumped us so that they could make a kick buck off the back of the Pope dying. I'm sure it's a nice Hotel but the owners and staff are clearly less than honourable.
They never admitted the truth or apologised , blaming the whole mess on the agents. Our agents Total Stay very kindly refunded our first nights accomodation even though it was not their fault.

Just come back from Rome. I stayed at Ripa and here are my comments:

ROOM: Large and stylish. The internet connection is through the phone line so it's slow, you have to create a new connection in your computer and have to pay for it.
BATHROOM: Towels didn't smell very good. Toiletries are like whatever hotel. Nothing special.
BREAKFAST: Nothing special.
STAFF: Unhepful. They just answer your questions but they don't try to help you.
TAXI: If you need to go to the airport don't use the car service that the staff will try to offer you. Cost is 50€. We refused their offer and asked for a taxi and the cost to Ciampino Airport was 20€: We save 30€!!!
LOCATION: It's not in trastevere neighbourhood but in Porta Portese. However the location is correct if you don't mind to stay out of the action.

Ripa hotel has been refurbished with an stylish decor and the rooms are nice but besides that the hotel is like a 3 stars hotel, the staff is unhelpful and there are no services at all.

After reading some other reviews I was somewhat apprehensive about what lay ahead of me at the Ripa. I need not have worried. Ripa did exactly what it said on the tin!! A funky hotel, not pretty on the outside, but in a great location in Trastevere . The staff were very polite and helpful and the breakfast was great (except for having to wait for the bacon and eggs to arrive). Would recommend this hotel, and if you get it at the price we did (100 euro per night B&B for two), it is also excellent value for money. Would have no hesitation in staying there again.