We have just returned from a 4 night stay in Rome. We have been to Rome quite a few times and this time we decided to stay close to the Vatican City in order to explore this area in more details. We found La Maison Royale on the Internet (Romeby(-)) and made a booking approx 2 months before our trip. The reservation was confirmed and we were looking forward to our stay. Two nights before our departure we received an email from the Hotel Atalante Star (through which you book La Maison Royale) that they were sorry to inform us that our reservation with La Maison Royal was cancelled and that they were going to put us up in another hotel only 5 min away from were we had originally booked.
I quickly replied to the email expressing my confusion - especially because the hotel they had moved us to was not to find anywhere on the Internet except for 1 review on a webpage that I do not remember the name of (similar to Tripadvisor.com). This review was NOT positive and we therefore got worried about the quality of the new hotel. I never got a reply to my email and when I tried to call them the following day they only replied that the lady in charge of bookings had the day off! We tried to make other reservations at other hotels in the area just in case but EVERYTHING was booked (we were 4 people and needed 2 double rooms). We finally decided have a look at the hotel (San Valentino) and then decide once we got there weather or not we wanted to move to another hotel. San Valentni was absolutely awful! First of all it was not 5 but approx 15-20 min away from La Maison Royal. We could have lived with the fact that the TV was the seize of a shoebox and did not work, that the light switches in the bathroom kept falling of - just like the on/off thing in the shower, that the toilet was placed almost under the sink so you had to sit sideways, that the toilet seat was broken and therefore often came half way off when you tried to sit on it, that the beds felt like something from a second World War hospital, if - and only if - the rooms had been clean! It was sooooo dirty there that we did not unpack any of our stuff!! We spend the first evening on the phones trying to find another hotel, but it was absolutely impossible. The following day we tried to call La Maison Royal to complain, but the receptionist kept telling us to call back because the booking office was either closed or no one was there. We finally gave up……..
In other words, be prepared for a bit of everything if you chose La Maison Royale!