Hotel Golden — Hotel in Rome

This is our story of another perfect stay with the wonderful owners of the Hotel Golden. We arrived at FCO early Thanksgiving morning for a pre cruise stay, and were transported by private service arranged for us by the Hotel Golden. Upon arrival Marco was waiting outside to assist with our luggage. We were offered breakfast, and told that our room was ready for us. I had not asked for this service, but it was graciously offered, and gratefully accepted as we were exhausted after not being able to sleep on a long flight from the U.S. Ours was a three night stay at the Hotel Golden on our second trip to Rome. Being somewhat familiar with the transportation system we asked Marco and Giuseppe for directions to some of the not so traditional sights, and were directed to these as well as warned about safety issues in places we wanted to go. Accommodations were double superior, room #110. This room was a little smaller than #111, but still very spacious, and immaculately clean and orderly thanks to Maria, who went about her job efficiently, and inconspicuously. Every morning we were greeted warmly by Mama Teresa and Alina, who were busy preparing a large array of breakfast items including omelets, boiled eggs, meats, cheeses, cereals, juices, breads, fresh homemade pastries, fruits, and freshly brewed American and European coffees. I am sure I have missed items, but if there was something that you wanted Mama Teresa and Alina would prepare it for you if possible with the supplies that were on hand. Papa Mario was most always around. He has a somewhat serious look on his face as he oversees his family working together so efficiently, but occasionally a slight smile comes to his face with a greeting of Buon giorno, or Buona sera depending on the time of day. We only saw Maria Teresa once this time as she was busy with other matters. Our transportation to the port of Civitavecchia was arranged by the Lorio family as well. After an enjoyable stay, with an endearing family at the Hotel Golden, Marco was there to help with our luggage, offer a gracious thank you and warm goodbye, with hopes of seeing us again in the future. For those of you who might wonder, the Hotel Golden is located in a very safe neighborhood, and only one block away Via Veneto and Borghese Park. There are several moderately priced recommended restaurants within two or three blocks, as well as high end restaurants and Harry’s Bar which is just a block away on Via Veneto. A pastry/coffee shop sits on the corner of their building at ground level, and a Tabacchi across the street (Via Sardegna) where you can purchase transportation passes. We were directed to two safe locations for ATM transactions, one being the bank where the family does their banking just a block away and one about three blocks away across from the U.S. Embassy on Via Veneto. Bus stops are one block away on Via Veneto where you can connect to any of the public transportation system within Rome. There is also a small grocery/convenience store near the police station, and a wine shop nearby. To us, the Hotel Golden is perfectly located in a very quiet neighborhood, yet extremely accessible to all Rome has to offer. If you like smaller Boutique/B&B type accommodations in a family safe neighborhood you might want to give Hotel Golden a try, we once did, and have been very happy with our decision! Kathy and I (Steve) hope to spend a full week at the Hotel Golden in the future, and offer our sincere thanks to Papa Mario, Mama Teresa, Marco, Giuseppe, Alina, Maria Teresa, and Maria for lovingly providing such a warm, inviting, and safe...

Hotel Golden… No so Golden to Me

We stayed at the Hotel Golden in Rome in May, 2019 for several days. We chose this hotel due to it’s location near the park [ Villa Borghese ] area, not to far from the Spanish Steps and other important sites in Rome [ actually the S.S. are not all that special ] , and the hotel staff that made us through our emails with them feel that we would be treated as “family”. Well,after our stay, if that’s how family is treated in Italy, it is very sad.

First, the room. Very small, with a tight bathroom, and a way too heavy blanket for the temperatures at that time [ No other choice of blanket available ]. No water or other beverages were supplied in the room. I don’t know about you, but almost all hotels I’ve ever stayed in supplied you with at least two bottles of water each day of your stay…. nothing here ! Also no kettle for making hot water for tea or coffee [ the latter of which was not offered in the room ]. I don’t know if the hotel offered to give you tea/coffee if you asked whoever was on duty behind the counter [ some hotels had a coffee or tea station where you could prepare your own, nothing was ever mentioned to us about that during our stay ]. The wifi worked very well, but you had to login with user and password EACH time you turned your phone or iPad off, or took them out of range of their wifi…. other places I stayed in would maintain the login so that all you did is turn your device back on, and you were set to go.

The father / owner never once smiled when we saw him behind the reception counter, in some cases even a scowl ! He never seemed at all friendly. We never interacted with the mother, who was supposed to prepare some excellent food for breakfast, or so we were told. Instead, we got the same boring breakfast choices each day, and nothing very special. This was probably the worst breakfast choices we had while in Italy. One of the brothers we interacted with was rather nice, but the other’s behind the counter were rather cold and frankly, we felt unwelcoming.

My wife did not feel well one day with a bad allergy, and so we stayed in most of the day. We had suggested it would be nice to have a kettle in the room for hot water when she did not feel well, but did not get a response to our suggestion. Instead they did offer to make us some hot water [ no mention of tea or coffee ] , but I did not intend to constantly come out to the reception desk and ask for hot water, especially when I did not feel like “family” at all, and did not have any tea or coffee in the room [ again, something almost all hotels provide, at least outside of Italy ].

Overall, I did not get a very warm feeling from those who owned the hotel or worked there. It was just a place to stay, and a pretty expensive one at that. We had much better room and accommodations, as well as breakfast, at the Holiday Inn Express near...

As we were on a budget, we booked Hotel Golden after reading great reviews on Tripadvisor. ||||It felt like we were staying in the family's home as opposed to a standard hotel, as it is a family run hotel with about 15 rooms on Level 1 of the building, with the family also residing in the building. You need to buzz for access from the street, so it's very secure. ||The beds were comfortable enough, the TV had great channels and the bathroom had a powerful shower. As it was a heat wave in summer, to have a room with air conditioning was very a wonderful relief. ||||Nearby to the hotel were some great supermarkets for food, snacks or drinks. ||Supermercato Tigre (5 min walk) - Via Toscana, 3B, 00187, had alcohol, drinks, snacks, cheeses/dips/salami (if you want to have an easy cheap meal in your room or at a park).||Decò Gourmet (7 min walk) - Corso d'Italia, 32/F, 00198, had fresh croissants (cornetto)/cheese sticks/bakery items delivered every morning (all at cheap prices) which we used for breakfast every single day, opens 8am Mon-Sat, 9am Sunday.||||Buying food like this (croissants/carton of juice etc) meant spending around 10 Euros total for 3 people for breakfast which was an affordable price for an enjoyable meal rather than spending it at a restaurant. Sometimes we ate back at the hotel or went to a park.||||Some feedback for the hotel:||||The website could benefit with an update to avoid receiving negative feedback, as currently it displays incorrect information, for instance:||||The website says homemade breakfast is available 7:30am - 10:00am, however they currently DO NOT offer breakfast, therefore I'm not sure why this information hasn't been removed from the website.||||The website also says an iron is available (which I did not see) - maybe you need to ask for this at reception.||||The website says check-out is 12:00am (which is actually midnight), so it really needs to say 12:00pm (or otherwise 12:00 noon) which is the correct check-out time. ||||Overall, Hotel Golden feels more like a 3-star hotel rather than 2-star, though maybe it is due to the lack of some of the facilities available in each room. e.g. no kettle/coffee machine. I did see a kettle in the hallway, though not sure if it was for guest use. It didn't have coffee or milk nearby so not sure what it was for. ||||Also, their website says minibar which to me infers it has drinks/snacks in it, yet it was just a small empty fridge. I liked the fridge as I bought my owns drinks/food to store in it, however it should be noted as fridge available, rather than minibar. ||||Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Hotel Golden and feel if their website had a refresh to correct some errors it would...