Do not be taken in by the great marketing for this hotel, pity it doesnt live up to it.
Overpriced, rooms tiny, air conditioning poor, lift archaic, terrace tiny, appears on photos much better than it actually is.

I suggest you look elsewhere unless you absolutely must be about 500yds from St Peters Square.

Breakfast is OK.
Staff helpfull

I stayed at the Residenza Paolo VI for seven nights and had difficulty sleeping because of the cramped nature of everything in the room. The only plus was the full-size bed. When I was a seminarian in Rome, my room was three times as large! A previous reviewer must have had the same room as I because the photo did justice to the puny nature of the rooms on the second floor of the hotel. OK, two other pluses -- it is right next to the Vatican and the view from the access-limited veranda is very nice. However, you can go no more than three feet once you step outside. The rest of the area is off-limits. I was attending some formal functions at the Vatican that required a tux at night and suits during the day. The wardrobe closet had room for only half my stuff. Imagine if you stayed with a family? Well, you would need more than one room. The gasps of horror by elderly visitors when the staff opened the door to show them their tiny rooms were heard throughout my stay. There was no desk, just a small chair -- good for stacking things on it, that's about it. The room was gloomy as the window was obstructed at the bottom, allowing minimal light in. The bathrooms were small with the tiniest shower imaginable. I often changed the water temperature just because I was trying to wash my arms, legs, or hair and kept bumping into the regulator. Beware of the Web site propaganda and the fact the Residenza is actually listed in a luxury hotel chain guide. As another reviewer pointed out, English-language TV stations are limited to CNN and the Chinese government-run news channel, and the screen was only 13 inches, so it wasn't much fun watching anyway. Breakfast was edible but the poor staff never smiled and were not attentive at all. Every morning I had to go to the counter to ask for a cappucino. All of this "charm" cost me 210 Euros a night. I am supposed to bring a group of alumni here in October. Thank God I stayed here because I immediately called the travel agent and told him to find us another hotel.

Stayed here in mid-May in a 'twin room' accompanying an elderly 79 year old neighbour of mine whose long held wish was to see the Vatican and also Pope John Paul II's tomb. As this lady hasn't travelled since 1965 & has had a lot of illness recently, I chose the hotel on the basis that she would be able to see St. Peter's/Vatican from the hotel, AND have a nice looking hotel room - after all, the pictures of the rooms looked fine enough on the Residenzia Paolo site, and though not outstanding, I felt coupled with the location it would be a good balance.

I was very VERY sorely dissapointed, no so much for myself as I travel a lot, but for the elderly lady who was so looking forward to her big once in a lifetime trip - This has to be THE tiniest room I have ever had the displeasure of staying in.

The rooms are in my view around 2 star quality, and as the previous reviewer noted, the rooms show online are of the 2 suites that they have. Also it should be noted that this 'hotel' occupies the 3rd - 5th floor of a building, not the whole building.

There is no 'concierge' to greet you at the door as shown online either - a small lane with a privately run gift shop on the left leads up to a nondescript door, and a chronically slow lift/elevator takes you to the 3rd floor hotel.

At 270 euro a night you can see from my pictures what you get for your money - not enough room to swing the proverbial cat. The furniture, what little there is of it, is a dull looking utilitarian affair.

When we 'separated' the 'twin' beds by 6 inches so that we could at least have the pretence of a twin room, I couldn't even open the wardrobe. The safe in our wardrobe didn't work. The minibar was did work however - and at 5 euro the one solitary mini bottle of red wine was consumed between us to drown our sorrows - there was some stronger stuff in there, but we had a long day ahead of us and as I said, my friend isn't in her prime anymore!

The bathroom is virtually in the sleeping area - so you can hear all the comings and goings of your room mate inside the toilet whilst you watch the tiny tv - (only CNN and an Asian channel in English by the way). Most unpleasant. The bathroom is minute (surprise!) and again utilitarian with white tiles . They did supply the usual soaps/shower caps etc, but there's nowhere to store any of your own toiletries & it only contains a shower (no bath).

There is no dressing table in the bedroom so if you were thinking of going out on the town, you'd have to do your preening in front of the mirror in the tiny bathroom. There is a hair dryer placed in a holder above the bidet (the mind boggles).

The one bedroom window is impossible to see out of - very prison like - unless you jump up and hang on like an escapee you won't be looking out of the window at all.

I did complain to a member of staff that I thought the room very small, but they said they were all the same being as it was a former monastery. I did look in at other rooms and they did have the same 'inmate' type appearance.

You cannot go out onto the much vaunted terrace as someone else has noted - but to be fair you can see the top of St. Peter's, and at night it's quite a nice view (see pic) - but only a few seats (about 5 tables or so), so hopefully everyone in the 26 rooms won't want to sit at the side of the terrace at once.

The breakfast was again 2 star. The service was very inattentive. There were two waitresses on duty when we arrived, & neither were serving anyone. Even though they saw us seat ourselves down, they carried on cleaning breakfast bits and pieces and ignoring us. Eventually I had to call one over to order tea. Later I asked one of them for some pepper - and after some 5 minutes I didn't get it, so I got up and got it myself from another couple at another table. The scrambled egg was cold and the bacon looked burnt. The toaster didn't do much toasting. The tea was ok though. There was also the usual cold selection of various cereals/yoghurts and so on.

Back to the lift/elevator topic - there are two lifts - one to get to the hotel on the 3rd floor, and one for those who cannot climb stairs within the hotel to get to the next 2 floors. As I said, the lift to get to the hotel is chronically slow, but the interior lift is terminally ill. You have to press the lift button continuously to call the lift, and once inside the lift press your floor button continuously to get to your destination (you cannot take your finger off the button else it stops!!!!)....and it's slow... slow - SLOW - you wonder if you'll ever get out of there - and muse that perhaps you are in purgatory!.

If they had advertised the true state of the rooms I wouldn't have minded QUITE so much, and my singular mark for them has been influenced by the deception that the rooms are so much better than they are, else I would have given them 2 marks. This isn't a hotel in my view - it's a guest house and they should jolly well say so.

Really - my advice is don't bother with this hotel unless you really HAVE to be this close to St. Peter's/Vatican. The rooms in this hotel really only serve the true 'monks' amongst us!.

I decided to plan a 3-day trip to Rome through the internet. Unfortunately, despite its great quiet location (especially when one wants to visit the Vatican), the hotel disappointed me mainly because in most websites Residenza Paolo VI is presented as a luxury premier hotel. As you can see from the picture - this is not what people would describe as luxury!

I was so disappointed when I arrived that I had to take a picture of the room!

Its size was the size of a typical bathroom in other hotels! The bathroom was ok for one person, although very plain with just the basics. Of course in the hotel's web site they show their suite in the photos...

The cost for this single room in the photo was 192 euros per night (low season). I thought that because I was travelling alone, they gave me one of their worst rooms for single use. When I returned and read the other reviews, I realised that apparently all rooms except the suites are in the same condition.

Also, you could not see the promised view from their so much promoted veranda, neither could you see anything from the room window, which was located above my head (I am 167 cm tall) and I had to step on the bed to see outside!

The hotel personnel was very helpful and nice and breakfast was great.

It was fortunate that I only stayed 3 days.. and thank God Rome is such a wonderful and blessed city, with so many things to see and places to go!

[In Greece, you can stay at the Grande Bretagne, the most luxurious hotel in Athens with full amenities located in the centre of Athens with view of the Acropolis, with only 240 euros in the low season!]