La Locanda Viminale — Hotel in Rome

I rarely write any reviews, but I wanted to write about my experience with La Locanda Viminale, Rome. It was my first time in Rome, Italy, and I chose this place for my husband and I to stay during our trip. We really loved the location: really close to all major attractions, restaurants and close to Termini train station. I would like to point out that this is not a hotel by any means, and that was the mistake I have made for relying on HOTEL.COM description and not verifying through other resources. It is a B&B with total 5-6 rooms available, all located on the second floor. There is an elevator in the building, but it never worked for us since it was very slow and extremely small (my husband and I couldn’t fit with 2 carry-ons and 1 checked luggage). We had to take the stairs bringing our suitcases which I personally found inconvenient. It didn’t really bother us using stairs other than when arriving and leaving and dealing with the suitcases. One thing I found really unprofessional was the check-in lady requesting for us to pay the city tax with cash only when we gave our credit card. It was quite disturbing after traveling for the last 5 hours hear the front desk lady offering us to even go to the local bank to get the cash instead of just simply accepting our payment. I later learned that it was the way for the locals to avoid paying their taxes. One way or the other, during all my travels to different cities/countries it never happened to me, and I thought that was just really unprofessional on their part welcoming guests that are only staying 3 nights in your city. Since we wanted a quiet room, the check-in lady let us chose the one that was away from the kitchen and front desk areas. Later on I was very thankful because the other room that was also available at the time of check in was neighboring guests with small kid/kids that you could definitely hear even in the common area. We end up staying in room #1. It’s a small and a very quiet room that has a small balcony that at first we thought we would utilize during our breakfast, but unfortunately after opening the balcony later, we realized it was faced the area with trash cans underneath and it wasn’t that pleasant, so we kept it closed for the rest of our stay. The queen bed was constructed of 2 single beds and during the first night the beds separated and created a hole where I discovered myself upon awakening in the morning. Likely after talking to the cleaning lady, they tied the beds together, and we no longer had the bed separating problem for the rest of our stay. Overall the place was clean and bed was comfortable. The breakfast was really nice and it was brought in to our room at the requested time. It was something that my husband and I really enjoyed every morning before going out to explore the city. However, every time we would return back to our room, I found our AC unit in the room being turned off, and room being very stuffy which made it unpleasant for us considering that we couldn’t even utilize the balcony. At the time of checking in, the lady gave us recommendations for the local restaurants where my husband and I really enjoyed dinning in. During the day there is someone at the front desk when people checking in/out, however it’s not guarantee. After certain hour in the evening, there is no one at the front desk available, so if you have any questions, you can either wait till the next morning, or you can text the owners directly. They were really prompt in responding though. Personally, I wouldn’t really recommend room #1 and possibly choose a different room. Overall, I find this place to be a great choice for people looking for a clean place to stay in the centralized location. I would recommend this place for families with kids because of the convenience of a common kitchen area with always available water, tea and cookies and of course the...

The location was one of the plus points of the property. It took us 20 mins of brisk walking to reach the Trevi Fountain and another 20 mins from there to the Piazza Novona. The property was clean and neat and tea/coffee/cookies were always available for guests in the pantry. There is a microwave which can be used by the guests and a water cooler/heater for tea/coffee.||||Most of the rooms were decent and clean. We were 6 adults. One couple had room no. 1 which has a sit-out that overlooks the INTERIOR square of the building and is very small, damp and dingy. Had a bad smell too. They complained to Ricardo and next day they were shifted to room no. 5, which is a double-sharing room. We also had room no. 2 which is a triple-sharing room. It is a decent-sized room but could do with better lighting. Room no 4 is also triple-sharing and has a balcony overlooking the street. Is decent sized and airy with natural light from the balcony.||||Ricardo gave us a lot of advise on places to eat and how to use the buses and Metro. The building has a tiny elevator which we needed as we were travelling with 7 big bags and it would have been impossible to carry them up the flight of steps. We were given keys and codes to all entrances. In all, a nice place to park yourself for a couple of days in Rome.||||Breakfast was one of the sore points for us. They give you COLD sweet breads/croissants along with a couple of slices of toast, butter, jam and a frugal helping of cheese and ham, flavoured yogurt and a fruit along with tea/coffee and canned orange juice. It is a good breakfast but without anything hot like eggs etc. it was a letdown for us. Please note that there is a pressure problem in some of bathrooms. In the morning when all guests are using the bathrooms, water pressure drops drastically and even though there are rain-shower heads in the bathroom, they are ineffective. In room no. 5 on two separate occasions, my friends had to wait under the shower, without water for well-nigh on 15 mins. On repeatedly informing the help outside, the answer given by the ladies was that they could not do anything about it. Also when the water is started in the shower, the shower-head kept rotating like a sprinkler and there was water everywhere but where it was supposed to be!!!! This is infuriating, when you are in a hurry to leave, and you are stranded under the shower without any water and nobody does anything about it. I hope that the next guests using room no. 5 have a better experience with...

What a perfect choice for our first visit to Rome! We had very good communications with Erika before we arrived, Good English skills and quick to respond to questions. We arrived at the Roma Termini station on the Leonardo Express from the airport and had an easy third of a mile walk with wheeled luggage to the Locanda. Erika was there to meet us and set us up in our room. The location is awesome. One block north is Via Nazionale which you can follow a half mile southwest to Trajans Column, Altare della Patria and the nearest entry area for the ancient forum ruins. To the northeast in about a quarter mile is the Reppublica Metro station where you can ride the subway to the Ottaviano station near the vatican. We walked from the Locanda to all the major sights, Pantheon, Trevi, Borghese Villa. I am 70 my wife 65. The location made our explorations very easy! When we left for Florence on the train we had another easy walk with wheeled luggage. |Nearby restaurants were very nice. Our favorite was Antica Pizzeria Est Est Est. Nice, small family place, very close by. Get a "Pinsa" for something different. On the ground floor of the same building is Ristorante "Al Viminale" also great food.|The Locanda provided continental breakfast was sufficient to get us going with hot Cappuccino, juice, fresh croissants, yogurt and toast and jam.|Erica also arranged for a private driver to get us back to the airport at 4:30 in the morning. |So, thank you Erica and Locanda al Viminale for making our first Rome visit...