Relais Vittoria Colonna — Hotel in Rome

If I could give this place 5 negative stars I would. And if you want to be next to Vatican City where traffic is constant and you’re surrounded by pricey restaurants that under deliver, then this is the location for you.

However let me get back to the room – I would say the description of pricey hotel that under delivers or does not deliver would be accurate. The room itself was nice with a king size bed and a lot of space, however the BASIC functions like shower and air conditioning did not work for the entirety of my stay. I had to send 30 to 40 messages to Staff just to get the shower fixed. It finally started working on the final day of my stay. The AC did not work at all and I was sweating through the night every single night. Rome is an extremely hot city and you really need a bedroom with a functioning AC.

I repeatedly asked to be switched to a room that worked and was ignored. I also asked for a refund so I could find a different hotel and was refused.

Also you should know that there is no 24/7 onsite reception here so you have to communicate with them on WhatsApp. The front desk is only open for five hours a day from 2 to 7 PM. Those are terrible hours!

The reception rarely if never answers the phone. That is not advertised on the booking area or website. I would say it is best to go to a hotel that has on-site reception 24/7. My wallet was stolen and I lost my key to enter the building and luckily someone from reception was nearby so they could come and let me in but imagine if they have been far away?

There was also construction happening on two of the three days that I was staying there. Loud hammering starting at 8:30 AM and also the terrible smell of chemicals such as paint were wafting into my room. I really should have been refunded at the first request. Very terrible customer service overall.

The pricing was high also – over €200 every night. This hotel did not deliver in so many ways. The room in all truth was UNINHABITABLE.

I finally came to another hotel in another city where the air conditioning works and the shower works and it is so nice. Those are basic things at any room...

I visited in early December. Overall this is in a fantastic location; being well within walking distance to loads of attractions, but in a quieter neighborhood. The building is beautiful too, but there were some smaller issues with our stay.

We arrived late to the Hotel which I notified them would be the case, but received a comment about it by text when getting instructions for entering the building. Luckily, we were granted entry remotely and arrived without much issue. The biggest gripe we had with the Hotel was the condition of the room upon arrival, which we noted to be below our expectation. While staff was prompt and keen to sort the issues, it was a little strange. We had to document the issues in-person to staff including the cleaning crew (while we are in the room the next morning). It was awkward. The staff was also for some reason incredulous about my complaints, at times actually challenging my statements regarding cleanliness - "I want to believe you of course sir but I cannot verify and I find it hard to believe". I mean yeah, me too lol. The tub which was the deciding factor for this hotel seemed to be maintained somewhat poorly and leaked an alarming amount on to the floor. I think the staff should invest a little more time in to deep cleaning and renovation to avoid any avoidable issues.

The flexibility to temporarily move us to an Alt room while the issues were partially resolved that evening was very appreciated. We also received a complimentary breakfast for a café across the street for our trouble, definitely a nice gesture.

All rooms seem well equipped with your standard Hotel amenities, with the addition of a Netflix account for guests to use (especially welcome if you don't understand Italian television)!

In Summary - this Hotel ticks many boxes and will likely fit...

Location phenomenal. Room very comfortable. Breakfasts great. Reception and all staff also great. Great value. Security is great.

Rome is one of those European cities that is built upon stuff that may be over 1000 years old. So they never throw down buildings and put up new ones. They tend to repurpose them. The Relais Vittoria Colonna is one of those. It is actually a few floors within a commercial property. Some floors have apartments for longer stays, some have hotel rooms, etc. Some floors have office space. Put this all together and your stay is walking distance from virtually everything from main shopping area, colisseum, vatican, etc. And the accommodations are reasonably priced!!!!

One of the best ways to judge a supplier is how well they handle issues that come up. So, with one hour from having to leave our home to our USA airport to fly to Rome, we got messages that our inter-Italy flights to/from Sicily were cancelled due to a strike!! So, we decided to bag Sicily and try to arrive 3 nights early in Rome. I reached out to Lavinia at the Relais and asked if she could accommodate us. Relais was booked up, but she offered a suggestion at a nearby similar property. Within a half hour, Lavinia had taken care of everything from hotel reservations at the other property, transfers from Fiumicino to the new hotel; transfers from new hotel to Relais, and then after our stay, transfer to next destination. On arrival, everything went perfectly.

Brava Lavinia, and brava Relais...