My wife & I went to Rome last year (2008) and stopped at the Madison.

Not the best area to stay, but ideal to get about being across the road from the Terminii.

With the city open bus tours starting down the road and the Metro across the road this hotel is well placed.

The hotel it's self is clean and the staff friendly. My only gripe is the coffee for breakfast comes from a flask (I feel not proper coffee as the Italians would drink).

This has to be one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed in. My husband was lecturing in Rome for one day and the hotel was booked for him by the client he was working for. I joined him for an extra couple of days.
We arrived late on the Friday evening, and having looked at the website, couldn't believe this was the same hotel. The guy on reception was reasonably friendly but no one was around to help with the luggage. The lift was very dodgy and we both had the feeling it could break down at any minute. The room was dark and cramped but it was the bathroom that really angered us. Incredibly narrow and the shower stall was so tiny. Any idea of having a relaxing, refreshing shower quickly disappeared. This was a double room but the toiletries were a joke. No box of tissues and just one small bottle of shower gel. They couldn't have made it less attractive if they'd tried.
It was a very warm night but the 'air conditioning' that is mentioned on the website was more like a fan blowing hot air. By the time we'd unpacked we were both too tired to complain and proceeded to have a very uncomortable night's sleep. The bed was two twins pushed together, one paper thin pillow each and a rock solid mattress.
Breakfast was ok, although the staff were very unwelcoming.
Well, at least this review has a happy ending. When my husband finished work on Saturday afternoon, we checked out of this dump and booked into the Hilton. Absolute paradise. I realise you get what you pay for in this world, but this hotel is supposed to be 3 star. I wouldn't give it 1 star.

I don't know how the hotel madison compares to other hotels in Rome.. but it didn't live up to our expecations of a three star hotel. The location is good. But the rooms are small and you get the feeling they've crammed as many rooms as possible into the building for maximum profit. That being said the room was rather fancy (marble bathroom..) - but the ceilings were thin (we could hear people talking over us) and the breakfast was not good, staff wasn't very friendly..not the greatest place.

We've read the negative reviews, and have a hard time correlating them to our experience ... we arrived in Rome tired and worn out and the hotel was completely accommodating and helpful.

We found the hotel to be so very convenient -- close to the Termini station, but also walkable to the ancient sites, which we walked to without too much trouble (the Colliseum and Forum are NOT that far away!) I have severe knee problems, and I was able to do it without difficulty.

Our room was very, very nice -- much bigger than we thought it might be -- and the bathroom was luxurious, although strangely without a shower curtain. Our only complaint was that the water out of the bathroom faucets was not potable -- something we found out only AFTER we drank some. In Rome, this is less of a problem than it sounds, as there are free public water fountains EVERYWHERE. The air conditioning was just adequate to keep the room comfortable. Otherwise, our room exceeded our expectations.

We thought we got a great deal on the hotel and were very satisfied. In fact, we tried to change our reservations to stay the whole time at the Madison (as it was so much nicer than we expected) but were not able to as it was booked.

Breakfast was very good -- I especially enjoyed the yogurt, granola and coffee -- all of which were wonderful.

It's true the halls are somewhat of a maze, but we thought that was fun, and not at all dark or scary. The neighborhood is what you would expect 50 feet from a train station, but we didn't find it scary, either -- you just had to keep your wits about you. We heard NOTHING at night -- our room was well-insulated.

Overall, our stay at the Hotel Madison was a good one, and we would not hesitate to stay there again.