Best Western Blu Hotel Roma

I'll be upfront in stating that this hotel was selected for me by a travel agency. I had asked for a 4-Star hotel near the Roman Coliseum and this is the hotel they gave me. That being said, I have to say that the service desk manager, Daniel, was a huge help in resolving a major issue caused by our travel agent, Tui. The travel agency failed to provide the ages of all our family members and then we would have been on the hook for an additional bed. Daniel called up the agency on his end as we were getting nowhere with the agent and he managed to get them to adhere to the contractual agreement. Here are some of the things that I liked about the hotel.. The rooms were very clean and you could tell that they kept them in check. The room where we slept was very peaceful and quiet. I think having a room in the back corner made a huge difference. It was really a good layout. The hotel provides free Wi-Fi access throughout the hotel. Although the children did complain about the connection, it was good enough for me to surf the web. I'm guessing that they wanted to watch videos and perhaps the internet speeds weren't quite fast enough for this. I should also mention that the hotel provides a PC and printer free of charge. This is very handy as I was able to print out my return flight boarding passes for the family. Although the hotel doesn't seem to have any rooms with a living room suite, getting the deluxe room with a king size bed made for a room that didn't feel too cramped. You definitely wouldn't want to live out of the room but if you are going downtown to see the sites, this shouldn't be an issue. Here are the issues that I found with the hotel...The mattress on the bed was very firm. It's probably one of the firmest mattresses that I have slept on. Since I have a bad hip, I would wake up in pain every now in then due to the pressure spot caused by the firm mattress. Most 4-Star hotels would offer one bottle of water complementary for each of the guests. This hotel does have water but they will charge you 3 Euros for each bottle. If you plan to stay here, stock up on water at a grocery store or when in town. The hotel (during the summer months at least), has air conditioning. The only bad thing is that the AC doesn't run while your out of the room. The room has to be activated with your hotel key in order for the AC to stay on. This means that you'll probably want to get back to your hotel a bit early if you don't want the room to be a bit on the warm side. Management informed me that the AC does turn on when you are out but it's set at something like 25C. I felt the room was a bit warm but after about 90 minutes of running the AC, the room would get comfortable. This hotel is not the best hotel if you are wanting to avoid using a taxi or public transportation to reach the main sites in Rome. It's about a 10-15 minute walk to the main subway station. If you are booking this hotel to save money at the expense of convenience, you may not mind at all. The breakfast is a bit sub-par for a 4-Star hotel- The only hot foods (not counting toast) they serve for breakfast is scrambled eggs (not bad) and bacon/hot dogs. If you get to breakfast right when they open, they will have bacon. While I stayed there, they would always refill the bacon container with hot dogs. I wouldn't mind this if this was lunch, but hot dogs are a bit cheap for a 4 star establishment. Overall, I was waffling between rating the hotel between 2-3. The excellent customer service provide by Daniel really made the difference here. I can only give the hotel a 3 at best because it does not meet my expectations as a 4-Star establishment. This hotel would probably rate a 4-5 if it were advertised as a 3 star hotel as it is clean and well maintained. With them charging for water in the room, a lackluster breakfast selection, uncomfortable bedding, and being quite a distance from the main sites in Rome, I can only rate this hotel as a 3. If you are looking for a 4-Star hotel but are on a budget, this may be the hotel for you. Just keep in mind that you definitely get what you pay for. less

- Good Hotel and a comfortable rooms, breakfast was good, near to bus stops and super market, 5 min from metro station - We heard many negative comments on the location from the cab driver and other local people such as the place is not safe after evening hours and people can come and ask for money threatening us but its always advisable not to roam around after sun set and not to walk from the metro station to the hotel and its better to catch bus from the metro to the hotel. -Please avoid the restaurant which is there in the Hotel as the service is not good and not worth the money we pay. less

Best Western Blu We got there at 1:30, they said check in is at 3pm. I said no it says 1pm in Expedia. He said give them 30 minutes and room should be ready. Not happy because we were tired!!! AC not working properly, it gets hot in d room. On our 2nd night I asked the front desk staff to ask someone to check our AC, he said yes, did something on his desk (we were thinking that he got the main control there because when we got to our room, we could hear it working). Around 2-3am, although we can still hear it working it is still warm. So I asked again... still feels the same! On our 5th night, I asked again because when we got to our room, it feels like a sauna, very hot! So I went down to ask again and the guy said that, because of the weather, it’s the law that he can’t do anything, meaning they have to turn off all the AC and for us to just open the window!!! WHAT??? Just imagine my reaction! Who would be happy about this! No body said anything like that when I complained the 1st and 2nd time. So went back up, and opened the windows, guess what!? There’s no screen on the window, mosquitoes, big bugs, dust, intruder can just go in! Will you feel safe? Water in shower is very hard to control, one tiny, little move and it gets cold, you move it again and it gets hot! You’ll never get the temperature you want! TV channels all italian! Bus takes forever to come so you’ll end up walking 15-20 minutes to get to Tiburtina Station. The bed is so HARD, back hurts every time we would wake up. Can’t continuously put the Do Not Disturb by the door, the lights go away if you’re not in the room, so even if you don’t want anybody to clean your room when you’re away, no choice! Probably, need to mention to the front desk not to clean. Tiny fridge that gets your beverage just a tad cold. No microwave. With all this complains... Pros: the room and bathroom is always clean. Housekeeping is doing an excellent job! Would we come back and stay again or would we recommend... NO!!! The AC problem makes the firm NO!!! If you don’t mind sweating at night while you sleep and getting ready in the morning, go ahead and book! Plus the walking every morning because of the bus problem and the distance to the train station, definitely NO! Btw, weather is almost at 70’s to 80’s is that cold enough to turn off the AC? Update: checked to see if there’s really a law about the AC and apparently what I read from TripAdvisor is very common to our experience. Our first time here in Rome and I guess we can’t really do anything about it. Just wondering now, how come on our third night we could hear the AC working and weather wise it’s all the same the days that we were here?! Wifi is always good. Elevator, they have 2 and it’s always fast! less

We came back home after a 7 day stay at the Best Western Blu Roma. While we enjoyed our stay at this Hotel from Tues 17th April, we had a few bumps at the beginning whereby we were given the smallest room, number 258 (last 3 photos) & were extremely disappointed. There was absolutely nowhere to hang our clothes, (7 days worth) there was a small open wardrobe, which also housed the suitcase rack, plus the bed which was the minimum size for a double was up against the wall which neither of us liked & with me having reduced mobility was virtually impossible for two people.. the room was geared up for one person only..one bedside cabinet..one bedside light..space for one suitcase etc...a single room with a small double... we went down to reception & explained that this was not: a) a suitable room for two people for 7 nights with 7 nights worth of clothing (which we had to leave in the suitcases as nowhere to put them) and :b) not suitable for my mobility problems.. The nice guy on the desk was very sympathetic & explained that we could not be moved until another room was available as the hotel was full to capacity & could we please wait until Thursday morning, 2 nights for another room. This we agreed to. Thursday Morning we were at the desk for our room change.. this was another man, we assumed he was the Manager who very nicely pointed out that our booking with Love Holidays stated “economy room” ( I will come to Love Holidays in a while)..and that is our economy room.. I then said I was unaware that this was booked as economy, that we had paid quite a lot for this booking but that it was most unsuitable for two people, one with mobility problems for 7 days & that it was more suitable for one person occupancy for overnight.. we also showed him what we had paid for our booking, nearly £600.. I think this made a difference so this he acquiesed to & we were given room 322..(first 4 photos )voila, it was a lovely double room with plenty of wardrobe & cupboard space & I was no longer bumping myself in & out of bed etc plus the bathroom was lovely too..we were very happy bunnies after that.. All the staff are lovely & friendly (except the man behind the bar who wasn’t) & help you find your way in, out, & around Rome via the bus, metro & train system which is very efficient. They gave us a little map, showed us where to get the bus to Tiburtina Station & that was it, we were on our way & whizzed everywhere on the underground system. The only drawback being the 409 bus from the hotel which was ok on the way to Tiburtina Station but a complete nightmare on the way back if you were caught in the middle of rush hour..so choose your bus times carefully unless you are a sardine! More about the hotel, staff are lovely, both behind the desk, cleaning staff & in the breakfast room where they lay out a lovely breakfast with eggs, sausages, tomatoes, cereal, juice, homemade cakes & patries, bread, cheese & ham & fruit. The waitresses are so pleasant & will do you a speciality coffee of your choice. The rooms are cleaned every day & are equipped with a fridge, tv, safe & hairdryer, soap & shower gel is supplied & topped up daily. However, you have to ask for a kettle which you keep for the duration of your stay but apart from the first day, you do not get top ups of tea & coffee so best to take your own supply. Beds are firm, but comfortable, pillows a little bit hard. We would definately come back again..... a word of advice, try & book direct with the hotel, as our booking with Loveholidays, who then sub out to “hotel beds” meant they took a reasonable price for our booking but then downgraded us to an “economy room” even though nowhere on our requests was this ever asked for...we asked for a double room which we assumed would be a certain standard, yet the price we paid, £600 would have got us a superior room with a balcony for 95euros a night....not the Hotels fault at all & I am grateful that they understood our situation.. less

No free water provided in the room, had to pay €2 if I wanted a bottle from the mini bar ... could hear dogs barking (dogs are allowed to stay) yet they complained if the slightest bit of noise was made ... the floor vent in the bathroom was FULL of dust .... cakes for breakfast?!?! (Among other stuff), scrambled eggs tasted as if they had been ready a while... no free tea/coffee available in the room- not even a kettle ... not the best location, nothing worth seeing within walking distance, a taxi is needed less