Relais Fontana Di Trevi — Hotel in Rome

BAIT AND SWITCH! CAUTION, the room you are booking might not be the room you actually receive, they have several rooms that are not decorated/ of 1* motel quality (see pictures of actual room -top- compared to website -bottom). Dirty grout, painted battleship grey throughout, without any other decoration, utterly shocking. Not even a cupboard to hang clothes, just an open clothes rail. I booked a room and arrived early, before the room was ready, so was ‘upgraded’ to a room that they obviously couldn’t sell, a triple (for a solo traveller!), presumably because they had deliberately oversold the superior doubles and so bumped the first person to an unsellable triple, as I would not have the opportunity to view the room and complain until it was too late. When I picked up my key I went immediately to the front desk and waited for 2 HOURS to be told that I could not change my room until the day after (more evidence that they had oversold). Complained again at checkout and was told that all their rooms differ and some of their rooms are decorated like that, a fact their website only shows for the triple rooms (I told them this and was told all rooms are triple rooms despite an obvious difference in size and bed layout that is clear to everyone), if this is the case then the website is set up to deliberately deceive and DOES NOT show double superior rooms in this undecorated grey colour. When I complained, was frankly told that they were not accountable for rooms not matching what was paid for, poor customer service unbefitting of the cost of a room. Please note, once I complained and moved to the correct room that i actually paid for the following night, the stay was better from there on in, however the price is very clearly in the location. All rooms are noisy, there is a loud bar below and the rooftop terrace has loud music. This is the first time in 20 years that I have complained about a room! Not worth the money, go to an actual 4* hotel elsewhere.

Don’t be conned by the breakfast view either, it’s nice but a €20 cocktail would give you the same view and save you a fortune. Rarely used the roof terrace due to the cost of drinks. Staff were friendly, but did persist in pushing the idea that the first room I got was better, as if I didn’t have eyes. Breakfast was okay but not a very big selection. Location was central, but all the nearby restaurants were tourist traps so I walked 15-20 mins elsewhere each eve.

Would advise anyone thinking about this that there are much better hotels where you are not paying for a view and a convenient location for one tourist spot of many, and hopefully no-one else will have my experience. More than anything, if they offer you an...

The most disappointing hotel I’ve ever stayed in !! We stayed after coming of a cruise for 2 nights , we were on 4th floor which are narrow and steep, our room wasn’t ready and we were told to come back and left our luggage , we went back and girl at reception told us to go up to 3rd floor to meet one of her colleagues, she gave us room key , took payment for room tax , didn’t introduce herself so didn’t know her name , didn’t say they had free WiFi or you couldn’t get breakfast which is advertised, no phone in room to call reception ,Air conditioning didn’t work , although I’ve seen other reviews that said there’s didn’t either ? They had a kettle in room with 2 tea bags , no milk , looked in mini bar there was a tub of ice cream with spoon in it and a tub of fruit obviously left by previous guest !! Next day when we came in looked in fridge it was still there also there was 2 bottles of water and 2 bottles of Coke ,we didn’t use them , when we were checking out they said we had a bill for €10.50 when hadn’t used anything !! The room was ok , was tired looking paintwork and wallpaper very dated , the roof top terrace were you can view the trevi fountains was very small and also very expensive !! Lots of the rooms are street view only which ours was , I was so looking forward to my stay here but it wasn’t what I thought it would be , it was noisy but I knew it would be as it’s extremely busy even in early hours the best thing about it was the location !! It’s not a hotel I would ever...

I was a little nervous about the mixed reviews but was willing to take a risk since this was our last leg of a 10 day trip. I will say that some of the negative reviews have merit, but a lot of what people complained about comes with staying in an older hotel and should have been somewhat expected. They definitely haven't updated the place recently, and the bathroom wasn't completely spotless, but I definitely wouldn't have called it or the room unclean. We had a large room with a very comfy bed. We were in the back of hotel so we didn't have to deal with street noise, but I could definitely see as being a problem if you did have a window on the fountain side. This is something you should expect if you choose to stay at a hotel this close to a major tourist attraction in Rome. The major pluses for us were the cell phone we were able to take with us and use for navigation, the location in the middle of everywhere we wanted to go, and the breakfast bar/roof (we went in December and always got up to the roof right at 7:30 so we always got a seat where we could see the fountain). The downsides would be that the wi-fi was pretty weak in our room (probably due to being toward the back of the building so you win some, you lose some) and the peddlers outside the hotel were annoying which would be worse during the busy season. Overall, an enjoyable stay if you don't mind more of a rustic charm and being in the midst of the action. Not for you if you expect everything to...