Stayed at the Donna Laura Palace for a weekend in October 2009. We had booked the Deluxe Triple Room which was spacious, well furnished and more than fitted the bill. Reception staff were pleasant enough although didn't exactly go above and beyond the call of duty!
The area in which the hotel is located is a bit out from the historic centre of Rome but you can walk it in about 20 minutes or so. The easiest way to get in and out of the city centre is by Metro and the Lepanto Metro Station is only about 10 minutes from the hotel. Overall the Donna Laura Palace was very good value for money and you would need to pay almost double the cost if you wanted a 4 star hotel in the city centre - so like most things in life - you get what you pay for!

Seriously. I really can not understand the difficulties people had with this hotel. I did a really stupid thing, so I thought. I picked this hotel purely on the photos I saw whilst browsing through my holiday provider. I didn't read any reviews until the night before I flew and thought that I had made the biggest mistake of my life. As this was a special occasion for myself and my partner; I didn't want a run of the mill hotel- but not being a millionaire I couldn't afford something top of the range either. The Donna Laura Palace looked nice. A bit better than nice- so after reading the reviews on this site- my heart sunk.
However, after finding the hotel- which I believe is perfectly placed if you don't mind walking for more than five minutes- I couldn't have been more welcomed and looked after anywhere else. The receptionist (called Danilo) was amazing and he couldn't do enough for us- and nothing was too much trouble. The guy at the bar and the waiter who served us our evening meal (even though it was exceptionally late) were so lovely, I knew that the reviews on this site couldn't be right. Ok, I will concur that the evening meal was not wonderful and it wasn't the best that I had in Rome- but it wasn't that bad either. Perfectly edible and about the right price for a hotel.
The Donna Laura Palace Hotel is situated approximately 10 mins from Lepanto Metro- as long as you know where you are going. You can walk to Piazza del Popolo in around 15 mins and it took me the grand total of 35 mins to get to the Colosseum. It's miles away from everything- isn't it?! The Vatican museums are around 20 mins away and you are surrounded by Alimentari (grocery shops), gellateria (ice-cream shops), restaurants, trattorias and on the Cola de Rienzo you have boutiques, electrical shops and general high street stuff! Amazing- if that's what you came to Rome for.

I have to admit that I spent quite a lot of my time in Rome walking from one place to another- but if I had really wanted to, I could have tripped about 5-10mins down the road and bought my metro ticket and got to wherever I wanted in about 5mins as the metro seems to run every minute. I even took my luggage on the metro. It really wasn't a problem.

Yes, the Donna Laura is on a main road- but it is set back and has a lovely little courtyard at the front surrounded by trees (and it has a pomegranate tree in the centre!). And no the taxi's won't pull up outside the door- but I suppose it must be a real struggle to get the luggage all 20 metres from the road to the door. But I knew all of this, I checked to see where it was on google maps before I went. I did this because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't too far out of central Rome- and this hotel is far from that. All the staff were friendly and spoke English (and even humoured me when I tried to speak very poor Italian!), the room was clean, comfortable, big and well decorated and the check in and out procedure was fast and efficient.

I was so impressed with this hotel that I will return. No question. I don't think I would ever stay anywhere else in Rome, even if I was loaded. I even told them so on the way out.

We finally arrived at the hotel after a long train journey from Florence. The entrance hall of hotel looked good and we were looking forward to a warm welcome. However, the reception staff told us that there was a problem with our room (no electricity or hot water) and that they'd reserved us a room at their sister hotel even further away from the city. We questioned this further - why only with one room surely this would affect the whole floor? We refused to go to the other hotel and asked to view our room but they eventually gave us a room on the ground floor when we said that we'd like a refund (reservation was pre-booked). The room was too small and right next to the noisey entrance. This incident made us feel very unwelcome as tourists - the hotel generally favours business guests more. Otherwise hotel is clean, the breakfast is okay, coffee awful. But the jacuzzi was a great treat after a long day of site seeing. We have read similar experiences on trip advisor before booking, hence why we stuck to guns about not moving! Book at your discretion but be aware. With hindsight, would not have booked with this hotel and paid a bit more for better service and more central location. PS. Good tram service to Vatican.

The hotel from the road looks like a private residence - the entrance is thorugh a driveway come car park and the taxi cannot drive to the front door to drop you off. The area has a wide range of buildings and was quite safe to walk around at night (as long as bushes were avoided due to the homeless population). It was about a 20 min walk to Vatican City and another 20 min walk from the Spanish steps back at night. The pathway down by the river was nice to walk down during the day, but it was a little dark at night to feel safe.

We arrived at 1am to a nice welcome by the night porter - who was on duty and awake at 1am for the time that we stayed.

The rooms were "interesting". Two small single beds were considered a double room, the air con worked for 30 mins before the fuse tripped and the fan in the bathroom never worked. However, the shower was good, the beds comfortable and the curtains cut out the light. We were on the ground floor and did not have a balcony (nor felt safe enough to sleep with the windows open, which was a pity with the absence of air conditioning). The safe was tricky to work without reading the instructions, but simple after that. The room seemed relatively clean.

The breakfasts were "interesting" - fruit salad out of a tin, pastries that had seen better days, fruit juice from a machine and coffee like mud (out of a large jug). All in all a bit disappointing but relatively edible and fit for the purpose.

This is a hotel that I would stay at again if necessary, but only for business. If I was to return to Rome on holiday, I would try and find a hotel closer to the centre.