My boyfriend and I started our trip to Italy with a 3 night stay at Casa della Palma. Let me start by saying that I am quite picky when it comes to hotels and I spend much time searching tripadvisor before making a definitive decision. The three most important things to me when chosing a hotel in the city are: Clean, modern rooms, a reasonable price and a location that is close enough to the main attractions but far enough away from the masses of tourists. This hotel met and surpassed all these expectations.

The rooms are GORGEOUS. They are very modern and decorated nicely. The bathrooms are incredible: a great size and look newly renovated. The best part of the room: there is a LAPTOP in each one! In all my years of traveling, I have never seen a computer in a hotel room, especially at this price. Its especially great if you are touring the city because you can book things online and search sites to see the night before you do them. This was honestly a huge plus and makes the hotel stand out.

The three nights we stayed there we were in the 'LIVINGROOM' suite. This hotel has three different types of rooms: 'regular' rooms, 'plus rooms' and a smaller studio called the 'nest' that is not advertised. The 'LIVINGROOM' was a plus room and it was huge. It cost us 72euros a night because we are students (If you have an International Student Card you get a 10% discount). The regular price is 80euros (I strongly recommend booking directly through the hotel because its cheaper). To be honest, I am sure a regular sized room would have been more than fine.

Before flying out of Rome at the end of our trip, we stayed in the "Nest'" a small suite on the upper floor where the owner used to live. When I wrote to Alessandro, the owner, before our trip to enquire about the rooms he told me about this room that is not advertised on the website. We are sorry we did not book it the entire time. The room costs only about 65 euros without a discount. Its pretty small, but its very cosy. I would recommend requesting this room to couples or singles who want to save money. However, you have to walk down a few steps to access the washroom which can be alittle tinsy bit dangerous so I do not recommend it for everyone.

One thing to please note: if you are not staying on the first floor, walk down the stairs VERY CAREFULLY. They can be very slippery. Also mind your head if you are staying in the nest or go to the roof for breakfast. I slipped down the stairs twice and my boyfriend bumped his head.

The location: i loved the location because it was not situated in prime tourist area. You get a taste of the real Rome. There are some good restaurants around the area: Rouge and the another one with "Volpe" in the title (sorry my memory fails me in this instance). You can access the historic center in about 10 minutes by bus (71 bus) or the colosseum in about the same amount of time (3 bus). The vatican takes about 45 minutes to access but that was not a problem for us.

Finally, the service: A man named Alessandro owns the building. When I first enquired about the rooms with a short email, he took the time to write me a extremely detailed response outlining my options. He really took the time to help us out and that was very much appreciated. However, he doesnt seem to be around the property much so at the moment a young man named Daniel is the primary contact. Daniel was incredible the whole trip, he greets you upon arrival with a map of the area as well as a calling card (it costs 5 euros) but its great to be presented with it instead of searching around the area for one. The problem is Daniel has been overworked so to speak and he will be leaving the property at the end of the month. It will be interesting to see who replaces him.

If you have any questions dont hesitate to ask...all I can say is this place is for the price, in my opinion, the best available in Rome.

Additionally to what is said in the previous review I suggest that you spend 6 Euros (at the newsagent's) for a map with Rome's public transport. That makes it even easier to use the underground, trams, busses ... and to find back -:)

I totally agree that you should use the offered car service - for both ways.

What we liked, too, was the opportunity to leave the luggage until late afternoon (you get an extra key).

The staff is extremely friendly and helpful.

We booked this through the hotel reservation service for GermanWings, the airline we used to get to Rome, because there was a special deal. Our requirements: clean, safe, cozy/comfy, good value, great atmosphere. All requirements mets! Our room (the "study") was lovely, with a very comfortable bed and big screen TV with satellite reception (great for watching BBC World after a long day of touring). The bathroom is awesome. Definitely take them up on their offer for a car to drive you to and from the airport (if you are two people, it's not much more of a cost than if you took all the public transport options to get there and back, without any of the hassle). Also, take the hotel up on its 30-minute orientation offer - they give you a hand drawn map of the neighborhood with restaurants, grocery stores and bus stops marked. Depending on the other guests, it's very quiet (but the last point is true of any hotel). And the food at the nearby Il Gatto e la Volpe is delicious and cheap! You can get to central Rome oh-so-quickly on public transport from the hotel (but do ask the hotel staff to mark the bus stop nearest the train station that will get you back to Casa della Palma, so you can use the Metro from downtown when needed).

So, I was impressed with the ratings Casa Della Palma got on Tripadvisor. All the comments were fair and pretty accurate; except for one big caveat. The room we got "Winter Garden" was infested with mosquitoes!!! Needless to go into details this was a nightmare :-(((

Our complaints were addressed with electric mosquito swatter (means one has to be up all night to swat), then an offer of burning incense in our room. By the way this is not "A mosquito got into our room" business. Some nights we swatted between 4 to 6 mosquitoes by hand (the electric swatter stopped working). Our sent message to Alessandro went unanswered. Besides, the intro sheet said "Don't contact Alessandro unless it's an emergency!" In fact, I don't believe he wanted to know about our (I do believe it's his) problem. In fact, during our entire stay Alessandro never showed his face; he was just a virtual person that answered our email during booking but didn't exist since our arrival.

We got what we paid for but did not expect it to be this bad. Never again! If one still decides to go because it's the cheapest deal in Rome then bring your mosquito netting....you are on your own!!!