Borromeo - Rome, Italy 

I cannot believe some of these recent reviews are for the same hotel we stayed in!!! In my view the Hotel Borromeo was reasonably priced (for Rome!), clean, comfortable, in a fantastic location and perfect for a short city break. Firstly it is on a very busy street but the rooms have shutters and a double window which blocks out ALL the street noise when shut. The buzz of the street, in my view, adds to the charm of the hotel. We loved peering out of our window and watching the world go by - it is right in the middle of the 'life' of the city - Rome is a capital city - expect noise! Secondly it was 30 degrees when we were there - the air conditioning worked perfectly and we were more than comfortable in the day and night. Thirdly the rooms are not massive but rooms in hotels in Europe never are unless you want to pay ?500 per night!! The rooms in the Borromeo were certainly bigger than I was expecting. The staff were more than friendly and helpful and I know they appreciated my attempt at speaking Italian - however poor!! To sum up, I think the Borromeo is a great find for a short city break, for the money we paid I was more than happy!

My wife and I decided to stay here for our 1st wedding anniversary and first time in Rome, the web site looked great, ignore it, it`s totally unlike anything you`ll see in the hotel. The fresh flowers that are shown everywhere don`t exist, you may see the plastic ones on the roof terrace that look like they`ve been pulled from the river Tiber. The breakfast room was not a nice well kept room, it was a dirty terrace on the roof that served brown tasteless water that was supposed to be coffee, orange squash not juice, stale bread, well sweated cooked meats that looked like they`d been there all night. Dirty utensills, plastic cups.Unironed dirty tablecloths with food remnants from previous days breakfast on them. The staff were picking at the breakfast ,but the tipping dish that was present, surely a joke. The room was very small and filthy, scuff marks all over the walls, it looked like a D.S.S. bed sit although the sheets were changed daily. The shower head was full of limescale so the water shot out in all directions, the toilet seat was cracked and pinched your bottom every time it was sat on. The glasses in the room were plastic, scratched and cloudy, disposable plastic cups in the bathroom. Smelled of smoke everywhere, as non smokers this was a big disapointment. I would be ashamed to take paying guests if this was my hotel. Little money was needed to change the circumstances in this hotel, a coat of paint in the rooms, basic maintenance in the bathrooms and a breakfast that didn`t seem like it had been put together for under one euro per person. The worst hotel we`ve ever stayed at!!