Madonna dei Monti

The room was quiet, with its windows facing a small courtyard, and the bathroom and toilet were clean and had that hotel feel, with soap and fresh towels. The bed was on the firm side. It's a tastefully decorated boutique hotel, with white walls and high ceilings with exposed beams. The staff were lovely and unobtrusive. Restaurants and bars are only a five-minute walk away in the heart of Rome. We had a really good stay and I'd recommend it.

We booked a week in December, but by the second day the hot water and heating had stopped working. The owners were nice and responded quickly, making two attempts to fix the heating, but it didn't work. After two days of cold showers, we moved to another hotel on December 31, New Year's Eve, and ended up spending an extra 1600 euros. It was a bad experience. I could give one star for what happened, but the owners didn't seem like bad people and appeared sincerely sorry.

The room was lovely, with an en suite bathroom and AC. The Colosseum and Roman Forum are within walking distance, and Via Cavour's restaurants are just a few steps away. It's a small business run by two ladies who have put their heart and soul into the place. My concern is the lock on the door to the level. Once locked from outside, it can't be opened from inside, which is obviously a fire hazard. I was trapped inside twice during my four-night stay and had to call the owners to let me out.

I booked by mistake through an external site and asked the owner to cancel a minute later, but it wasn't cancelled. The host said they'd refund me if they found someone else. When I was about to arrive, they said they had found someone and could refund me, even though they cancelled the third party's booking with a 30 euro discount. Customer service wasn't very good, so stay at your own risk. It's near the Colosseum and convenient for getting to most famous places. But the building is very old, there's no elevator, breakfast, or 24-hour helpdesk, and I paid 130 euros a night, which felt very expensive.