This hotel is situated in the San Lorenzo region of Rome on the famous Via Tiburtina. The area is a working class district and is lively, charming and a little run down. There is a university nearby so there is a high concentration of students. The stazione Termini is within walking distance (10-15 mins along the Aurelian Walls) or there is a bus route which stops outside the hotel.
The hotel itself was ok, the room was large and could have done with a lick of paint and the bathroom was small. The hotel staff were friendly. A hotel like this is useful for resting and sleeping before spending most of the day in Rome. You wouldn't want to laze around in your hotel room. There was a lovely cafe nearby where breakfast is free if you stay here as well as a nice gelataria and a few trattorias. Most of all it was useful being close to the main bus and train terminal.

Points about this hotel:

1. It is a good mile away from the train station but if you learn to use the bus system you won't have to walk so much. Buy a day pass from the hotel attendant and take bus 71 to the Tiburtina station, jump on the metro and then go anywhere you want in the city.

2. There is the worst racket you have ever heard in your life on the main street next to the hotel. You might want to bring ear plugs.

3. The service people do not speak english but you would be surprised what hand gestures and a little pointing can do. Be nice to them and they will be nice back. It is easy to get irritated and take it out of the guy at the front desk.

4. There is spray paint everywhere but that goes for Rome in general. They need to make spray paint illegal.

5. You share showers and toilets but you do have a beday(sp) and a sink in your room.

6. The beds are very firm but that goes for any nonwesterized hotel you will stay at in Italy.

The hotel has nothing of romantic value. The rooms are dark, cheaply decorated and the beds are uncomfortable to the stage that the metal strings are picking through your skin. The area, San Lorenzo, in itself is the worst bit of Rome you could possibly stay in. The metro is miles away; you will end up walking up and down the street leading to the station at least 1km which is the not worth seeing at all. We went to one restaurant, a Kebab shop, which wasn’t too bad – but certainly nothing worth coming to Rome for. The hotel receptionists are sleazy and very unhelpful. We tried to check out earlier because there were no bathrooms in our room and they still wanted us to pay the second night, which forced us to stay there.

Overall, I would not recommend this hotel for a few reasons.

There were two main issues. Firstly, the rooms were not air conditioned and did not have any ceiling fans or any method of keeping air circulation apart from keeping the window open. But the hotel was located on an extremely busy street with cars and buses running all night long, not to mention the cafe-bar downstairs that brought extra noise into the area. So you were torn between closing the window so you had some peace and boiling in the process, or getting in some fresh air at the expense of peace.

The other main issue was the noise from the corridor linking all the rooms at night. People came and went all night, and none of them seemed to show any regard for people who were trying to sleep, with plenty of talking and doors banging at 3AM in the morning, not to mention the night bell that could be heard upstairs too. The management did not seem show any concern for all the noise, with no signs left around the hotel suggesting guests be quiet in the corridor at night or any thing like that.


Combine these issues with the fact that our bathroom absolutely stank of an unfresh-drain-like odour (almost unbearable), the token breakfast of a luke-warm coffee and a pastry, and the walk through some of Rome's dodgiest streets at night to get back to hotel, I would not advise others to stay here. I am sure you could find something a fairbit more comfortable for a few euros more per night.

The staff at the hotel were generally very nice, however they did not speak very good English.