Crowne Plaza Rome - St. Peter's by IHG — Hotel in Rome

Reception and restaurant staff were very nice and helpful (especially Giorgia at reception!) but gift shop staff were quite rude.

The rooms are nicely presented, mostly clean and comfortable but some of the furniture is outdated and there are quite a few rips and scuff marks on the wallpaper, ceiling and desk. The bed was very comfortable. The bathroom was clean and modern. The peep hole was broken so I had to cover it myself for safety.

The outdoor pool was open slightly earlier as the weather was so hot which I was grateful for. The gardens are well maintained but quite noisy as the gardeners are in everyday with lawnmowers, traffic noise and there seems to be a park or school behind the bushes at the pool as you can hear children playing during the day. There’s no music playing by the pool to drown it out so I would recommend headphones as it is quite loud. Note the water is freezing cold despite the heat. It’s surrounded on one side by bushes and trees and in the shadow of the hotel too so maybe why it is still cold and quite dark by the pool. I didn’t spend as much time here as I thought I would.

It is nice having a spa. It is a small area but a nice warm pool and sauna and steam room. The jacuzzi jets were not very strong and it was not very warm in there. It is supposed to be a quiet area but there were people playing music or videos on their phone speakers and people jumping into the pool and splashing around. The spa reception staff outside don’t intervene or come in much. Housekeeping came in regularly and kept taking the towels off the loungers when people are in the pool so you needed to go to reception to ask for more towels.

The changing rooms were closed for maintenance a few days. Hopefully there is maintenance carried out in the spa too as it is looking a bit worse for wear.

I ordered room service twice and ate in the Papillon restaurant twice. The food is expensive compared to local restaurants but it is decent enough. The tiramisu here was the best I’ve had in Italy yet and the fettuccine al ragu was lovely too.

The breakfast is standard continental buffet. However there were often queues and a long wait to be seated from around 7am. Everyone wants to eat and get out as early as possible to explore. So I find it odd they have such limited seating in the breakfast hall for such a busy hotel. Many of us had to regularly ask if we could just grab a croissant and leave as we had transport waiting and tickets booked.

As for transport, I find the fees for the shuttle bus quite high: 4 and 5 euro each way to Vatican or Trastevere and 8 euro to Colosseum but no option back. Considering the price of staying at the hotel I find it disappointing. I have stayed in much cheaper hotels in Italy that offer free shuttle services to and from the city centre and more frequently. There is a bus stop a few minutes from the hotel but considering the nightmare I have had with Rome busses and how unreliable they are I opted for either shuttle or taxi.

There is a metro stop but it is a very long walk in the heat with not much shade, and the main road the hotel is on it is so busy and dangerous to walk along with the pedestrian walkway. I would not recommend it at all.

The reason for the scoring lies mainly in how noisy it was to stay here. I can’t overstate enough how loud it is inside the hotel. The sliding doors do a great job of keeping the noise from the traffic of the main road out but the walls are far too thin for such a busy hotel. At all hours you can hear doors slamming, people walking up and down the corridors, you can hear word for word the conversation in the room next to you, you can hear when they plug something into the wall or run the taps or open the wardrobe. I could go on. I found it really difficult to sleep here unfortunately.

This combined with the location of the hotel means I would not stay here again were I to...

Hotel looks dated, inside was spruced up though. Our IHG status was recognized upon check in and offered 1 free drink and snacks or welcome points. There were a few small issues we noticed but didn’t bring it up to management to start off I put in our “preferences” prior to check in that we were celebrating our honeymoon and requested extra pillows. Neither request was recognized.

I grabbed coffee off the housekeeping cart on my way back from the gym because the 2nd day coffee wasn’t replenished. The 3rd day we weren’t provided coffee cups and it was noticed at 5am the next morning when we were up and packing to check out. So I don’t think anything coffee related was replenished but we were provided at least 1 bottle of water each day.

I am conscious about hanging up my towel to reuse (per the sign in the bathroom) but noticed that towel was taken but we weren’t provided any additional towels. The water temperature was warm the first 2 days but our last day there it was way warmer. Not enough to complain but when the temperature was drastically warmer it was a little frustrating.

Also, our last night was a Saturday night and there was a birthday party on the grounds, which was outside of our room that went on until well after 11pm. I packed ear plugs for a prior part of our Italy trip so I was able to pop them in and fall asleep. I highly suggest requesting a room in the “Quiet Zone” if you’re a light sleeper.

I booked this location knowing it wasn’t right in the center of Rome and saw they had a shuttle to take you to city center. Mind you I didn’t expect it to run whenever we wanted but the earliest it left was 9 am. Also note, It says on the sheet you must reserve the shuttle 12 hours in advance in the gift shop. We never tried to since it wouldn’t have worked out for our pre-booked tours, unsure if it was hard to get a spot on the bus. Also, the airport shuttle only runs in certain times. Our flight left at 10:30 am and the earliest the shuttle left was 7am, it was suggested by hotel staff we take a cab due to the amount of time it could take to get through all checkpoints at the airport to return to the USA. We easily got a cab 6am for $50. There wasn’t any other hotels within the IHG group that has award availability when we booked but wish we would’ve stayed closer to the “city center” to avoid paying cab fares each day.

If you’ve made it this far in my review thanks! Adding up all these things makes me slightly frustrated due to the type of service we have experienced at other IHG hotels in the USA and abroad. I’m not trying to steer anyone from booking this hotel just want to provide more information about the basics on their website and encourage the front desk for the little things...

The rooms and facility were presentable, however, the service was horrible. We got to our rooms and it was hot, clammy with no airflow due to AC not working. We called the front desk and the lady was annoyed with us and quickly stated it takes a while to turn on. We waited over 30 minutes and nothing was turning on so we called again. The same lady gave attitude again but agreed to send maintenance up. Maintenance arrived after about an hour and removed the device from the wall and discovered the switch was on ‘heat’. Despite the AC being “on”, we were sweating all night forcing us to leave the patio door open which brought mosquitoes in- of course that means hearing them ‘buzz’ in your ear constantly. The next morning as we waited for the shuttle to the airport, another couple discussed with us the uncomfortable heat they experienced the night prior which made us realize we weren’t the only ones uncomfortable. They also had maintenance fix their AC to discover theirs was also on ‘heat’. Staff explained to this couple that because it’s not summer, the AC shuts off daily at 11pm….it reached 83 degrees. We received the worst sleep out of our entire trip and the staff reluctantly “tried” to help even though they knew the AC would shut off anyway. Despite the temperature being hot, the AC doesn’t get turned on until the true summer season. You’re better off staying at Airbnb’s where the AC actually works.

EDIT: Much thanks to Crowne Plaza for responding and missing the point. NO ONE told us the AC shuts off at 11pm. They also lied TWICE when we called asking why it wasn’t working because they knew the unit was switched to ‘heat’. Which again, we discovered the rooms were on ‘heat’ by talking to other residents. Don’t tell us “it will work” when it’s not switched to AC. For reference, the thermostat needed to be pulled out of the wall and switched- maintenance blamed it on the cleaning staff and said “it should have been on AC”. It was lies after lies. So when we were sweating all night with mosquito bites everywhere, the nonstop lying about something so simple added insult to injury. I understand Italy operates by seasons and not temperature, but a lot of the world operates by temperature, which means if it’s hot, we turn on AC to cool down, if it’s cold we turn on heat to warm up. Understand this when you have a lot of international residents looking to be comfortable while staying with you. This was the most uncomfortable experience and the lies and excuses we received were disappointing to...