I've just read the two negative posts about this hotel. I think they've got the wrong hotel.

We booked this hotel from the reservations booth at the Termini Train station. Less than 1 minutes walk away.

We we arrived the receptionist was very friendly, we even received a complimentary drink at the bar. This hotel is the boutique variety. 2 lovely sculptures in the front entrance.

The room we stayed in was on the 5 floor, it was the best room during our 10 day visit. We stayed here for 2 days. The room was very clean with a plasma TV/satelite system. Free mini bar, a massive shower it was HUGE. In fact the whole toilet was HUGE!!!. This is a truely fantastic hotel. I would recommend it to anyone. Not the best location but only 2 minutes walk to the metro, then within 2 metro stops your at the spanish steps/or trevi fountain. In fact you could probably walk to them from the hotel. There's a lovely little restaurant directly over the road from the hotel, can't remember the name but food was very nice and cheap. I would visit again. Great hotel.

Hi,
We stayed here as the first part of a multicentre trip, we landed are Rome airport and got the train to the center of Rome (Teminus), don't forget to get your tickets stamped on the station platform, the walk to the hotel from the station was short and uneventful, although the area was extremly lively, the hotel was clean and the staff friendly, the room had no view, but to be honest there were no views to be had anyway. There were free soft drinks in the room and breakfast was good, you do need to ask for speciality coffee's though, Expresso, lates etc. It is a bit of a walk to most of the attractions, although you can get the metro for 1 Euro, we walked everywhere. Overall I was happy to start my holiday here.

Ariston was perfect for an overnight before our cruise out of
Civitavecchia. We took the train from the airport. The hotel was
less than 2 blocks away. The breakfast was wonderful. The
room was small, but the TV had the BBC and CNN for watching
Olympic coverage. Sorry we did not stay there on our return
from the cruise since it is so convenient to the train station.

We have just returned from a week on the Royal Caribbean cruise and we stayed one night at the Ariston Hotel. The hotel is conveniently located about 3 minutes walk from Roma Termini, the main train station. Once you walked out the train station from via Giolitti exit, you can already see the hotel sign. However, you have to make sure you book a delux room because when I first read about the comments on Tripadvisor, I saw that some visitors had a different kind of room. Remember to check with the reservation before hand to make sure you get one of the designers' room. It cost us EUR149 per night including breakfast. Normally for Rome, you have to pay at least EUR 200 to get anything decent. Also the stars don't really mean anything in Italy. The hotel itself is hip and modern so was the room we stayed in. However, I just had one complaint which is the aircon. Although the reading shows 16, it definitely felt like 25. We have told the hotel about it, so hopefully it will be fixed it by the time you visit this hotel.
Continental breakfast was great too. Since we arrived quite late in the evening and suffering from jetlag, we didn't have time to visit the bar which looks really trendy.
Given the price of the hotel, I would say this is probably the best value for your money. I am extremely fussy about the hotels I stay at but this hotel definitely fits the bill of cheap and chic. Most of all, it is most convenient if all you want to visit Rome because it is so close to the train and metro station.