We booked via Haystack (Lonely Planet). We had to pay €20 per night more, than if we had directly booked at the hotel, which we found unfair. So we ended up paying €100 for a €80 per night room, as they only spoke italian, and we couldn´t explain it to them. Angela, the hotel owners wife, kept the hostel spotlessly clean (Which also meant vacuuming at 8 am). It was a bit like living at home with your parents again. She is a kind of overprotective italian mum. "Are you dressed warm enough, it´s going to be cold today". Doesn´t matter if you don´t speak italian, she´ll make it clear to you, speeking louder and gesturing a lot. You can always find her in the hostel, cleaning or making sudoku´s in the living room. The room itself was great value for money. It was small, with the bathroom at the end of the hallway. You had to cross the living room(with Angela) first. Location of the hostel is great, in a quiet, decent neighbourhood near the Vatican, metro, a supermarket, cheap breakfast places and restaurants. Her husband, with a Don Corleone voice, was also friendly. He is the quiet type, but loved to talk about the forum romanum.

We had a great stay at the Lady Hotel, especially for the very low rate off season. The gentleman speaks little English, but his charming wife is great. This is, I should mention, their home, and very, very clean. Close enough to the Metro and breakfast cafes and out of the mainstream of noise. The bed was very, very firm and a welcome place at the end of the day.
With my rudimentary Italian, I was able to get great restaurant rec's from the owner, too.
We'll stay there again when we go back to Rome, as the price was right, it was clean and close to Metro.

I usually rely on this site for excellent opinions so am a bit hesitant to post the first review for this hotel. The venere web site reviews were all excellent so I gave it go! Maybe my friend and I were unfortunate as there was a disagreement about the price of the room so I will try not to let that influence my review. The room cost 130 Euros which was very overpriced compared to the excellent quality of accomodation I have experienced elsewhere. It was small, musty and cold because the heating had been turned off even though it was still only early march. The bed was a camp bed style on metal frame. Breakfast was not even included (10 euros) so we went to a bar around the corner. The welcoming commitee were very difficult to comprehend (talking to them in Italian as I live here in Italy and they speak no English) and were very off putting as their shouting conversation was very clear through the walls. My friend and I carried our suit cases around Rome for the rest of the day rather than ask to leave them and have to go back. Could not wait to leave the hotel.