Rome Hotels - Get The Facts BEFORE You Book

When visiting Rome, most travellers just assume the best option for their accommodation needs is to book a room in one of the many Rome Hotels.

After all, that's what everyone else does, right?

Well, before you finalise that booking at a hotel in Rome, here's a few things to consider that might have never occurred to you before:

6 Reasons To Try An Apartment Instead of a Hotel in Rome

1. Apartments are usually cheaper - typically 50% less than a hotel in a similar locality.

2. Cheaper for larger groups - apartments typically have 3 times more space.

3. Save on Restaurant bills by shopping locally and cooking your own meals.

4. More privacy with your own individual rooms - great for families with kids.

5. Live WITH the locals rather than hidden behind a hotel wall - experience Rome like a Roman.

6. Heaps of choices for location - nearly 200 apartments in or near Central Rome

Renting an apartment just seems to make so much more sense: The space is at least three times that of a hotel room, usually at about half the price, and you can relax, cook your own meals, and experience Rome like a local.

More detailed explanations of these 6 points can be read below the yellow feedback boxes

Client Feedback - Apartment Ambrogio I - Spanish Steps - Sept 2008

Hi Leon,

I suppose our main reason for selecting an apartment over a hotel was twofold: price and value for money, and the ability to cater for ourselves. The fact that there was five of us, meant that an apartment was always going to be better value than hotels, and the ability to cook for ourselves was a great cost saver, as well as allowing us to enjoy the “Italian” way of cooking and enjoying food and wine!! Plus, it is so much more comfortable to have some space, rather than be stuck in a single hotel room. We found your company on-line and to be perfectly frank, the fact that you are an Australian gave us some confidence regarding your service. This confidence was confirmed with the dealings with your staff throughout the planning, and was confirmed again from the time we were picked up at the airport. Everything was well handled, excellent service with a minimum of fuss. All good!! I hope this helps and please let me know if I can assist in any further way. We hope to be back in 2010, so will be in touch for more apartments, possibly in other towns as well!!

Regards

Dean Templeton (Australia)

Client Feedback - Apartment Parione - Piazza Navona - Oct 2008

Hi Leon,

We chose an appartment because we are a family and it allowed us more room, alot of hotels did not accomadate family numbers. It also gave us the oportunity to cook some of our meals.

Our travel agent put us on to you, we felt there was a good range of accommadation and the one we chose was reasonably priced and in a good location.

Regards

Dianne Grimaldi (New Zealand)

Client Feedback - Apartment Casa Stefania - Trastevere - Oct 2008

Hi Leon,

We really enjoyed our stay in Rome, thank you for your service. I originally wanted to do a bed and breakfast type of accommodation; I thought that would give us a more personal touch and actually get to interact with the locals. The B and B arrangement for 7 people was just too expensive. At first, I ignored the apartment arrangement because I did not think we could stay just 3 nights. Luckily, I perused the option and found your company just by doing a Google search.

I happen to work with a couple of Italian graduate students and they recommended the neighborhood of Trastevere. I’m so glad they did. It was a wonderful place. When we were returning home, we stayed in Rome our last night near the Spanish Steps in a hotel. I think everyone in the group thought we made the correct choice to stay in an apartment in our little neighborhood.

We also used the shuttle service that you recommended to bring us to our apartment and to take us to the train station. That worked out great. Both rides were on time and very professional. Of course, it does take some time getting use to Roman drivers!

Please let me know if you need any more information. I did throw my coins into the Trevi Fountain, so, hopefully I will be returning.

Joyce LaVecchio (USA)

1) As with all things, you get what you pay for, and in many cases, unless you're willing to pay a higher amount for a hotel room in Roma, you'll likely be disappointed with what you get.

According to an article published in Ilta-Sanomat (one of Finland's two prominent tabloids and the second largest newspaper in the country) by Pirkka Siltaris (Dec 2007):

"If you would like to find a nice hotel room [in Rome] at a reasonable price, you will mostly be disappointed. I and my wife have been in hotels at the price of 100 – 150 €/night. The journeys were taking from a couple of days to two weeks. In most times we felt that the rooms were not worth of that money."

"Then, four years earlier, we finally had enough of this, when we were in a hotel near Piazza Fiume."

"The double-bed and originally white leaning chair made the tiny room full. The dirty wall papers were depressing. Through the window we could see nothing but a wall, and hear the heavy traffic noice."

"The hotels around the main railway-station Termini with equal prices are of the same level. Yes, you can get a better room in Rome, but be prepared to pay at least 200 €/night."

So, while there are occasions where budget is the primary consideration when choosing your accommodation, you'll need to seriously weigh that up against the disappointment of having to stay in a sub-standard hotel room in Rome. Don't get your visit to the Eternal City off to a bad start by letting false economy make an unwise decision for you.

2) In line with choosing a Rome hotel room based purely on price, another consideration is the cost factor when there are a larger number of you visiting Rome.

Perhaps you're going with the whole family (Mom, Dad, the kids and maybe even 1 or both grandparents), or you are a group of friends (multiple couples perhaps?), or even a large party (a family reunion perhaps?).

When you're in this situation, you will find that booking hotel rooms in Rome is even more expensive, because most rooms only sleep 2 (sometimes 2 adults + 1-2 children, but a little bit of privacy for Mum and Dad is a wise choice when visiting Romantic Rome!), so you'll need to book multiple rooms at your Rome hotel.

This is definitely an exercise in spending lots of extra money, but perhaps even more importantly, it creates extra complications you might not like, such as having to try and co-ordinate multiple rooms full of people, keeping tabs on the room service bills (making sure the kids don't go wild late at night :-) ), and the discomfort of too many people being squeezed into small hotel rooms isn't a lot of fun either.

If you are considering hiring multiple rome hotel rooms, consider that this means you miss hanging out together as a family - as these short holidays are really the only time you spend quality time together, especially if you have teenagers who are old enough to be independent. It quickly wears thin having to "make a date" to see them later in the day.

By the end of your trip, you'll have missed the usual laughs and interaction in the kitchen or living room - and the hotel room to hotel room telephoning wears thin quickly. Plus, when you're all crowded into a hotel room together, it's so tiny that you can only bear 10 mins together before taking off to your own space again.

3) Another thing you might never have thought of before is the issue of meals when staying in hotels.

If you're going out for breakfast, lunch and dinner at restaurants every day, it's easy to clock up 120 Euros or MORE per day! Multiply that by the number of days you're staying in Rome and that's a LARGE chunk of change that I'm sure you would much rather spend on seeing the sights, shopping, buying great souvenirs and having fun.

Basic sensible budgetting can ensure you have an even better holiday while in Rome, but when you're forced to eat out (or call room service) all the time, it quickly adds up to a large expense that most people would prefer to avoid.

It would be so much more economical (and fun) if you could eat out some days, but on other days, "stay home" and cook your own meal, then sit on a lovely private terrace and enjoy the ambience of Rome, while eating something made with fresh local goodies! You won't get this at any hotel in Rome.

Also, consider that Rome is a fairly small city and a lot of the tourist activity is done on foot (you'll be very surprised at how close together many of the big Rome tourist attractions are).

Imagine you and the family have had a fun day walking all over Rome, checking out the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, and you've finally exhausted yourselves and are heading back to your hotel room.

A hard (but fun) day's walking all over Rome seems that much more unpleasant when you remember that in order to eat an evening meal, you'll need to go out to a cafe or restaurant, because hotel rooms don't have cooking facilities. Yet, you're all exhausted and want nothing more than to chill out on a couch (or a comfy bed) and rest and enjoy a meal.

Restaurant meals are part of the fun and pleasure when visiting Rome, but I guarantee there will come a time when you're just too tired and worn out to clean yourselves up and go back out for one, even though you are definitely hungry and thirsty.

Also, tired AND hungry children are a BAD combination for any parent, especially when overseas rather than in the comfort of their own home! Who wants to fight the kids just to get a meal.

4) Speaking of kids, privacy is another big thing when travelling anywhere with children. Yes, you want your kids close by and safe, but Mom and Dad would DEFINITELY appreciate a bit of private time together, without having to worry about the children. Heck, Rome is one of the great Romantic cities of the world, but it's hard to have a romantic time when the kids are sharing the room with you!

Plus, most children would also enjoy a bit of privacy from Mum and Dad as well. Even if it's so they don't get told to be quiet all the time. Kids appreciate privacy almost as much as adults.

Parents, if you're sharing a hotel room with children, I guarantee this will be an important consideration for you when choosing somewhere to stay when you're visiting Rome.

5) Something that practically no-one ever thinks of when it comes to vacationing in a magnificent city like Rome, Venice, Florence or even Paris, is that when you stay in a hotel, you don't actually get to experience that city (and all its wonderful character and charm) like the locals do.

A hotel is a fairly closed, controlled environment (albeit comfortable and convenient) and you are just not going to get a feel for how the locals live, love and play.

You miss out on some of the more simple pleasures, such as shopping at the local markets for fresh produce and preparing a yummy home cooked meal, or just listening to the citizens of Rome come & go while they live their lives. This is such a huge part of living in any city, and when you're staying in a hotel, you'll totally miss that joy!

6) Lastly, as that old saying in the Real Estate industry goes, it's all about "location, location, location", and while there are plenty of hotels in Rome, what about if you want to stay somewhere a bit special? Perhaps near a Rome monument that really grabs your attention, such as the Vatican, the Spanish Steps or even the Borghese Gardens...

There won't always be a wide range of hotels in these spots, and in some cases, you may find they are too expensive to stay in, or in other cases, they just might not offer the extra facilities or features you are looking for.

So, after this rather stark expose of the hotel options in Rome, is there an alternative that can overcome these negatives?

Yes, and it's called short-term apartment rental, and it's a "big thing" not only in Rome, but many tourist destinations through out Italy (and Europe for that matter).

As mentioned by Pirkka Siltaris in the above referenced article, staying in an apartment in rome is a great way to go, not just because of the cost savings involved, but you also get the benefit of truly living WITH the locals and enjoying the experience that is Rome first hand, rather than hidden behind the walls of some Rome hotel room.

Apartment rental is extremely family friendly, so if you're bring children (and grandparents?) along, why not enjoy the comfort of your very own home while in Rome, with both privacy and safety, and the option to cook and eat in-house on some occasions, rather than rushing out to pay for expensive restaurant meals, etc.

Italy-Accom has literally HUNDREDS of Apartments, Villas, Farmhouses and Bed & Breakfasts available for rent all across Italy, including Rome, Florence, Venice, the Amalfi Coast region, Tuscany and Sicily, and our company is owned and staffed by English-speaking friendly people whose number 1 priority is to ensure you have a FANTASTIC time where-ever you're staying.

Now that you're here at our site, why not browse around and take a look at the various different apartments we've got for you to rent. You can look at photos of EVERY place we have available before choosing the one that suits you, and we've personally inspected and approved EVERY SINGLE ONE of the apartments available for rent on our sites, to ensure you'll not get any nasty surprises.

Read up on how to get the best from your holiday in Rome with our free Rome Guide and Trip Planning articles - all designed to help you squeeze every ounce of fun, enjoyment and relaxation out of your time in beautiful ancient Rome!

Last, but most importantly, when you get to Rome, please ensure you have a fantastic time - Rome is an amazing wonderful city that casts its spell on you - I can guarantee you WILL want to come back after your visit has ended.