Hotel Champagne Palace - Rome, Italy     

Allthough the rooms are on the small side, I dont really get all the bad reviews. The staff was friendly and helpful, the cleaning impeccable and the location - well it must be among the best in Rome. A fun walk to the Spanish steps, 300 yards from the Santa Maria Maggiore Cathedral and about the same from Termini. Lots of cool little trattorias and cafes nearby. The breakfast is everything you can expect in Italy - theres nobody there fo fry up your omelette or crisp your bacon, but nice bread, cereals, milk and jams - and plenty of places for American breakfasts nearby for those who need a 500 calory start

Chose the Champagne Palace based on the location and the fact that it looked a reasonable 4 star hotel. The location is good, although on arrival at Termini it was hailing, thundering and lightening so we got a taxi - 20 euros later we realised how close we were and that we had been robbed! Initial thoughts of the hotel were it was small. We were advised our room was 408. There was no air con as the unit was hanging off the wall, the bathroom lights were hanging out, no hairdryer, plug sockets hanging out the wall, the minibar shelves were broken and there was an open bottle of water and one coke in there. We also went to open the window and the handle fell off!! We advised reception then went out for a few hours. On return nothing had been done so we asked to move rooms. Reception advised they needed to check with the manager?? Eventually we were shown a nice room on the ground floor which is actually one that is used as the picture for rooms - still not 4* standard but at least this wasnt a health hazard. The hotel itself was poor. We only went for one night and thought that a 4 * would give us a bit of luxury - Would not recommend this at all.