Rome as you feel - Cappellari 35

Antonio made us feel at home during our four days and three nights near Piazza Navona. The apartment had a lovely Roman character and was clean and comfortable. We could get to everything easily, yet the area stayed peaceful enough for a good night's sleep. I'd happily recommend it to anyone visiting Rome.

The room was dirty, with a stained sofa and dust everywhere, and our time in Rome ended up being spent dealing with problems instead of enjoying the city. The hot water lasted only about 20 minutes during our winter stay. I could have understood that in an old building if we'd been told beforehand, but the host didn't even know about it when we first got in touch. He said he'd call an engineer, then for four days kept saying it would be fixed tomorrow or later that day. An engineer came, but we still only had cold water. We reported it again; the host blamed the agent company and said staff would return, but the issue was never resolved and no one confirmed it had been fixed. On day three he offered a discount or help finding another hotel. By the fourth day he was avoiding our calls and messages. The whole trip became very stressful. I would never stay here again and would warn others online to avoid this apartment.

We were very happy with our five days in apartment 9 at Pinta de Grotta, and would consider booking it again if we're back in Rome. The location worked so well that we never needed public transport. Even the Vatican and Trasteverre were a 10-15 minute walk away. After days in 35-40 degree summer weather, it was great to return to a spacious, cool apartment with a fridge for water and snacks and a freezer for ice cubes and ice cream. The air conditioning worked very well, though a thicker second sheet would have been welcome. The bed was a little hard, and the pillows came in thick and medium thickness, both firm. There was good coffee, but we only had pods to use since there was no grinder, even though we were given whole beans rather than ground coffee.

The place was constantly damp despite running the humidifier, and the whole apartment smelled of mildew. One day the company went in without telling us; when we returned, the router was gone. They took three days to answer my worried email and casually said they had removed a broken router. A 4G WiFi device they'd left gave us unreliable internet, then stopped working completely a few days into our trip. They took over a day to look into that and never fixed it. There were other problems too: the shower head and a dining chair were broken, there were no kitchen linens for cleaning up, and the bathroom soap dispenser was almost empty when we arrived, with no refill provided. The company didn't respond to these issues and missed every call I made to their emergency numbers. This was a terrible stay and a nightmare to deal with. Book with a company that will actually provide what you paid for and look after you. Edit 2018/06/06: After I posted this review on their Facebook page, they hid all their reviews. They also promised a small amount of money back for our awful visit, but never transferred it. Rotten business.