Relais al Senato

I had a good staying at Relais Senato, thanks to the excellent location, large, clean and fresh rooms which were cooled by aircon during the latest heat wave in Rome. I was just very surprised by the absence of an iron and ironing board, and I don’t mean in the room, but in the entire establishment. I have borrowed iron and ironing board before even in cheap two stars hotels, but no, not in this hotel, where they weren’t available. Why the owner of a hotel in which a room will easily cost you €200 a night doesn’t invest €50 in an iron and ironing board escapes me. The position of the hotel next to Italian Senate suggests that business people can be frequent guests, yet they’ll have to go around with creased clothes because the hotel can’t make a €50 iron available to borrow. I can’t understand it.

The hotel is decent. Nothing spectacular. It's fairly clean. Affordable. The location is great. You are close by the Piazza Navone - literally outside the doors. Walking distance a lot of key places in the area -- Vatican, St. MIchael's Church, Trevi, Hop on, Hop off boat. It's lively and safe. Also nearby a grocery store -- Coop where you can buy supplies like water and snacks at a reasonable price. We stayed a week and so it was a great bargain for the location alone. The hotel also has free breakfast - nothing fancy - croissant, juice and coffee - still one less thing to worry about first thing in the morning. There are not a lot of rooms - the "hotel" occupies one floor of a multi-use building. The staff who was there (Antonio) during our 6 day stay was great and accommodating. He was friendly and provided a lot of good tips about where best to eat and how to get around the city. Piazza Navone is lively at night - with restaurants, vendors, performers, and very much a tourist spot. This was a good thing for us as we liked the energy. The wifi is horrible. If internet connectivity is important to you, you may have to come up with an alternative. I had to do a couple of calls to coworkers and had to stay near the front door of our room in order to get decent connection. (I ended up just removing my phone from airplane mode in the end just to keep connected without interruptions). If posting photos to your social media is important or watching videos or anything that requires internet connectivity - then again, make sure you plan around it. You will not likely get decent connection.

We stayed as a family of four for 7 nights which cost less than our previous 3 night stay for two in a 5* hotel around the corner (Raphael) 4 years ago. We knew it wouldn’t be palatial and I think it’s unfair for others to expect 5* standards and services for the price. It was what I expected given the rating. Basic and clean in an outstanding location, WiFi, a safe and great air con. Soundproofing of windows was amazing. Yes, the breakfast was simple, but ok and quite frankly saved us a fortune. (Eating out anywhere is astronomical and mixed quality.) TV didn’t seem to work but that didn’t bother us. Any issues were dealt with immediately and the Manager was fantastic with our children. If you want luxury this is not the place for you but expect to triple if not quadruple your expenditure if you want more. In just 4 years we’ve seen the cost of everything in Rome absolutely ROCKET!!