Rome Airport Hotel's Guestbook

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Dear In Italy,

Notes about our trip to Italy, 2008

• Rome in 3 days was just about the perfect length of time; didn’t need or want a car because we could walk everywhere. The place that we stayed, Trastevere Family Apartment was located well for us and we had dinner in that area each night. It was also convenient to a taxi stop so that we could easily catch a cab to the train station to pick up our rental car.

• Montepulciano – We stayed at Podere di Montepulciano and Marta and Gabriele were great hosts. Gabriele had a bottle of his wine for us when we arrived and the trees were in bloom. We were the only people staying at the place. He invited us to his other place for a dinner and wine-tasting that was one of the highlights of our entire trip. Very nice people. His suggestion of a place to eat on our first night, LaCosta, was unique and quite a find. We recommended to friends who are in Italy now. Very nice atmosphere – fireplace, etc. We have heard that the views from this place are lovely, but we were there after dark. There is a large supermarket just off the Autostrade, where we grocery shopped so that we could use the kitchen.

• Next stop, Verona Winery, was a lovely spot, though hard to find. Paulo was a super host and couldn’t have made us feel more welcome. The internet on site was a plus for us and he also had some television channels that were in English, which was nice.

• We next flew to Sicily and stayed at the Mondello B&B, and hostess, Silvana, was very hospitable. She has a lovely garden though the place was hard to find and the road was very narrow. Her lemon cake was superb.

• Antico Baglio di Noto was one of our favorite places to stay. We had a beautiful room, with a gorgeous view of the Mediterrean Sea overlooking orange groves. Again, we had a hard time finding the place – even with our GPS. The staff was very pleasant and it was nice to have internet available on site, though it was expensive.

• On to Taormina Villa Hotel. We again had a difficult time finding the place and, once found, we couldn’t park to check in. We wonder if we would have ever found it except that, after driving around for more than an hour and asking several people (including a police officer), we ran into a pedestrian who happened to know where the place was. We stopped in front to possibly unload our luggage and quickly had a long line of traffic behind us. So, we drove back to the parking garage and carried our luggage the more than 2 blocks back to the place. It’s a very nice area, and the room was more than adequate, but no view. The host and hostess were hospitable and there was internet available, if very slow.

• We flew back to Rome and stayed at the Rome Airport Hotel. Their courtesy van picked us up and took us back to the airport the next morning at no cost to us. Our room was first class and we enjoyed dinner right there on the premises. Very convenient, clean, new, secure, hospitable.

• Our flights, rental cars and cellular phone worked out well. Our children in the US purchased a calling card and called us several times, which worked better in some places than others. We only needed to use the phone to call ahead to our hosts or, in Rome, to arrange the pickup by courtesy van, but it was nice to have.

Ginger S.

Dear,

The hotel was nice overall. The shuttle bus is on a schedule of its own! We had a difficult time locating the pick up point. Following numerous inquiries and several dropped calls to the hotel, we located it. The driver claims he was there at the posted time, but I assure you he was NOT! The bar was incredibly understaffed, which translates to painfully slow service. While these guys were scrambling to keep their heads above water, a hotel manager enjoyed his meal at the bar completely oblivious to their situation. The food and drinks were overpriced, but decent nonetheless.

Denis S.

Dear In Italy,

We found the room to be very nice, clean and spacious. We had lunch in the dining room and a light dinner in the bar. The food quality was at best average and, in our view, overpriced. Staff in both the dining room and bar were friendly and courteous.

Regarding the shuttle bus, there were more people waiting than could be accommodated on the bus and the driver had to make an extra trip which meant we waited about 40 minutes for the bus. We were charged 12 Euros for the trip but when I provided the front desk with a copy of my reservation showing that the shuttle was complimentary the charge was reversed.

A word of warning for future travellers. Our flight left before the shuttle service started and the hotel arranged for a taxi for us. I did not think it necessary to negotiate the fare in advance and when we reached the airport was charged 22 Euros for about a 4 km trip!  It left a rather poor last impression of Italy since we had earlier taken a taxi from the airport to downtown for 55 Euros.

Thanks for soliciting our comments.
John M.

Dear In Italy,

Thank you so much for your help. It actually worked out perfectly. We checked in around 8:00 am and they upgraded us to a nicer room where we slept until early afternoon. My cousins called to tell us to wake up so we could watch "il finale" with them and what do you know? Italy won!! Good thing we slept most of the day because we were up all night with them celebrating. The staff at this hotel was extremely accommodating and I would recommend this location to the rest of your readers.

Thank you for your assistance with this booking and have a nice day.

Best regards,
Sonseere H. G.

Dear Jessica,

We were pleased with the Rome Airport Hotel. We loved the restaurant at the hotel, and at the end of the trip, it was nice not to have to go far to get a wonderful meal. Thank you for having breakfast included at both places. We would recommend your website to anyone. Thank you again for making that part of our trip so easy and enjoyable.

Jim & Pat B.

Dear In Italy,

We were not particularly happy with the Rome Airport Hotel. It is incredibly overpriced. The area is somewhat run-down and seedy. Our room for four people consisted of two single beds and both a couch and a chair pulled out to create beds. It looked like a hospital infirmary. The biggest problem is that the pool closed at 6 p.m. Given that the hotel is an airport hotel, I'm sure no one even arrives before 4 p.m. and so closing at 6 p.m. is odd -- having the pool open longer can't cost any extra money and should be a no-brainer in terms of keeping guests happy. The early closing caused some real disappointment in our group. I think that the next time I would opt to stay in Rome and just get up a little earlier to catch a cab to the airport.

Sonia A. S.

Hi Jessica,

The Rome Airport Hotel was just okay, but to be expected so close to the Airport. Our room was not ready on time, then they put us in a smaller room. It was no problem to get it fixed. The food at the hotel is just okay - but there again the location was ideal for us as we had an early flight and needed to be close to the hotel. It seemed expensive compared to other places.
 
Thanks for the follow up!
Kelly F.

Dear In Italy,

Hotel Splendide Royal was as advertised so we were pleased.

Rome Airport Hotel was a little disappointing.

First, we discovered that the shuttle from the airport to the hotel is not "complimentary" as it states in your PDF document. Apparently, about 6 months ago they began charging 6 Euros per person. Since there were 3 of us, it would have been cheaper to take a cab than wait for the shuttle. On top of that, the hotel had the nerve to use a shuttle bus that did NOT have air conditioning which is so absurd that it defies words.

Second, while the restaurant was very nice (as you said it would be) it was NOT 2-star prices. It was approximately 40 Euros per person for a 2-course meal plus dessert, not counting wine. A Caesar Salad (which was totally misnamed because it bore no resemblance to a Caesar Salad) was 10 Euros by itself.

The hotel itself was nice and the price was acceptable at 210 Euros, but when you add the extra 36 Euros for roundtrip shuttle, it would have been better to stay at the airport Hilton which is directly attached to the airport.

We have used your service on several occasions and this is the first time a reference has not lived up to expectations.

Thanks
Bill B.

Dear In Italy,

Thank you for the welcome home note! We had a very nice time, and your website made the whole pre-trip experience so easy - we really appreciate it!

We do have some comments to share about each of the properties, and hope it will help your future visitors in making their decisions:

Rome Airport Hotel:
- Clean, fresh and comfortable rooms
- Restaurant is a bit of fusion Italian cuisine - just OK, but fine for a hotel restaurant
- The lot adjacent to the hotel has been demolished, and has been that way for a long time, so there aren't nice views, but you probably won't need them if you're just staying for the night.
- Check-in Clerks were "too busy" to explain the Airport shuttle, so we had to take a cab since we didn't have reservations for the complimentary shuttle.
- It’s Close to airport, but I would recommend staying at the Hilton, which is attached to FCO airport - it's a very similar hotel and access to/from the airport is much easier.

Thank you for the opportunity to let you know both what worked out very well for us, and which property descriptions may need to be updated. Overall, it was a very nice trip and you all made it so easy to arrange.

Steve W.

Dear Jessica,

We had a wonderful time in Italy! In fact, we are already looking forward to our next visit!

Our last night in Italy was spent at the Rome Airport Hotel. This hotel is like a million other US airport hotels but, being in Italy, we expected better from the kitchen. It was awful -- our only bad meal of the trip (other than the breakfasts at Casa Fiorentina). The only good thing I can say about it is that I am glad that it came at the end of our stay when we were still basking in the glow of our wonderful trip, rather than at the beginning when it might have made us wonder what we were in for.

Many thanks for your help in arranging our trip. I have already recommended your site to several friends.

Sincerely,
Margaret B.

Dear In Italy,

First I would like to thank you and all of the folks at IN ITALY. COM. All of the accommodations that we reserved through your service well exceeded our expectations. The information that I obtained via your web site was very helpful and accurate and made the adjustment for traveling in Italy less stressful.

We had actually spent 30 days on this trip which a week of it was spent up in Austria.

Rome Airport Hotel: As promised by your web site it was a nice break for a weary traveler and
very close to the airport (about 3 Km). It is an American style hotel but only one restaurant with, I'll say ok food. I was under the impressions at the time of booking that the hotel furnished shuttle service to and from the airport. Much to my surprise they do not. I believe the cost was around 6 euro per person for this service and requires reservations. I made reservations to be picked up at the airport so I could return my rental car after arrival from Sorrento. They were to pick us up at the scheduled pick up time and location, however they never showed up. After about an hour I choose to take a cab back to the hotel. This was a better idea after all it was cheaper to take the cab then the shuttle.......AMAZING. Anyway I was reimbursed for my shuttle fair and paid for our shuttle service back to the airport the following morning. The breakfast was buffet style and filling, probably the better of the two meals that we had there.

This property in my opinion is way over priced, the only thing that makes it some what reasonable is the location to the airport. I would probably use it again only because of that reason.

We really did have a wonderful time in Italy. My recommendations for any "first timers" visiting this country are as follows.

(1) Be very open minded :
The "Norm" does not necessarily apply here

(2) Forget about taking travelers checks :
It is bad enough taking the hit on the currency exchange rate, however it will just make things worse for you when you do cash a travelers check and get an even worse exchange rate PLUS pay a commission for doing so. Use your ATM card, there are a lot of ATM machines all through Italy plus a lot of places due take major credit cards. By doing so you will assure yourself that you are going to get the "actual "current exchange rate at that time and not have to pay an additional commission. This will help take a lot of frustration out of your vacation.

(3) Charge tour road tolls on your credit card:
This will get you through the tolls quicker and prevent the 100's of locals waiting behind you from honking and yelling at you while you are trying to figure out how much to pay. Even if the toll is just a couple of euro, "Charge It", I believe you should charge as much of your vacation in Italy as possible, after all, it cost you nothing to charge it "PLUS" you get the best exchange rate. Cash is a commodity, you will need it. Keep lots of Euro in your pocket at all times because there
are places that do not except anything else and you don't want to be caught without it. When you get home you can then spend your cash paying off your credit card, you will then see just how much you actually saved by taking full advantage of the fluctuating exchange rate.

(4) Just have fun:
Don't worry about driving in Italy, it is not as difficult as you might think it just takes a little getting use to. Italians are very aggressive drivers and they will honk and perhaps make gesture at you. Just keep in mind that you are a tourist and are not expected to know where you are going. Simply pull off to the right onto the shoulder, relax, view your directions then proceed. You don't want to make a wrong turn or take the wrong exit, after all it may be extremely difficult if not impossible to find your way back. Then you'll be forced to find an alternative way to get where you’re going. Having a partner to navigate as you drive is a must, I would only drive solo if I had made the same trip a few times and was very comfortable with my landmarks.

Anyway, thank you once again for your assistance. I hope this is what you wanted, and should we return to Italy I would use your services again as well as recommend them to others whom my be planning on going.

Sincerely;
Thomas M.

Dear Alex:

Well, I was going to e-mail you anyway this weekend but the reviews are certainly in!!

My husband and I had the most wonderful trip of our lives and you helped in making that happen. Everything went absolutely PERFECT! We were even upgraded by the car rental to a Mercedes sedan which was very comfortable.

The Rome Airport Hotel is an excellent choice to stay before flying in or out of Rome. We drove into Rome and spent the day riding around and getting lost, but that’s ok, because that’s how you stumble across things. Went to Vatican City and the Nativity display, tried to find the Coliseum but got lost (next trip). Thank you for recommending this hotel as a choice before flying out the next day.

When I tell people that I did all this myself through your website, they are very amazed, but the next trip we plan will certainly go through you at In Italy Online!

Thank you so very much for helping us make this the most memorable trip we have EVER taken!

P.S. Our luggage was detained on the outbound trip from Philadelphia and we did not have our luggage for 2 days, but that was covered by the trip insurance. It was delivered right to our hotel by the delivery service. We had all of our necessities packed in our carry on so we made do.

We will stay in touch!
Sincerely,
Christie B.

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