Came to Rome with a bunch of colleagues from all over the world. The foyer is stunning and the room for breakfast would take your breath away. Rooms are small, but neat. However, many face other buildings or the street: collegues complained that it was extremely noisy and had to change their room. I recommend rooms facing the courtyard.
Biggest downside: service was very bad. Internet was non functioning for more than 48 hours and reception was totally unhelpful (quite rude too!). There is not fitness club, which is also pretty bad. Finally, the price was way too high, despite the great central location and the spectacular ground floor.

I visited Rome with my husband and my two little children (3,5 & 7 years old).We had made the reservation from Greece. We had asked for two connecting rooms.
When we got there, they could not give us connecting rooms in the category we had paid for. They finally found rooms, luckally on the same floor, but away one from the other.
In the rooms, the fabrics were very dirty. The curtains, the sofa and the armchair, too. The bathroom was quite clean. The wall to wall carpet was extremely dirty! The location was fine. It was near to everything we were interested. BUT,
that was NOT a 5 star hotel (for sure!)!!!

Before visiting in Aug/09 I was concerned by the previous negative reviews and contacted the Grand Plaza about my apprehensions.
I am happy to report that the hotel took very good care of us. All of the staff we came in contact with were amiable & helpful.
Our two bedroom suite with balcony was very nice, although our outdoor furniture needed re-upholstering. Large portions of the hotel were undergoing renovation but that didn't interfere with our stay. Although a more complete refurbishment would be ideal by my standards, I must say that the Grand Plaza has a charming patina that is entirely in keeping with the rest of Rome.
The location is absolutely superb.

My husband bought me a weekend in Rome for Christmas, and I was really looking forward to staying in what was described in the brochure as a 5 star superior hotel. We checked in with unfriendly staff who couldn't find our booking. When they finally got it together we were given our room key and had to get on with it - no being shown to our room or having our bags taken up as you'd expect with a 5 star hotel. The lounge is huge and amazing, with gigantic chandeliers and painted ceilings. However our room was small, although we think this is part of the charm of an older hotel! There was no air conditioning - it's only turned on in the summer . There was no shower curtain or panel so it was impossible to shower in the traditional way without flooding the entire bathroom, and there was no movie channel as it was broken. We had to request a second bathrobe as only one was provided. On the upside, it was very quiet; our room looked on to the inner courtyard. We wandered around the hotel like ghosts, being ignored by staff, it was one of the strangest hotel experiences we've ever had! The barman was the only staff member who was friendly. The continental breakfast was adequate but there was no bread, ham or fresh fruit and it relied heavily on sweet pastries. The coffee, thank goodness, was fantastic. Hot food was very expensive. This hotel is big on faded grandeur and clearly gets away with a huge amount because of its location; it's ideally situated in the centre of the best shopping, near to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. You can't fault the location but we'll look for a different hotel for our next stay in Rome because this place is ridiculously overpriced. We went to two excellent restaurants near the Trevi Fountain; Il Chianti and another just around the corner - the food was heavenly.