Villa Patrizi, Rome

Author's product rating:   

Quality of Rooms	Good
Standard of Service	Good
Quality of Food & Drink	Average

Advantages:	Good location, good value for money, polite staff
Disadvantages:	Small rooms

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

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Why we chose the hotel
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My boyfriend and I decided to take a weekend city break in Rome, we were joined by his parents who travelled seperately. We looked on Expedia for a good deal and we found one with reasonable BA flights and 3 nights stay at Hotel Villa Patrizi. We looked at the information and pictures of the hotel on the internet and it looked good so we decided to book it. Now we have been to the hotel, and looking back at the pictures, they are true to life and do not decieve you in anyway that the hotel looks different to what it does.

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About the hotel
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Hotel Villa Patrizi is a brand new 4 star hotel located in Rome. As you walk into the hotel there is a pretty sitting area full of beautiful, lively and colourful flowers. If the weather was nicer it would have been lovely to sit in in the summer time.

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Location
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Hotel Villa Patrizi is located by Porta Pia in the immediate vicinities of the English Embassy. It is just out of the main hussle and bussle of the city of Rome, which was nice. It is 5 minutes walk from the nearest tube station Policlinico. To go to many sites you need to change at Termani (the main tube station) but this is easy and simple to do. The tubes are quick and reliable. It takes between 10-20 minutes to get to most sites. Although we didn't use them there are also tube and bus links to the city. The hotel is 35km in distance and takes approx. 40 minutes in a taxi to Fiumicino (Leonardo Da Vinci) Airport and this costs about 50 euros. It is also about 23km in distance from Ciampino Airport. Within walking distance of the hotel are several resturants, which were lovely but were more for locals rather than tourists, so you just have to be aware you may not get a menu that also translates in English. I wouldn't advise it, due to the crazy driving of the people from Rome, but incase you want to drive, there is plently of parking outside the hotel but you do have to pay and there are several parking metres near. Just down the road is a small petrol station, these are novel in Rome - they don't tend to have petrol stations as we do in England, they have 3 pumps on the side of the road with a man sitting in a plastic chair next to the pumps. Around most of Rome, there don't tend to be many supermarkets or that type of shop and that is also the case for near the hotel. The hotel is up a small one way street, which is away from the main roads. Along the road is mainly residential and it is the only hotel on that street.

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Reception
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We arrived at the hotel at about 6:30pm and we were greeted by a charming a polite member of staff, he apologised for not being able to speak English very well, but we thought he could, especially compared to us not being able to speak a word of Italian. He was really helpful, he got us a map and explained and wrote down the tube links we would have to get to get to certain sites and also wrote down what time the tube stations closed, it was really useful. Check in was quick, we didn't have to provide a credit card but did have to give our passports as ID. We didn't have to leave our passports but my boyfriends parents did. At all times we walked past reception the staff were friendly and helpful and answered any questions we had well and enthusiastically. All parts of the hotel were kept spotless and tidy. Check in time is 2pm and check out is 11am. My boyfriends parents arrived at the hotel at 12pm and were able to check into their room early with no charge.

On request the following can be provided by the hotel for an extra fee:

Bicycle Rentals
Car Rental (with Driver)
Dry Cleaning
Fax Machine/Fax Service
Guided Tours
Ice Machines
Help with Luggage
Storage
Meeting Room
Newspaper
Photocopier
Porter Service
Private City Tours
Private Garage
Private Transfer To/From Airport
Public Parking
Scooter Rentals
Ticket Reservation Service
Wake Up Service

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The Room
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The hotel is very small, with only 22 rooms. There are 3 floors and ours was located on the 3rd floor. There are stairs to all the floor and there is also a lift located near the reception area also taking you to all the floors.

All the hotel rooms are standard rooms, but you are able to upgrade for about £3 extra a night for a room with a balcony, I would recommend doing this. The balcony had large, as big as our room and had lovely views. We have only just been, which is the end of January and the weather was warmer than England and we found the room got quite hot at night so it was nice to sleep with the door ajar slightly.

The room was small with the bed taking up most of the space, but as you usually only go to Rome on a few days trip it is doesn't need to be any bigger. One thing I would say they needed to change was providing a dressing table or something alike. There was no where I could easily do my make up/hair etc in the mornings and store my products. There was a small table opposite the bed but most of the space on this was taken up by the television. In the corner was quite a large wardrobe which contained a safe. Each side of the bed had a bedside table which quite a bit of storage space underneath. The room came with airconditioning and heating, but we couldn't seem to get the unit to be cold, only warm so we relied on the window being open, which was nicer. The hotel has several lights situated all around the room but I think they could of done with being a bit brighter. The bed was a large double and very comfortable to sleep in. Each side of the bed came with quite a thin pillow and there was only one spare on in the wardrobe, but I'm sure if you asked at reception, they would provide you with another one.

I sometimes found the walls in the room seemed quite thin as I could hear someone elses alarm going off in the morning sometimes and also the banging of doors was able to be heard.

The bathroom was lovely, but also quite small. The bathroom came with a shower, which was modern and powerful, but it was difficult to adjust the showerhead without if falling down. I luckily didn't find this a problem, but my boyfriend did. The bathroom came with several complimentary goodies such as shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, a shoe shine glove, sewing kit and vanity kit which included a nail file, cotton wool and cotton buds. Everything worked well in the bathroom. There was a small hairdryer attached to the wall in the bathroom, I never find hotel hairdryers any good but I did find this one to be quite powerful for a hotel hairdryer, the annoying thing was that you had to keep your finger pressed down on the button to keep the hairdryer on, so not recommended if you will be drying for a long time! I only used it to give my fringe some body in the mornings, as this was quick. Next to the hairdryer was a plug, which was great as I plugged my straightners into this. I know you're not supposed to have electrical items in the bathroom but the lighting was really bright in the bathroom and was great to do my hair in, especially as there was a large mirror covering most of one wall. The bathroom came with several different sized towels which are replaced daily.

The maid comes to clean the room about 10am every day and does a good job, she mops the floor in the bathroom, scrubs all the surfaces and replaces all the towels, makes the bed and gives the room a good tidy. I was impressed by the standard to which she cleaned the room.

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Breakfast
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All bookings at Hotel Villa Patrizi come bed and breakfast. Breakfast is available between 7am and 10am and there are only about 10 tables in the resturant but these were never filled. The selection of food for the breakfast wasn't great, and there were a few strange things. They had juice which was more like orange squash. The selection of food included cereal, yogurts, cheese, ham, cold boiled eggs and bread. I was looking forward to a cooked breakfast or some nice warm toast. The staff in the resturant brought you tea and coffee if you wanted, I didn't find these members of staff that friendly.
The only meal available at the hotel is breakfast and they don't provide lunch or dinner. There are a selection of resturants and cafes near the hotel.

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Price & Availability
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It cost us £198.34 for 2 people for 3 nights to stay at Villa Patrizi. Our flights cost £84.30 return each. Both of these were booked through www.expedia.com

The hotel wasn't full when we went but as there are only 22 rooms availability may be quite difficult in the summer time and peak seasons.

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Conclusion
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I would definately recommend this hotel to anyone planning to stay in Rome, especially if you do not want to be right in the middle of all the noise. It is a reasonable price and the hotel was lovely. It is easy to travel to and around Rome from.