Good location, but walls are paper thin, and the water pipes regularly and loudly proclaimed someone above had either flushed the toilet or was taking a shower. Fairly helpful staff.

Although the location of Hotel Smeraldo IS great, we dubbed this hotel "Hotel Smells Awful." The staff was very indifferent, our room was VERY small and smelled bad (they don't have non-smoking rooms). The plus was because we really did not want to be in our room at all, we spent much more time seeing the sights than we might have otherwise. If you are looking for a central location for a decent price and not caring too much about the accommodations, this would be fine. If you are looking for something a bit more tolerable, keep looking.

While the hotel is in a great location and probably a good value considering Rome is expensive, I would probably not stay there again. The rooms were clean but the shower situation was a problem. Our first 2 nights we were in a room with a shower so tiny that even a petite person such as myself could barely fit. The water pressure was bad and it never really got hot. As a matter of fact, if you go when they have large school groups staying there you might not ever get a warm shower.
The staff as mentioned here time and time again was unfriendly and curt. I'm not a high maintenance person but I do expect hotel staff to be friendly. I guess they figure they don't need my money when they get alot of school groups filling up the rooms. Which is another red flag. If you want quiet and you hit it wrong and have kids staying there you're out of luck.

We just got back from a week at this hotel. The location couldn’t be beat for the price, near the Campo di Fiori and a ton of great restaurants. We could walk everywhere: Pantheon/Piazza Navona (5 min), Trevi Fountain (10-15 min), St. Peters (20 min), the Coliseum/Forum (20 min), even the Borghese Gallery (40 min). The hotel itself is missing that European charm but is still cute. Our room was small but clean, the beds were too much on the firm side for us but we slept fine since we were exhausted every night. The bathroom was small and the tiny shower was a bit of an adventure every morning. Not sure if the included breakfast was worth it, its just rolls and yogurt and coffee (as has been my experience in other hotels in Europe) but it was definitely quick and convenient. Our feeling was, when you are spending all day out sightseeing all you need is a place to sleep and shower and this was perfect. The very definition of No Frills.

The other reviews on this site are spot on about the staff though. I found them to be nice and helpful if we asked questions but not forthcoming with asking us if we needed a map, directions, etc. They made dinner reservations for us every night though after I asked. Fortunately we had done our research and had a map, and we like to explore on our own. One thing they don’t tell you is that at breakfast you can order cappuccino from the waitress. We overheard someone else do it so we did it took and it was much better than the regular coffee they serve! It was little things like that that were lacking but we wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again and would recommend it to others with the few caveats I mentioned above. For us, it was exactly what we were looking for.