My boyfriend and i stayed at the Aran Blu hotel in the last week of june 2007. We were assuming the hotel would be just as lovely as it was on its website but after reading all of the awful reviews we became really worried about our visit there and how bad the hotel would be.

However to our suprise, the hotel was excellent. The hotel staff were very pleasant and helpful, the bathroom was lovely, the hotel room were a reasonable size with plently of room to open your suitcase and walk around.
The room and bedsheets were nicely laid and clean upon arrival and the maids would change the sheets and towels everyday. We also would get new toiletries everyday such as shampoo, cream, soap, tissues and bath salts.
A complimentory bus would run every hour on time to and from the metro station so we didnt have to worry about gettin to the station unless we got late and missed the complimentory bus ourselves.
We would also wake up every morning around 9am to have a nice breakfast downstairs in the clean hotel restaurant with a variety of foods to select from (we read on a number of reviews that people had to wake up extra early to eat or there would be no food left and that they had to clear up dirty tables themselves in order to eat on them as the waitresses didnt clean the tables. We didnt find any of this to be the case at all).
The hotel gym and upstairs deck area was lovely and clean and was always open for everyone to use.
The hotel however is a bit of a trek away (45 minutes, 1 metro ride, 1 train ride) from rome central but with a good map and a cheap bus and metro travel card you could easily get around with no problems.
The neighbourhood around the hotel was quite run down although there was a beautiful clean harbour right next to the hotel which was full of luxury yaughts, cute little shops and a few restaurants. There was a bit of building renovation work going on around the side of the hotel although this did not disrupt our stay at the hotel and it wasnt within our view anyway.
The only issue that we actually had with the hotel was that upon booking the hotel through the website travelrepublic we were under the impression that we would get a sea view room however you can only get a seaview room if you pay an extra 100 euros per night for the room. We didnt really see this as a problem though as we were hardly at the hotel anyway as we were our visiting all the sites every day.

Overall we had a delightful stay at the hotel and we found rome itself to be a beautiful city and would definetly recommend the city and hotel to anyone considering visiting rome as long as they dont mind traveling a bit to get to rome central

This is not a 4 star hotel despite its claims. In itself the hotel is fine, clean and contemporary. Rooms are comfortable, and the seaview is worth paying for should you stay here. Leaving the patio door open allowed the noise of the lapping sea into the room, very soothing.

Breakfast - how dare they charge 180 eur/night and serve tinned fruit salad? In a land blessed with such fresh and plentiful produce?

Location: As stated elsewhere, this is not a 'happening' place, certainly not in mid April when I stayed. The beach is a disagrace - over-flowing bins left umeptied for days, the sand is full of cigarette butts. The surrounding neighbourhood is delapidated and not inviting. Graffitti, trash, weeds, empty flower beds, drab appartment buildings sum up the area.

Summary - not worth it, and miles (and 100 euro taxi ride) from Rome.

We were promised a seaview room when I booked it, but was told by hotel staff that if I wanted a view it would be an additional 100 Euro's. After having been ripped off by a taxi driver on the way there- I declined and kept the room with the view of the apartments in touching distance. Also, there is no free shuttle to the airport--as I was also led to believe- they were happy to arrange transport for 40 Euro's. Nice place, but after ten days of "watching my back" and trying not to get robbed in Italy (with a couple of near misses), I was happy to leave.

I stayed at the Aran Blu for two nights, since I was only in Rome for 2 days (site visit for upcoming conference). I usually stay in the conference hotel but since it was my first trip outside the US in 15 years and I had a 7 a.m. flight out the next morning, I opted to stay at the hotel close to the airport.

The hotel is modern, with nice marble touches for the headboard and the frosted glass panes for the minibar, closet, bathroom and door to the spacious patio. The king-sized bed was actually two twins and was without a fitted sheet. The bed was low but had two nice bendable reading lamps. The room itself was very small since the bed took up a lot of the space. There was no room to open up the suitcase and the closet was not floor to ceiling, rather up on the wall and included a safe inside. The room had central air, which was a welcome relief after a hot, humid day.

The bathroom had nice slate tile, a toilet, bidet, deep tub with "rainfall" showerhead and also a handheld wand. There wasn't a curtain, rather thick glass that came only a third from the wall to the tub. The sink was nice and the hairdryer was powerful for being so small.

The front desk was helpful, even with the computer down and being unable to locate my reservation. Their English was good (thankfully!) and they were patient with me since my Italian is very pedestrian.

COMPLAINTS: It took me a while to figure out how to turn everything on. There was a fusebox in the room and the set for the lights and the TV (but not the AC or phone) was in the off position. You need to use your keycard to activate the "do not disturb" light on the door, which I didn't figure out until after the maid knocked on my door at 10 a.m. (I was recovering from jet lag). Even after I activated the 'dnd' sign, it only lasted for about 2 hours.

Internet access? Well, it would have been nice if there had been a sign on how to access it. It wasn't until I pulled away the nightstand that I found a LAN plug, but I didn't have my cable with me. I asked the front desk for one and was told that the hotel doesn't provide it.

Taxis. Well, once you're there, you're there. It costs about 40 EURO to the Fuimicino airport without a tip and my taxi to central Rome was almost 70 EUROS. This is not the place to stay if you plan on doing any sightseeing. Taxis are nonexistant, so you have to have the hotel call one for you.

If you have an early flight (as in 7 a.m.), you MUST book your taxi the day before. I was fortunate in that they were able to get a cab to pick me up so early on less than 8 hours notice.

"Free Shuttle". My travel agent talked about this as being a bonus, and after reading the reviews here, I was expecting some difficulty. What surprised me was that the shuttle was NOT to the airport, but to the train station!

I didn't eat at the restaurant or have breakfast there. However, there are several small shops in the turisto porto (including McDonalds) that is to the right of the hotel. For more formal dining, there are two restaurants on the oceanfront that are about a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel.

I don't recommend this for the solo traveller or someone with more than 1 day in Rome. This is a "last stop" for someone needs to get to the airport early and doesn't want too many traffic problems. Sure, the beach is nice and the hotel faces the Mediterranean, but the area is a little rough in places.