Hotel San Francesco — Hotel in Rome

I arrived fairly late into the evening but the welcome I received was brilliant. You’d probably never notice this hotel from the outside since it’s fairly subtle, but walking into the lobby restaurant / bar area gives great first impressions. There’s only a single reception desk in the rear corner, but given the small size of the hotel there was never a need to wait to see someone.

My room was a standard double on the first floor. The decor was somewhat minimalistic, with bare concrete effect walls and only one piece of artwork, but it was equally traditional in feel and cosy enough. The wardrobe had a good number of hangers for a few night’s stay and both sides of the bed had electric sockets with a bedside table. There was a unit housing a mini bar, containing a couple of bottles of water, but unfortunately these weren’t restocked during my stay. The TV was mounted on the wall and fairly small but the air-conditioning worked well. The bed was a good size and pretty firm, with the bedsheets and pillows being rather thin, however suitable for the climate at least.

The bathroom was a good size with a corner shower. This had strong power but I found the temperature fluctuated a bit during use, and the controls were extremely sensitive so getting it comfortable wasn’t always easy. The toiletries were provided in strange pouches which weren’t the easiest to use but the labelling suggested they were environmentally friendly, so excusable. There was a light above the mirror, no magnifying one though, but a hairdryer was provided. It was a pleasant and spacious area which was welcome.

Sleep quality in the room wasn’t too bad, however housekeeping was rather noisy in the morning (although they did proactively return later in the day if the room was occupied in the morning) and being on the first floor meant external noise could be heard clearly through the shutters. Saying that though, the location is great in the neighbourhood, with plenty of restaurants and bars just a short walk away, so that’s the trade off.

The roof top bar is a lovely retreat, serving both food and drink in a relaxing setting. While the building isn’t high enough to make it the best roof top in the city, the setting was really enjoyable with a good atmosphere. It was perhaps a shame it didn’t open until the early evening and shut just before midnight, else I’d have loved to use it more. I never did quite find out if the lobby bar was able to serve drinks outside of these hours, as I had a bit of a language barrier with the late night staff.

Overall it was a great hotel for a few nights in the city. The location suited my needs and the service was generally great. I’d consider it again if I didn’t need to be in the thick of the action to the east...

We had a great stay at Hotel San Francesco. Brilliant location. We were able to walk from Trastevere Station, which took about 20 minutes and it's only a 10 minute walk into the heart of Rome. There's several mini supermarkets and a bigger Conad store just minutes away. Trastevere is also very vibrant at night, with loads of bars and restaurants located just five minutes walk away, but far enough so you're not disturbed by any late night revellers.

The hotel staff were fabulous. Hugely friendly and helpful. Check in was very quick and simple. You're given a key card for your room which you must had in to reception whenever you leave the hotel. But it's staffed 24 hours, so not an issue.

Rooms are not huge and a little basic, but light, airy and clean. Bathroom was a good size and linens where changed every day. There is a mini fridge in the room, but it wasn't particularly cold. There are NO tea and coffee making facilities in the room, not even a kettle, so was desperate for a cuppa after our four day stay!! There a room safe, but we had trouble figuring ours out. We're familiar with hotel safes, but we kept getting an error with this one. Spoke to reception and apparently there was supposed to be an instruction card, but it was missing from our room and the maintenance person had left for the day. We spent a while googling and finally found the reset button and figured out how to get it to work ourselves in the end.

Just a few things - we had a room at the rear of the hotel. At 7am, 7.15am and 7.30am every morning the church opposite rings it's bell for about 30 seconds or so. So no need to set an early morning alarm 😂. As there's no tea/coffee making facilities, there are no cups or glasses room apart for a single glass in the bathroom of a double occupancy room. A couple of glasses would've been nice. And we had small ironing board in our room but no iron. Yes, we could've gone and asked for these, but they're pretty basic items that I would've thought should already been in the room.

Would definitely recommend the hotel though as it was...

An utterly awful experience. We booked this place for two nights on the 30th of November and 1st of December 2023. On the second night of our stay, we returned to our room in the evening to find out that all our belongings were gone. We immediately went to the reception to inquire about what had happened and the whereabouts of our belongings. The receptionist appeared baffled and stated they were unaware of the situation. They also mentioned that the hotel does not employ any housekeepers directly; instead, cleaning services are outsourced to an external company, and they did not have the contact details for this company. We were told we would have to wait until the morning for the manager and the cleaning company to arrive and address the issue. Consequently, we had to spend the night in the clothes we had worn all day while exploring Rome.

The next morning, the manager was nowhere to be found, and it was only after 9:00 a.m. that we were informed our belongings had been returned to our room. We found two plastic bags containing our items on the floor, only to discover that a new, unopened perfume was missing. We always leave 10Eur /per day in the room for the housekeeper as they are usually on a low salary. They took the money and the perfume too :( Upon requesting compensation for the stolen perfume, the receptionist insisted that approval from the hotel manager was necessary. As we were leaving the establishment (which I hesitate to call a hotel), we were left with the strong impression that once we departed, no effort on the side of the hotel will be made to resolve this issue by refunding us for the ruined night or compensate us for the stolen perfume. Sadly, this feeling proved to be accurate. Overall, it was an utterly...