I recently stayed a few night's at the Hotel Garda and found it more than satisfactory for the price. The rooms are admittedly small and not terribly elegant but they are very clean and comfortable and even the little single room had high ceilings and a big window that opened out with a view of the street. The common areas are neatly furnished and the effect is very modern and pleasant. The staff could not have been nicer. they were available 24 hours and seemed happy to help with any suggestions or problems. The location is absolutely ideal! It is just a few short blocks to some of the best shopping, dining and sightseeing in Rome. The Hotel Garda itself is not particularly romantic but if you are traveling alone or with friends it is safe, clean, well-appointed and ideally situated for a nice stay.

Avoid room 104, it has a view over the stairs and lift shaft with no natural daylight. This resulted in a dull and uninviting room, with no ventilation. Shower tiny and not much water pressure.

Other rooms we peeped into were again clean but small and gloomy.

Hotel itself difficult to find, basically an anonymous shared entrance, leading into a long corridor, onto another barred gate behind which is the lift upto the hotel reception on the 4th floor.

Hotel reception light and airy with modern decor. Reception staff great - fantastic tip re. entrance to Colloseum, i.e. buy tickets at Roman forum before walking down to the Colloseum, straight past its massive ticket queue and in! Basically given full and tailored guide to the city - great.

Breakfast, not special - basic, fresh danish pastries and coffee - the Italian way (according to the guide book).

On arrival, the builiding and lobby looked lovely and even the reception area of the hotel was nicely decorated. The room, however, was not so good feeling cramped and gloomy. The bathroom was appalling - think cracked tiles and the shower was tiny and was just like turning on a tap full blast and standing under it. To add insult to injury, the shower door kept falling off too!

Breakfast was just OK - not a lot of choice but the croissants were fresh.

All in all, I would rate this hotel more of a 2* than 3*. Good if you want to be near to the Via Veneto, but I'm afraid that's about all.

Spent a week in Rome in March 2008 with a friend and I must say our trip was successful partly thanks to the wonderful and friendly staff of Garda Hotel. Everybody was very professional and understanding even though there were a few blunders from our part regarding our reservation and paying of the room in the end. Luckily everything got sorted out and we're very thankful to Claudio for his helpfulness (he's really wonderful and a great concierge ;)).

The hotel itself was clean and simple, rooms were spacious and the bathroom well-lit. It's a hotel people; you shouldn't expect it to have all the same luxury you can find at home. We were pleased with our room, it had the basics we needed for a good holiday in Rome - and it's not like you spend a lot of time in the hotel anyway.

The location was wonderful, only a 10-minute walk from the Spanish Steps and from there you could walk almost everywhere. It was great for not having to take the subway or the bus every night to get back to our hotel, it's really just a walking distance from many main attractions.

Should I ever go back to Rome, I would definitely stay here again and would recommend this hotel to others as well.