Hotel Altavilla 9 — Hotel in Rome

If there’s only one review you read and take seriously, let it be this one. There’s no hidden story or detail here. This was our (2 adults, 2 children) true, real life experience. ||||There were two men upon check in. An older man I presume is the manager and/or owner, and another man who is the younger of the two. The older man was rude from the get go, demanding passports and just being rude in general. The younger of the two men were polite at check in. ||||We arrived sometime after 9:30pm, after a very long travel time. We could not believe what we walked into. To put it into perspective, we are not a family that stays at fancy hotels; we generally go for the cheaper (as long as clean and safe) hotels - so we really were not expecting anything outside of clean and safe. The room was covered in black mould. There was mould everywhere. There were exposed electrical wires. The casing of electrical things (e.g., power points and light switches) were falling off. The shower was not connected to the wall, and the shower head would just fall as it was just balancing on its own but once water ran, it would fall off. Not only this, but the water temperature changes at random resulting in my 8yr old being scolded/burnt in the shower. As the children were absolutely exhausted the time we got to the room, we did stay the first night. The room also was NOT as pictured. The beds were hard as rocks, leaving us in crippling pain and receiving very little sleep. Even the kids woke throughout the night with discomfort. The curtains do not move much, so if you stay here, expect the sun in your face as it rises. I tried to call the front desk to discuss while the kids rested the first night, but the phone wasn’t even connected. Plugged in with wires exposed but not working. The next morning we expressed all our concerns and showed the cleaning staff the mould, etc. was hard to discuss as almost no English speaking. They offered us a different room, we went and had a look and it was exactly the same - black mould everywhere, filthy, exposed wires, broken items, etc. Disgraceful. The fact that they chose to show us this second room after our complaints of the first just tells you that every room looks that way or worse. It was so bad that we decided we had to leave - given black mould and all mould is toxic and the danger of the exposed electrical wires to my children. However, the old man (that I mentioned at the beginning) refused to negotiate a refund or partial refund and instead told us to contact Expedia (where we booked). If you read other reviews, he tells everyone who has problems to do this - and it’s because he knows it’s how he gets away with everything. Expedia contact him to ask for a refund and he can simply decline and they accept that and tell you there’s nothing they can do - so I ALSO do not recommend booking through Expedia either. He also over charged us “city taxes” and demanded it had to be made in cash. In the rush to leave, with upset kids due to their lack of rest and discomfort, I left my AirPod at the hotel on the bed. I consistently attempted to contact and talk with them about this, as did the new hotel we moved to, and they refused to talk/discuss. This is theft. Honestly, I would not even recommend this hotel to my enemy. Believe me, nothing is worth staying here. Not the location, not the cost, nothing. AVOID...

If there’s only one review you read and take seriously, let it be this one. There’s no hidden story or detail here. This was our (2 adults, 2 children) true, real life experience. ||||There were two men upon check in. An older man I presume is the manager and/or owner, and another man who is the younger of the two. The older man was rude from the get go, demanding passports and just being rude in general. The younger of the two men were polite at check in. ||||We arrived sometime after 9:30pm, after a very long travel time. We could not believe what we walked into. To put it into perspective, we are not a family that stays at fancy hotels; we generally go for the cheaper (as long as clean and safe) hotels - so we really were not expecting anything outside of clean and safe. The room was covered in black mould. There was mould everywhere. There were exposed electrical wires. The casing of electrical things (e.g., power points and light switches) were falling off. The shower was not connected to the wall, and the shower head would just fall as it was just balancing on its own but once water ran, it would fall off. Not only this, but the water temperature changes at random resulting in my 8yr old being scolded/burnt in the shower. As the children were absolutely exhausted the time we got to the room, we did stay the first night. The room also was NOT as pictured. The beds were hard as rocks, leaving us in crippling pain and receiving very little sleep. Even the kids woke throughout the night with discomfort. The curtains do not move much, so if you stay here, expect the sun in your face as it rises. I tried to call the front desk to discuss while the kids rested the first night, but the phone wasn’t even connected. Plugged in with wires exposed but not working. The next morning we expressed all our concerns and showed the cleaning staff the mould, etc. was hard to discuss as almost no English speaking. They offered us a different room, we went and had a look and it was exactly the same - black mould everywhere, filthy, exposed wires, broken items, etc. Disgraceful. The fact that they chose to show us this second room after our complaints of the first just tells you that every room looks that way or worse. It was so bad that we decided we had to leave - given black mould and all mould is toxic and the danger of the exposed electrical wires to my children. However, the old man (that I mentioned at the beginning) refused to negotiate a refund or partial refund and instead told us to contact Expedia (where we booked). If you read other reviews, he tells everyone who has problems to do this - and it’s because he knows it’s how he gets away with everything. Expedia contact him to ask for a refund and he can simply decline and they accept that and tell you there’s nothing they can do - so I ALSO do not recommend booking through Expedia either. He also over charged us “city taxes” and demanded it had to be made in cash. In the rush to leave, with upset kids due to their lack of rest and discomfort, I left my AirPod at the hotel on the bed. I consistently attempted to contact and talk with them about this, as did the new hotel we moved to, and they refused to talk/discuss. This is theft. Honestly, I would not even recommend this hotel to my enemy. Believe me, nothing is worth staying here. Not the location, not the cost, nothing. AVOID...

Probably the worst hotel in Rome. Triple room for 120 pounds for 2 nights. Found a lot better one for less but it was too late. The whole place was a bit dirty and in need of a refurbishment. Our section of hotel did not smell great either - like a back of restaurant with strong smell of fried food (and we were on the 5th floor too). Did not look anything like the website so it was a big disappointment. Room: There was no quilt on the bed. What you get was just the sheets. We traveled in november so during the night it was quite cold for us. Second day, they switched on the heating so was a lot better. -There were a lot of stains, drilled out holes in the walls and the door. On the corner there was a big crack in the wall. -The Wardrobe was falling apart. The doors were hanging on one bracket only. That was really unsafe and I was worried that it will fell of on my little girl if she would touch it. -One of the reasons we decided to get this room was because on the website it was advertised as having a safe. The safe was fitted on the wall but was not working and been told at the reception them most of them don’t. -The view from the window was so bad that I was keeping the shutters closed constantly (inner courtyard - lots of air con units and nothing more). -No kettle or tea, coffee like in most of the hotels. Bathroom: Shower doors were nearly done. When closing the cabin I had to be very careful because the mechanism was broken and the glass could came out from the frame. -Shower head was disgusting, dirty with a lot of limescale. Water pressure was very low. There was more water coming out from the tap then from that shower so it was really uncomfortable to use. -Toilet seat was not secured properly on one side. Every time I had to sit on it I had to adjust it and be careful not to make it snapp on the other side. -Hair dryer was fitted to the wall and it look like an old vacuum cleaner. The heat coming off it was too low. I was drying my hair for 15 min or so and they were still wet. I was just fed up standing there so I did not dry them properly. With my standard dryer I’m finished after 5 min maximum so you can imagine the difference. Breakfast: Lady serving the breakfast was really nice and that was the only good thing about this hotel. What you got for breakfast is: Different sorts of coffee, tea, corn flakes, sweet rolls, bread, butter, jam, biscuit etc. There were no fruits, no vegetables of any sorts such as tomato salad or cucumber. No ham or cheese. There was no plain rolls only sliced breads. The slices were really big so we did not have it as we don't like to waste food and we knew that those slices will be not finished.

Overall: I will never ever come back there and would recommend you avoid this place too. We stayed few extra days and managed to get a much better hotel at similar price (slightly less actually) in...