Freedom Traveller Hostel

The location is well connected by public transport, but that’s the only positive I can think of. I wish I’d known what the place was like before booking. Cleanliness was a serious concern from the start. There were FOUR acupuncture needles on the floor, which was dangerous, and trash from previous guests was tucked inside a table. That included an empty sterilized bag that may have held the needles. I paid €104 a night for a private room and bathroom, but the room was tiny and didn’t feel private at all. It shared a wall with reception, so we heard conversations, coughing, sneezing, and explanations to guests every few minutes. Even earplugs didn’t make it possible to sleep. The toilet wouldn’t flush properly and overflowed, and the shower kept clogging and flooding the floor. There were suspicious stains on the blankets too, so we had doubts about whether they’d been cleaned properly. One receptionist was kind and helpful; the other seemed unfriendly. The location couldn’t make up for the rest of the experience.

We spent two days exploring Rome on foot, walking about 15 minutes to Trevi Fountain and roughly an hour to the Vatican by following a route from Trevi. It’s a lively area too: on our way back from Trevi, we happened to catch the premiere of *The Boys*. Termini is very close, which worked well when we needed to catch our bus. We booked a four-person mixed room for the value, and the reviews we read afterward made us a little nervous. But the shared bathroom wasn’t as bad as some people said, and the staff were friendly and helpful. A shelf had come loose in one of the cabinets, but I was sharing with a friend, so we just used the space where the shelf was missing and it wasn’t an issue. They let us leave our belongings for free after check-in and check-out. The storage area didn’t look great at first, as some people had mentioned, but everything came back undamaged and just as we’d left it. I appreciated that, especially after paying 6.5 euros a day for luggage storage at another hostel. I’d recommend this place and would consider coming back. It wasn’t as bad as some reviews made it sound.

The room was private and clean, with daily service and complimentary coffee, tea, and croissants. We loved the service and the location too, three blocks from Termini and close to several buses. Great stay!

We had a double room with a shared bathroom and kitchen on an upper floor, separate from the main hostel. The location and Wi-Fi were good, and we could use a washing machine. It was cheap, but that’s reflected in what you get, and I wouldn’t stay again. The cleanliness was awful: dust everywhere, dirt around the room, hair on the toilet seats, including pubic hair, and dust throughout the AC system. The sheets also made us really itchy. There was no hot water in the bathroom after the first day, although the host said he’d address it.