Boutique Centrale Palace Hotel

The main draw is the location: the Spanish Steps are less than five minutes away, Trevi Fountain is about nine minutes on foot, and Piazza Spagnia has a metro stop roughly four minutes away. It’s near everything you’ll want to see in Roma. A budget hotel, but the rooms and service are very good.

We stayed five nights. The room was nice, the bed was great, the shower was okay, and it was quiet. The place being right in the center accounts for 70% of what made it worthwhile. The balcony was a joke, though the street view was nice. On the second day, the lift broke and stayed that way for the rest of our stay. That was a problem for my wife, who has a slight disability. Such a pity.

We spent six nights here for our honeymoon, and the location was hard to beat. It’s right in the heart of downtown, within walking distance of the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, and Colosseum. The price was relatively good, but anyone expecting luxury will be disappointed. It’s listed as a three-star hotel, though I’m not sure I’d give it more than two. This isn’t a traditional hotel, more an Airbnb-style setup. There’s no staff on site at night, so you need your keycard to get in, and breakfast costs extra. There are almost no amenities, such as a lobby or common area. The common spaces that are there need repairs, updating, and several coats of paint. Our room also badly needed repairs and an update. The air conditioning was pathetic, a real problem in Rome’s summer heat. There were hairs gathering in the floor corners and black mold along the shower caulking.

The location is great for getting to the main sights on foot: Trevi Fountain is within 10 minutes, the Spanish Steps about 5, and the Colosseum around 25. Our room was clean, with a nice street view, and the mini fridge had good drinks for purchase. The hotel was quiet and soundproof, though light sleepers may hear garbage trucks passing by.