Hotel Locanda Cairoli

We spent time in the piazza and park just outside, having a cold drink and some food while watching Italian life go by. We also walked along the Tevere river every day, which was a lovely part of the stay. There’s plenty within a few blocks: coffee, pastries, street food, restaurants, groceries, shopping, and the Campo di Fiore market, all minutes from the front door. It’s a charming, stylish boutique hotel, with clean rooms and professional staff and management. Most of the main historic sights are within walking distance. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would recommend it to anyone exploring Rome. We really hope to return to the same place.

I’d give it 4.5 stars if I could. The rooms are good, on a par with what I’d expect from a four-star hotel, and the staff are gentle, one of the best parts of the place. The location is really good, too, hard to ask for more. If you get the breakfast-included option, breakfast is decent, but the choices are quite limited and could use more variety.

It felt like a home, and we slept really well. The hotel was clean and the staff were super friendly and welcoming. The front desk suggested two restaurants, and both were delicious. The Wi-Fi was a bit weak and bothered me some, though it worked well in the dining area. All in all, a good stay.

TLDR: Some of the concierges were decent, but this is absolutely not a four-star hotel. It felt much closer to a two-star B&B. The hotel takes up one floor, above ground level, in an apartment building with a buzzer and intercom. The main reason it gets guests is probably the good location near lots of interesting areas. A few concierges were the saving grace: one woman tried hard to help me find New Year’s events, and another man was very helpful and welcoming. Wi-Fi and heating were decent for such an outdated place, and there’s an ancient elevator in the building. Getting in was a hassle. The building door is locked, so in the evenings and at night you have to use the buzzer or intercom to reach the front desk. They may say there are concierges 24/7, but they’re human. Imagine coming back from an event, finding one asleep, waiting 10 minutes for the door to open, then getting attitude for ringing again. The hotel door is usually locked too, and some concierges prefer to keep it that way. It made me wonder how safe the area was if everything had to be locked. There’s barely any signage, so good luck finding the place if you arrive after dark. They don’t use modern key cards. They want you to leave the room key with them because it’s expensive to replace, and they’ll shout if you walk out with it. One concierge even said they needed it for fire safety, but they clearly have spare keys for cleaning. Not all the concierges were good. One told me that if I rang the buzzer again like that, they wouldn’t let me into the building. No one explained any of these rules when I arrived, so I had to work it all out during my stay. The rooms were ancient, tiny, not well cleaned, and had almost no soundproofing. I could clearly hear people shouting at street level. The towels seemed like they came from a discount store, and the soap was thumb-sized, with a travel-size all-in-one body wash, shampoo, and conditioner. The shower was the tiniest I’ve used, and the water pressure and temperature weren’t consistent. I wonder if the building ran out of hot water while I was showering that day. The bed was hard and uncomfortable. There’s a tram nearby, but my room faced the other way, so I didn’t hear much of it.