My wife and I stayed 4 nights in mid-June 2008. Our primary reason for choosing this hotel was its proximity to another hotel where family members were staying (in order to meet up with them daily). That said, I don't understand when reviewers weigh location so heavily against a hotel--it's not as if the hotel changed locations before you arrived. You know in advance where they are, and you can look them up on Google Maps, multimap, etc. A little research goes a long way!
This hotel is indeed not very close to the central tourist area, but the price reflects that. My wife and I were regularly able to walk 10 minutes to Balduina station and take the light rail to Trastevere, or transfer to the Metro at Valle Aurelia. For anyone who has used big city transit before, this is not a big deal. We were in the historic center within 30 minutes each day. A ticket costs 1 Euro, while lesser hotels in a "better" location are often an additional 50 Euros or more per night. You can do the math...
PLUSES:
1. Excellent and friendly desk staff, especially Paolo. All spoke very good English and most were extremely helpful--you could transfer this staff to the Cavalieri Hilton (EUR400/night) and they would fit in perfectly. We were very impressed with their professionalism and work ethic.
2. Clean rooms with plenty of information available.
3. Good closets and lots of shelving space
4. Very good breakfast staff, plus a pretty good breakfast. The eggs were marginal, but the cold meats, cheeses, yogurts, coffees and pastries were all very good and filling.
5. Free parking and exercise room (we did not use either one, but worth noting)
6. Bellboys were VERY quick and helpful.
7. Common areas were fairly clean and well maintained.
MINUSES:
1. The air conditioner in our first room stopped functioning after a few hours. The replacement portable A/C required the window be left open for the exhaust hose. It rained that night. Not very pleasant. However, they were able to move us to a new room the next morning.
2. The wallpaper in both rooms was peeling, though not excessively so.
3. Upon check out, the desk clerk insisted that my credit card would not work (this would have been the first failure in 9 years, including 5 trips abroad). I ended up having to walk nearly 30 sweaty minutes round-trip to the nearest ATM to find cash to pay the bill. I am almost certain that this was a ploy to get me to pay in cash; if not, it sure is an odd coincidence. I used the same card without problems for two additional weeks in Italy. This particular desk staffer had a bad attitude in general, nothing like the other two we dealt with during our stay.
If the key statistic is "Would you stay here again?", then the answer is definitely YES. Even if I wanted to stay closer to the historic center, I would still consider staying at Zone and making the transfer into town each day--I doubt you'll find a better experience for the money anywhere in Rome.
