I usually rely heavily on TA reviews for booking lodging, but this time around I thought I might be one of the first ones to find a gem.
Well, I totally regret going to La Plata which had only 2 TA reviews at the time, but I hope my review will be helpful to those who might be considering this place.

I saw La Plata on Venere website which had good reviews from both Americans and Europeans. I usually book directly with the place, but when I emailed the B&B, the owner quoted rates higher than rates offered by Venere, so I booked with Venere.

La Plata is on the fourth floor of a building shared by residents and offices. When we arrived and rang the door bell, there was no answer.
My husband and I waited for about 10 minutes, but got into the building when someone else was going in. When we found La Plata, the door to the "reception" room was open and there were keys in the doors
to certain rooms. I assumed that the doors with the keys were empty and went into use the bathroom, but they were occupied rooms. When I came out, the owner, Riccardo, had arrived, but I didn't feel very secure knowing that the owner left the place open to access. We had to
leave our room key with the owner whenever we went out, and there was no way to get into the building other than buzzed in. There were two other times during our 4 day stay when the owner wasn't in, so we had to wait till someone went in or came out.

We stayed in room #2 which was spacious, clean and had a nice bathroom
at the first glance. It faced the Piazza, and we could hear the traffic with the windows closed, so we used earplugs at night. Strange things happened with the bathroom when we started using it. Whenever we would turn on the hot water, very loud gushing sound was heard in the room. It was kinda annoying. Also when we turned on the bathroom fan, cigarette smoke came in. We think the fan was connected to the "reception" room where the owner chain-smoked. one more thing.
The shower base set about a foot higher than the bathroom floor, and it was a little scary stepping down to a slippery tiled floor thru a narrow shower door.

The most annoying thing about La Plata was the fact that the reception
room was always smoke-filled. Our room was connected to the reception room, and we could smell the smoke although there was a big no smoking
sign on the door. We had to put towels at the bottom of the door and air the room out whenever we came back into the room. The door was pretty thin so we could hear the TV and the dog in the reception room at night.

As you can tell from this long review, I didn't like La Plata. I do not recommend this place.

We book our reservation several weeks in advance and left a credit card as a deposit. We received a confirmation number from the hotel. When we arrived at 4PM on the arranged day we not only found that they gave our room away but we were left out in the street with no where to go. The innkeeper was incredibly incredibly rude. He offered no explanation and no apologizes. We spent the rest of the evening walking the streets looking for a place to sleep! So much for our 1 day romantic trip to Rome!!

At the recommendation of an employee of the nearby overbooked Hotel Italia, we booked this b & b for us and other friends sight unseen. I have to say I am a very open-minded traveler but this b & b was truly misrepresented to us. And at 110 Euros per night double and 70 Euros single, La Plata is truly over-priced and reminds me of places I tolerated in my youthful backpacking days.

Granted the owner Ricardo tries his best to be hospitable in his 4-room property. But the paper-thin walls and night noise, dust and piles of wood/beams, etc. and other construction which hit you when you walk into the entrance hall to the building, the dog camped out on a less than clean sofa (alas, the only piece of real furniture in the reception area), the mold smell in the bathroom, etc. were very disconcerting to say the least.

We could hear the dog's scratching, licking, and occasional yelping noises through our wall during the night. Even as pet lovers, we think that the owner's dog should be mentioned upfront for any potential guests who are light sleepers or who have allergies. When we brought up this topic with the Hotel Italia clerk who highly recommended the b & b, he shrugged his shoulders and said "you should have asked if the owner had any pets in the b & b before booking the rooms." Of course we were required to pay before coming to Rome, and now have had to dispute our payments.

The only thing we can guess is that maybe the front desk clerk at the Hotel Italia, whose wife is a housekeeper at the La Plata, receives some sort of kickback for recommending this b & b to guests who can't be accommodated in the Italia.

Honestly, there are far better, quieter, more welcoming, cleaner, and more fairly-priced places to stay in Rome in the same general area (try the Hotel Nizza, for example). Only those who are heavy sleepers and comfortable with dog noises, bathroom mold smells, etc. should even consider booking this place. We are very very disappointed at our experiences at La Plata and can not ever recommend this b & b to anyone else....Stay tuned for photos which I will post on this site soon....

La Plata is in a good location close to Termini train station -- convenient when you arrive in Rome but not a very scenic neighborhood (next time I will stay in Trastevere). Rooms are comfortable and spacious, with a nice bathroom off through a separate door to create a little suite -- overall a very good value. Breakfast was good -- fresh cappucino, rolls, croissants. Owner is very nice and friendly but does not speak English. This wasn't really a problem but if you don't speak Italian you won't be able to ask for directions, etc. There is air conditioning but it is a separate 5 euro per night price (though he actually didn't charge us for it in the end). Only slight complaints is that it is a little smokey (rooms are non-smoking but there is smoking in the lobby and it's a small place) and the breakfast does not necessarily come at the time you request it (this is not a huge deal but can be a problem if you have museum reservations and need to be out the door at a certain time).