Stayed at Petra Hotel with my wife for 4 nights in 05/2006 after reading good reviews on tripadvisor & seduced by the hotel's flashy website. Once we arrived, after a long bus ride from the nearest metro station (Ananina), we were shocked by how different the hotel looked to the website. The hotel is near what appears to be a dodgy industrial estate & is protected by an automated door, the sort you find in war zones (tells you a thing or two about the area, I suppose). We hoped that the service would make up for the shortcomings of the surroundings but,again, we were disappointed. The staff at the reception desk were positively rude on most occasions when we approached them; for instance the A/C in the room was not functioning (when we complained, the curt response was 'we don`t do A/C until June, despite the fact that it was touching 30C).The only saving grace was the sumptous breakfast but it does not take away the fact that the hotel is definitely not 4 star, is in the middle of nowhere & the staff need to be put through an intensive course on politeness & good manners.

A bit of a disappointment! The rooms, when we found them (in a seperate building!) were clean but very basic, no frills but were comfortable enough. The staff were helpful enough until one of our group lost his wallet. The staff whose english was limited, become very unhelpful, refusing to contact the police direct and advising us to go to the police station in person as they didn't want the police to come to the hotel. We ate in the hotel restaurant on 1 occasion and that was not a great experience either, on ordering a fruit salad for dessert, one of our friends was presented with a vegetable salad, despite us all having had our main course already! The service was bad, other people getting served well before us despite us being there for a considerable time. The hotel bar was poorly stocked and the staff seemed unsure of the prices so just seemed to give us a rough estimate of what our drinks cost!
The hotel is a good distance from the centre of Rome in what looks like an industrial area but the hotel provides a free shuttle service to the metro where you can catch the tube to anywhere in Rome for 1 Euro. Bad point is the drivers of these shuttlebuses seem to think their Fiats are actually Ferrari's so be prepared for a white knuckle ride! Also the pool was out of action and rather green looking which was a disappointment. Be prepared for lots of graffitti which seems to cover most parts of Rome. I would definitely return to Rome but I would not consider this hotel again and pay the etra for somewhere closer to the centre.

We just came back from our 5 days trip in Rome. We were a bit dissapointed by the hotel as we were expecting what was on the pictures of the website. The swimming pool was closed (despite the nice weather) and moldy and tennis course too. The rooms needs a bit of refurb. Also the staff weren`t speaking a good english or none. And not very friendly. They didn`t have an iron available during all our stay and no plug adaptator.
There were some positive points though it was a clean hotel, a great breakfast.
It doesn`t deserve to be a 4 star definately.
We won`t go back there !

We have just returned from Rome, and i can honestly say, stay at the Petra Hotel, i was amazed with the service provided by the staff, it took about 30 mins to get in the town but too be honest it wasnt a problem at all, the Metro is very cheap 1Euro to travel on the bus and train, the bus stop is 2seconds walk and it takes you straight to the train station where you will find a a fab market to purchase makeup, coats, shoes really cheap, definitly recommend the market before going on the train you will find definitly find bargins there.

The train station is very simple to find your way round as you will see english translations to exits and enter signs i was very impressed with the trip.

The hotel was very nice, the rooms were very clean we had a balcony which was very nice because being in Dec we still had the sun bleeming in, becareful with using the shutters as it makes the room very dark and in the morning you never know what time it is because its pitch black, but if you want to sleep in, i recommend you use it because it is nice ha ha

We had a mini bar in the room which i thought it was going to be expensive but when i got the bill and the end of the trip it was seriously nothing, it was so cheap and the breakfast there was lovely.

If you are looking to go to Rome, stay at the Petra Hotel because you can get cheap cab fare back to the airport which cost us 50euros and on the way there it cost us 80euros but thats understanable.

If you choose Petra Hotel dont take the location into account because you are only going back there to sleep and then out in the day in Rome. The area is very quiet and clean.