No hot water in the shower, bird nest on the top of our window. Really small room, bathroom are small too and dirty. Near of a lot of things, staff was not always there. The wifi was not really working in our room.

Actually we are not made of sugar or too capricious as to the hostel rooms, but there are some annoying things in this hostel, that other travellers should be aware of:
1) Noone out of two women we met there spoke English or French or any other language but for Italian. The body language is not omnipotentious. In the evening there is simply noone there, so you must resolve all the problems - like that of the hot water - on your own.
2) As the previous reviewer wrote, noone cleans your room or takes out your rubbish or makes your bed during your stay. We had two nights only and that did not make a great problem, but it might be if you plan to stay longer.
3) Finally, everything is VERY cheap there and threatening to break in one or other minute - wardrobe, matterass (indeed, sliding), and all the bathroom equipment threatens to commit a suicide.
4) No kitchen, no refrigerator.

We stayed in AiA for 5 nights late April 2009. The place is run by a yound Roman, who was very nice and helpful. It's located within 15-20 minutes walking from the Termini train station and about 20 min walking to the Colosseo and surroundings. The guest house itself is located on the 7th floor of an apartment building, but it does have a lift/elevator. There are 5 rooms and 2 bathrooms. The rooms are big and fairly comfortable. The things we did not like were: 2 single beds were pushed together to make one bed, but they kept on sliding apart and just moving all over the place. The mattresses kept on moving off the bed too. It was very annoying. Secondly, we stayed in room 1 - right next to the "office". Every morning, the cleaning lady would come and start smoking - around 7AM!!! The cigarette smoke would seep under our door and stink up our room. After 2 mornings of walking up because I couldn't stand the smell of smoke anymore, I began putting a towel under the door - and it worked pretty good. On Venere and the like, this guesthouse says that its rooms are smoke-free...Also - she never came to empty our trash. Actually, this is the ONLY place we stayed that they did not come and clean our room/make our bed. We were in Rome from Saturday-Thursday and our bed was never made and trash was not emptied ONCE! Needless to say it was spilling over when we left Thrusday to come home. The bathrooms seemed clean - but the shower water pressure sucked and there was never enough hot water.
The best thing about the hotel is its proximity to the train station, Metro tration and the Colosseo. The area around the hotel is seedy and full of questionable characters (riff raff as my husband called them). But I felt safe with my hubby, and we never had a problem. Oh also, breakfast was included, but we had to go to a cafe about 5-7 minutes away for a brioche (croissant) and coffee/juice. Overall, it was a great value, but not sure if I would stay here again. But if you're on a budget like we were, you'll make it work.