Hilton Garden Inn Rome Airport — Hotel in Fiumicino

Under no circumstances should you stay here- EVER.

I booked this room for a long layover. It was expensive for a short stay ($250) but I was willing to pay this much for the convenience as the hotel is close to the airport and claimed to have a shuttle. My purpose was to maximize my sleeping hours before a 13 hour flight to Los Angeles.

I arrived at the Rome airport around 11:30 PM and had to find the shuttle. The hotel does not have their own shuttle, it is a shared shuttle. So that was misleading. It also did not come every 15 minutes, I waited at least 30 minutes. When I arrived at the hotel and checked into my room at first glance I was surprised because it was extremely dingy and smelt bad. The room was old, small, and did not fit what I thought a Hilton hotel should look like. I actually stayed at hotels half the price that were 10 times cleaner and more well-maintained.

I was exhausted and wanted to shower and sleep. I go into the bathroom and start the shower. I notice that the trash can has something in it. It had a dirty, bloody tampon in it from a previous guest. This is disgusting and a biohazard and a sign that the room was not properly cleaned. In fact, I bet the sheets were not even changed. I called the front desk and they switched my room but they were not even apologetic. I was forced to pack up my stuff in the middle of the night and move rooms. The next room they gave me was a far walk and smelled musty. The AC had not been on and it was over 90 degrees in Rome. I turned it on but it would not function correctly. It took hours for it to kick in, and by that time I was tossing and turning with a flight in a few hours. I booked this overpriced disgusting hotel for the purpose of getting sleep and it served the opposite effect- it stressed me out and caused me inconvenience. The shower in the room also did not drain properly.

Additionally- the walls are paper thin. Both rooms I was provided had a door connecting them to adjacent rooms separated by a latch. Throughout the night on multiple occasions I heard something banging on the door trying to open it. As a solo female traveler I did not feel safe here. It is a very creepy place.

To top this off, I contacted my credit card regarding my stay after failing to get in touch with Hilton and the hotel itself. They attempted to get me a refund but the hotel declined. So, this Is my review and a warning. Do NOT stay here.

This hotel is FILTHY and provides horrible...

First point: the pickup location for the free shuttle is on the near side of the pick-up loop, down to the right, past the taxi stand. It's not near the other hotel shuttle pickup stations. Do not cross the street to get to the pickup point. You have to pass the taxi stand, but don't cross the street. It's poorly marked, but it is marked, on a blue pillar with white lettering, which faces the wrong direction. There is a metal bench. Just keep asking people until someone tells you, which they won't very clearly, but keep asking. But don't cross the street. The hotel will tell you it's between doors 4 and 5 in the arrival loop, but the only door you're allowed to use in the arrival loop is door 1, so the other doors are poorly marked. The best way I can describe this hotel is jankey, but the reality is, it may be the best place to stay despite that. First, it was sweltering hot in our room (in January)! There is no air conditioning that I could find, and the only way we could cool the room down was to use the screwdriver on my literal Swiss Army knife to unlock and open the window, the mechanism for which was otherwise disabled. I don't recommend anyone else do that, but it was necessary for me, especially after I attempted to call the front desk and no one answered. In a HILTON! Beyond that, the place feels very institutional. It's okay, but the hallways and corridors feel like a dorm, not a hotel. Almost everyone else staying there was flight crew. This is not a tourist hotel. The bathrooms here have the same problem as almost every other bathroom in Italy: shower half-doors, which make it practically impossible to take a shower without soaking the floor. Speaking of the floors, at least the bathroom floor is tiled. The rest of the room is low-quality laminate, which is not durable enough for institutional use, and it's showing its age. On the pro side, the breakfast was fine, although the eggs were terrible and undercooked, like nearly all the eggs I ate in Italy. But there are plenty of other options, which were mostly good. And there is the free shuttle, when you can find it. Anyway, despite the negatives, this is probably the right hotel to stay in on your last night (for ONE night) in Italy if you've got an early flight. It's not perfect, and definitely don't spend your whole trip here. But it...

You get to the hotel after a long day of travel, check-in, go through the twilight zone looking hallway to get to your room, and your room key won't work. After a few dozen attempts, you finally get in the overpriced cheap looking room and realize it is really cold. Thats fine, you got a thermostat, but good luck trying to decipher whatever the knob with no labels means, you are going to stay cold tonight.

Fine whatever, you decide you want to take a hot shower. You walk in and can't find the light switch because of course it would be outside the bathroom, but I guess you should have known this. With the light finally on, you get in the shower and realize theres no door, just half of it is glass. Whatever fine, step in and turn it on, wait for it to turn hot, and realize it never will.

Okay this stay is already starting to get annoying. You stand under the cold shower and notice that you are stepping on the drain causing it to close, so you have to manually open it each time you accidentally step on it with a twist knob or else the water is going up your ankles. As you are standing in your cold tiny shower trying not to step on the drain, you reach for their three dispensers for soap, conditioner, and shampoo, but they are bolted to the wall! If you are like me and blind without your glasses, you must now bend over and squint while the cold water is pouring down on you to see which is which...

Okay, you may be even colder then you were before, but you have survived your shower, time to get some food. You get back to the lobby and begin to realize how crowded the place actually is once everyone is lined up all the way to the check-in counter. That is fine, dinner is from 6:30-10:30 or whatever you got plenty of time to come back and try again. You come back a second time, still busy, as for the third time, you decide to wait in line. You finally get to the front of the line anticipating to get in, but end up waiting 15 minutes without ever being acknowledged.

Raged out of your mind with all the little things adding up, you decide to give up trying to eat the expensive food at the hotel and go back to your room. Back at your depressing room cold and hungry, you will find yourself laying on your hard bed writing a...