I'm giving this place a 2* based solely because they offered us a free dinner in recompense for not honouring our booking. If not, it would have got one only.

We booked some time ago via internet, got a confirmation and we also reconfirmed. When we arrived in Rome, our friends who had also booked a room told us that they had no rooms for us, and had also turned other people away. The alternative hotel they sent our friends to was dingy and horrible, so they returned and waited for us. My husband and the other guy then went to argue it out. Being Italian this was easier for them - other people just got turned away.

FINALLY, we were offered 2 rooms in a hotel in another part of Rome, and a dinner on the house (for 6 of us). The hotel we were sent to - River Chateau in Flaminio area - turned out to be very nice so in the end we got an OK deal. At the time it wasn't amusing and I'm sure we only got this because we mentioned the word 'avvocato'. Again, perhaps the fact the hotel knew that we were Italian meant that we could actually put our money where our mouths were.

It's a shame we didn't get to stay there. The lobby area was fantastic and very modern. The restaurant was excellent - food very good - and great loos. Made us wish we were staying there.

I don't know what happened at the Abitart to make all these rooms unavailable, but I do know that having to argue with hotel reception was very tiring. I wouldn't risk booking there again.

We stayed at the Hotel Abitart March 3-6, 2006.
Hotel - Nice rooms, but hot, very noisey area - if you're not on the back side of the hotel - you won't sleep. Good bathrooms, hard beds and pillows.
Breakfast was good.
Restaurant attached: expensive, need reservations, rude staff
Front desk: spoke English, not very friendly
Location: BAD....if you're in the city to as a tourist - very bad location. 20 euro taxi to the Vatican Musuem.

I cannot stress this enough about this so-called hotel - please do not waste your money. We stayed there stayed for 3 nights in May 2005. I had phoned ahead to reserve a specific suite in the hotel for our stay. When we got here around 6pm to check-in, they informed us the suite was not ready and asked if we would mind staying in another suite and our suite would be ready in the morning. We reluctantly agreed. The next morning, we went down to reception to swop keys back to our own suite but once again were informed that it was not ready. Obviously unhappy at this, they assured me it would ready within the hour. 20 mins later they claimed the suite was ready and we checked in. We had a great day in Rome and returned later around 11pm to go to bed. Upon getting into bed, we were horrified to discover the sheets had not been changed and there was actually blood stains on the sheet. After calming down a little, I immediately contacted the night porter who changed the sheet to the best of his ability. The next morning I charged down to reception to comfront the hotel manager. Not only was he dis-interested and pretty un-apologetic, he had the audacity to accuse us of putting the blood there ourselves because we were unhappy that our suite wasnt ready! Have you ever heard anything like that in your life? I am not a violent person but that just about tipped me over the edge.
Bottom line - do not give these people your well earned money.

Just got back from 3 nights in Rome. I searched for days looking at different hotels for Rome and ended up staying at this hotel. Both myself and my husband loved the hotel. The staff were great and the area we found to be brilliant!

Our room was a blue room and had a walk in wet room shower! Which was perfect for cooling our feet after a long day walking! The area around the hotel was great as after walking all day the last thing we wanted to do was walk on a night. There were about 10 restaurants around our hotel in the back streets which were really authentic and served brilliant food and were really cheap compared to the city restaurants. The hotel is only a short walk from Pyramide Metro which is 2 stops from the colloseum and 5 from Termini. The lido train also went from Pyramide station.

A word of warning about anyone wanting to use the Terravision/Ryanair service from Ciampino! We waited over an hour to leave the airport and other passengers had waited over 2 hours for the return coach!!! Definately would use the train/metro next time!

Breakfasts at the hotel were ok but not brilliant! Make sure you eat early or there isnt much choice left.

The rooms were spotless! Ask for a quiet room away from the main road but there again all hotels in Rome are noisy.

We never encountered any pickpockets but i think you just have to be weary and keep your eyes open all the time on the Metro.