The location of this hotel is fantastic. It is down a little alley, but it is one block from the Colosseum and the Metro. You cannot get around Rome as a tourist without the Metro - the busses are rubbish and the taxis are ripoff merchants - the taxi from the train to the hotel (2 km) tried to charge us €15...
We had several problems with the room but the main problem (the shower) was repaired during our stay (good news for you!) and we got a discount for this. The rooms are small, but here you are paying for location. 24 hr front desk, and a €50 limo to the airport was good too - when you see driving in Rome you will want that Mercedes with 57 airbags when you're going 140 kph on the motorway!
Continental breakfast was OK if limited - I would say this hotel is 3 star as advertised.
Getting around Rome - you can walk to the Colosseum, Forum etc from the hotel easily. Get a Metro for all other sites. Don't bother waiting and working busses out - the Metro is much better and €1 per trip. Just keep an eye on your wallet/handbag.
In Rome tourist books say get away from the main sites if you want to avoid touristy restaurants - I recommend against this as you won't find any unless you know Rome. Suck it up and pay €40-60 for a good meal with a bottle of wine - very tasty! Try to find places that have Italians and don't go anywhere that is empty, has a guy trying to drag you in out front, or only has tourists - anywhere that locals are dining is fantastic! Just around the corner from the hotel on the main street there are 4-5 restaurants that do street dining under cover and they were lovely - probably tourist lovely but that was fine with us. Opposite the Spanish steps there is a narrow lane (1 block away from where all the designer stores are) and 150m down there we found another great place.
Vatican lines were fine at 8.30am but awful around 11am. Go to the Museums first! The queue for St Peter's looks massive but moves fast!