Veneto

Make sure you get the door codes before you fly. We spent a good part of our first evening worried we'd be stuck outside with our bags, even though the cases were already inside the hotel. The reception was supposedly open from 8:30 to 2:30, but there was nobody at the desk and no one answered my calls. We stayed Monday to Friday and never saw anyone there, apart from the woman who let us in on the first day. We arrived about an hour before check-in and asked to leave our luggage. A staff member, maybe one of the cleaners, told us to put it in the room and return in half an hour. After we went to eat and came back around 45 minutes later, the building's main door was shut. A guest let us in after we'd waited outside for about 20 minutes. Then we couldn't open the hotel door because it needed a code we hadn't been sent. We waited another 20 minutes or so before spotting the same woman and asking her to help. She seemed confused and didn't seem to remember meeting us less than two hours earlier. She spoke little English, which was fine, and we used Google Translate to explain. She let us in, then called the person in charge. About 10 minutes later, I got a message with the check-in details and codes. Once inside, the room was clean, spacious, and nice enough for a stay where you're mostly out. For the price and location, the rest was decent, but that first night could have gone very differently. There isn't a proper luggage room. They say you can leave your cases in the hall until departure. The rooms also aren't very soundproof: we heard guests coming and going at night, plus the builders next door playing music loudly and singing at 8 every morning. Our mattress wasn't memory foam as advertised, either. If you're not fussy about where you sleep, the place may do, especially for the location, but get those codes in advance.

There wasn't a table or chair where we could work, which was a real inconvenience since working in a coffee shop isn't really the norm in Italy. Also, the doors don't seal, so we could hear the neighbours and cleaners outside. That could wake you if you like to sleep in, though it wouldn't bother an early riser. The room itself was clean and clearly renovated fairly recently. Check-in was easy, once we realized we'd knocked on the wrong door. The interior looks modern, though the materials and finishes aren't the best. Still, it's a good hotel overall.

We arrived in Rome with my kids and couldn't get into the place at all. I called the number on my reservation, and the woman who answered said she hadn't worked there in seven years. She gave me another number, but the man there texted that he'd left five years ago. We stood on the street with our bags and the kids for over an hour. A couple with young children came into the building, and when I asked if they knew the place from my booking, they didn't, but they gave me a WhatsApp number. I messaged and called, with no reply. I was panicking that we'd been scammed. About half an hour later, someone wrote back saying I'd texted that I was settled in because the cleaning lady had let us in. That couldn't have been me: at the time, my kids and I were flying from Portugal to Rome. We eventually got into our room, but it looked nothing like the photos and smelled damp and like sewage. There was no view, and we could hear the other guests through the poor insulation. A horrible first day and a horrible experience. Stay away.

The location was the only good thing. The lighting was dim, the floors were dirty, there were sewage issues, and sometimes the water was only cold. I stayed for more than a week and never saw anyone at reception. It was always empty.