Hotel & Spa Villa Mercede

The view was nice and the food decent, but the hotel wasn't great. Rooms are small and dark, with poor quality bedding, and both the bedroom and bathroom need updating. It's a long walk uphill to Frascati along a busy road with no pedestrian walkway.

We had a marvellous stay every day and will come back. The staff were kind and friendly, and even the manager Gianlucca tried his best. The food was delicious. From the hotel you can see Roma, and the station is a 10-minute walk away. Roma Termini is 20 minutes by train, with a return trip costing 8 €.

The sauna and steam room were nice, but the rest of the spa was a letdown. The hot tub wasn't hot and only had a few jets; there were cups for tea but no tea, and the water was gross. My 50-minute massage started late and ended early, so it was probably 40 minutes at most. The woman giving it wore bracelets that kept hitting me. The advertised candles were battery powered, and the music was annoyingly loud. Worst spa experience ever. I'd stay away.

We stayed three nights for a wedding nearby, paying €170-190 a night for two people with breakfast. For that price, the room felt extremely dated, probably untouched since the nineties. The whole floor was scratched, though it seemed to be cleaned daily, so that was a minor inconvenience. Housekeeping kept the sheets clean, cleaned quickly, and was very friendly. They also didn't take the phone I accidentally left out in the open. The bathroom had mold around the bathtub edges, a shower glass stabilizer bar dangling from the wall, and a broken piece missing from the front of the toilet. It didn't affect comfort, but it looked bad for the price. Water pressure was extremely low, and the shower kept switching hot and cold. The vanity was low but usable. The toilet paper holder shared a stand with the brush, with the paper hanging over it, a weird choice. The mattress was torn on the side and disintegrating under the sheets. The two Spanish-style long pillows were fine, and I checked for bed bugs as I always do, luckily there were none. The AC was either blasting loudly with no speed control or off, when the room got uncomfortably hot. We kept it on as long as we could, then turned it off right before bed. Breakfast had coffee on request, yoghurt, fried and scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, some cereals, melon and pineapple, lots of cake, and some good sweet pistachio croissants. The two employees running breakfast, a lady and a bald man, were friendly and made good coffee. We didn't use the pool or gym, but they seemed okay. Parking is often full, and lots of people go to the hotel store to buy cigarettes. The other staff were a little rude and didn't even ask how our stay was at checkout. They use frascati transfers for the shuttle to fiumicio, but make sure to agree on a price with marco by email and confirm again the day before. He forgot to pick us up. When we asked hotel staff, they called him and said he was just late, while whispering that he'd forgotten. Not a good look. The location is nice, walkable to and from the station in about 15 minutes, though all the traffic and traffic lights that don't work make it a bit annoying. I've stayed in 3-star hotels that were more comfortable, and brand-new 4-star ones that cost much less.