La Vite Vaticana — Hotel in Rome

I always try and be fair and kind when it comes to tripadvisor reviews. I don’t like to drag people’s business but after the communication I have just received from the hotel I feel like I have no other choice but to warn others of the disaster holiday we went on in October. ||I booked this hotel through love holidays (never again). I received my confirmation email which had a hotel voucher attached to it. This hotel voucher I will add to this review as I know the hotel will try and argue that I didn’t read the fine print etc when this is not the case as there is no fine print. This is all I received prior to my holiday from love holidays, the hotel or the company that runs the hotel. We received nothing else. ||When we arrived in Rome, our flight was delayed as many flights are at the moment, this meant we did not arrive at the hotel until 7:30pm instead of 6:30pm like initially planned. This was out of our control and as I’ve never had any issues with checking in to a hotel at this time before I didn’t feel the need to get in contact with anyone. ||On arrival, at 7:30pm, we were told the hotel had given our hotel room away and there was no longer a room available to us. I was in total shock. They said that in my hotel voucher it stated ‘very clearly’ that check in finishes at 7pm. As you can see in the hotel voucher I have attached it does not say this anywhere. Whether this is the hotels fault or love holidays fault, I really don’t care, poor communication & poor customer service. To give someone’s room away so quickly as well, it’s disgusting! |They then organised for us to go to another ‘hotel’ if you can call it that. It was another 20 minute walk away & was like being in the film hostel. Horrendous! Nothing like the hotel room I’d actually booked. We did nothing night one because of this, we just went to bed, we were so drained from the stress it completely spoiled our first night in Rome! ||The following day we were allowed the room we’d actually booked back, lucky us! This meant going back to the hotel at 10am to leave our bags and get a key for the room, we couldn’t take our bags etc in because housekeeping hadn’t been, so this was now day 2 in Rome and we still didn’t have a base. We are normally early risers on holiday but due to having to go back to the original hotel we didn’t get to do what we wanted to do until 12pm. It spoiled yet another part of our trip. ||After this I thought our troubles were behind us until I started to get hard red lump all over my legs and feet. I tried to be kind, assume it was the heat or something else possibly. But no, on our final night we found bed bugs in the bed we had been sleeping in, it was disgusting. I would like to also add that these bites disappeared as soon as I was home and haven’t reappeared since so can only be the hotel’s fault. If you want to sleep in beds that are obviously unclean and unwashed then this is the place for you. ||Since this experience I have tried to resolve this issue with love holidays and the hotel but they refuse to accept that they didn’t reach an acceptable standard. They argue that I didn’t try to tell housekeeping or anyone at reception about the issue, this is because nobody is ever around, I never saw housekeeping and I only saw someone on reception the night and morning we checked in. I was also giving them the benefit of the doubt until I actually saw the bugs on the final night and thought I would resolve it when I arrived back in the UK. ||You should also be aware that doors are left open so anyone can walk in & out of the place and before you check in the rooms have been unlocked all day. It is also not very walkable, I don’t understand why it says 100 for walkable because if you want to go to anywhere other than the Vatican you will have to get public transport. ||I would avoid this hotel, things go wrong I understand that but it is not acceptable for a hotel to refuse to acknowledge their errors. Accept you negatively affected my holiday and move on, do better, don’t try to make out...

My friend and I have just come back from a week here.||Pro:||- The guesthouse is close to Vatican City, the metro and other locations, making it easy to get out and about.||- The staff were friendly and helpful.||- Room would be good for couples or solo travellers.||- Lovely rooftop sun terrace garden.||||Cons:||- The guesthouse gave us the vibe of a converted apartment. With a small reception area and a shared communal kitchen area.||- Although the staff were friendly, we hardly ever saw them during out visit, meaning we couldn't ask for extra towels when requested, we only managed on one occasion.||-My friend (24F) and I (25M) requested a twin room upon arrival as per our package holiday instructions. However were told there was only a twin room left.||-Housekeeping was inconsistent, the last few days of our trip our room had not been done, meaning we had to use take out bags to store our rubbish, and towels were not fresh. Not ideal.||- Whilst this is at no fault of the guesthouse, be prepared for thin walls and noise at early hours of the morning. ||- Sadly they still operate using physical keys for locking and security. Meaning my friend and I had to arrange amongst ourselves when to leave and come back or go out together. As we did not have our own set of keys each.||- The rooms in general are in a worn state, rust around bathroom lights, poorly painted walls, skirting etc, and a bathroom tile in the shower had been repaired with duct tape.||||Overall whilst this guesthouse is a cheaper option. You are getting what you paid for and may suit a shorter stay, or act as a place to crash and sleep. It's location was fantastic and staff are friendly and willing to help, when they are around. ||However we personally would opt for a more hotel style accommodation...

Location seriously cannot be beat but be aware of punitive charges should you arrive in the late evening. We were hit with a excessive "late arrival fee" unlike anything I've seen at any accommodation I've stayed worldwide and which was undisclosed when booking via an online travel agent. The host went as far as to tell us he "knows it's popular to save money on flights by taking late night flights" when in fact we had a flight delay that resulted in the late arrival. To add insult to injury, the card machine was conveniently "broken" when we were asked to pay, so forced us to use cash, thus leaving us without any recourse to dispute the charge...