Less than friendly service

Receptionists do not care about clients and their needs. Rooms are not ready in time. They make no effort to accomodate your needs regarding length of stay.

Enjoyed Our Stay

Stayed four nights in October 2004. Overall enjoyed the Hotel Columbus and considered it good value.

Pluses: One block to St Peters and Vatican Museum. Approximatly 1 mile across Tiber to Piazza del Spagna, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, American Express. Atmosphere--plain front on street, ornate interior. Marble staircases, high ceilings, dark wood. Public rooms very large and decorative. Very good continental breakfast. Free internet in lobby (but it's an Apple) Staff helpful. Quiet, including little street noise at night--except bells.

Minuses: Only English language tv channel is CNBC- Europe.No place to eat on site except the very expensive restaurant and it opens at 8 PM. Several mediocre eating places in same block and across street. Found an excellent and reasonable trattoria two blocks north. Little shopping in vicinity except religious souvenier shops.

We stayed 'next door' to the vatican !

We stayed at the Columbus Hotel which is only 200 metres from Piazza di San Paolo (ie the Vatican).The Hotel was a 15th century monstery and when inside you can imagine what it was like. The dining room has retained all it's former glory and is a wonderful place to enjoy a meal. The food always appeared to be freshly prepared and the service was excellent.At first they put us in a tiny double room with a peculiar shaped bathroom - steps up to a toilet. As we arrived late in the evening, we put up with it for the first night. The next morning we asked to change and this was attended to immediately - we were then given a much more spacious room. The rooms we saw were rather dull and basic, I suppose just like a monastery. It's a pity they don't brighten them up. All rooms overlook a courtyard at the back.The location was fantastic - we could walk into the Basilica at the Vatican within approx. 5 minutes, and if you walked out of the hotel and turned right, you would soon be on a bridge going over the river. There was also an excellent bus service within a few hundred metres.If you want bars, restaurants, etc. next to the hotel, then this is not the place for you. All cafes and bars close around 7.00pm ! But having said that if you were prepared to walk for around 15 to 25 minutes then you would find lots of these places, as well as Piazza Navona.I would suggest that one trip on a Sunday morning before 12 noon is the Paliament building where the Military Band play in the Piazza. This was really nice to see if you like that sort of thing.I would suggest that anyone staying in this area takes some mosquito repellant at night, even on a cold May evening these things managed to get into the bedroom and leave their mark on us !!

Very good choice

My family stayed for three nights in two rooms at the Hotel Columbus. The hotel staff was very helpful, the breakfast buffet was excellent and the location, at St Peter's Square was perfect. There is a taxi stand acoss the street which we found to be time saving. The rooms were a little monastic but that was to be expected since it was formally a monastery. The hotel also has large family suites available. The bathrooms had hairdryers and 110 outlets.

Great location, below average rooms

Great location (for the Vatican), below average rooms...We stayed in three different hotels over seven nights on our recent trip to Rome in early March, 2004. While AAA rates this as a four-star hotel, it was the worst of the three, and the other two were rated as three stars.

The rooms were smaller. The carpeting was older, thinner, and more worn. The furniture was banged up. It lacked a regular shower, and the water splashed all over the floor when using the hand wand.

Yet it is located just a block away from the Vatican. My wife and I enjoyed the easy access to the sites of the Vatican and found the Hotel Columbus convenient for a midday break when sightseeing at the Vatican.

However we had to forego the 8 am breakfast (which is excellent) in order to be in line early for the opening of the Vatican museum.

The other two hotels offered free Internet access from the hotel's computer. Hotel Columbus did not. We had to use the Internet Cafe across the street.

We will not be staying at the Hotel Columbus on our next visit to Rome.

Great public areas, shabby rooms

We visited in March 2001 on an aaahotels.net rate of about $130 per night. We stayed for two nights.

The location is great. I really liked being so close to St. Peters.

The hotel has grand if somewhat run-down public areas. The make-shift bar was quite active for an hour or two each night, with a friendly crowd.

The restaurant was very good, and we would eat here again, even if not staying at the hotel.

The rooms were a bit shabby. The showers were of the type that one sometimes sees in Europe that get the whole bathroom wet.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay and would consider staying here again if we could get a good deal.

Excellent

Fantastic hotel hidden away within Vatican owned buildings. This is not a luxury hotel in the sense of air con, sat TV etc. This is an authentic old hotel. The frescoed breakfast rooms were amazing. Rome is a great city and this was a great hotel to base yourself in. If you want the mod-cons and ridiculous over the top breakfasts book in to a chain.

Not bad at all... No frills.

As long as you don't want to hang out in your room for days at a time this hotel was fine. Breakfast was good. There are not too many frills here but if you just want to have a hotel that is clean and just a place to sleep then you will be happy. It is also located just down the road from St Peter's and the Vatican which is handy as it is worth getting to those monuments early before the masses of people start arriving.

Don't stay here

The second stay at this hotel was terrible. The power went out everyday. There was no airconditioning in our room but, very good in others(it was 105F). The housekeeping was lousy and items disappeared.

The breakfast was ok. Definately not worth the price. We will not stay here again.

Read this and think twice.

If you like average - stay here. Not terribly bad by European standards, but I really did not like it. The lobby and common areas were very nice, but the room I had for one nite was not desirable. If old world is your style and you like a bed that is college dorm-like you'll be pleased. Suprisingly, they had rotary phones in the rooms and no English speaking channels on the TV! Then again, I am a hotel snob.

Vatican City is not the best place to stay when in Rome. Its quiet, but I felt that there were more interesting and cleaner places to stay. I was surprised by how unkempt the neighborhoods were just a few blocks across the street from the Hotel. Spend more money and stay near Via Veneto or the Spanish steps, you will not regret it and its a better locale for dining and shopping.