Vatican City Accommodation

Avoid this place. My room smelled so bad that I had to sleep with all the windows open, and the shower had no hot water. Nobody was there in person for check-in. The shared kitchen was filthy, with dirty dishes in the pantry, and the fridge smelled even worse than the room.

We ended up stranded in Rome without accommodation after the booking was cancelled. It was a complete fiasco, and the owners never even hinted at apologizing. If it had been an honest mistake, I’d have expected at least an apology. Their offer of a €30 refund felt insulting, and I’ll never book with them again. I’d booked a triple room for two nights, but when we arrived for contactless check-in, we found a double room instead. The housekeeper said only one bed was available. They’d knowingly switched us to a room with fewer beds without telling us, apparently hoping we wouldn’t notice. That felt incredibly dishonest. I sent the housekeeper our booking confirmation to show that the photos and room didn’t match what we’d paid for. She told us to contact the owner and gave us their number. The owner wouldn’t answer calls, insisted on WhatsApp, and said we shouldn’t be contacting them. We explained the housekeeper had sent us their way, and eventually they understood. They said they’d look into it, then told us there’d been a mistake and only a double room was available. They offered a €30 discount and refund if we accepted. When we said that wasn’t okay, they stopped responding for a while, then said they couldn’t even find us a camp bed or anything similar. The €30 was less than the price difference between the room we booked and the one we got, which also didn’t have enough beds. We contacted Booking.com customer service, who were very helpful, but said they had to reach the owner before they could act. The owner didn’t answer their many calls either. Booking.com emailed them and gave them 45 minutes to respond. When that time passed with no engagement, Booking.com cancelled the booking and we had to find somewhere else to stay.

The staff were nice, and there are great breakfast spots and a supermarket nearby. It’s also not far from a metro station. The only downside for me was that the WiFi was a little slow.

We went four days without hot water for showers because the boiler was broken, and it was never fixed.