Hotel American Palace EUR

Far from the historic center

The hotel is good if you have business to do in the EUR zone of Rome. Even if it is just in front of the Subway, it takes 30-40 minutes to reach the historic center. On the other hand, the advertised free parking is only for 20 cars and cannot be reserved. I was not able to use it during my whole stay. On the plus side, the room was ok and they had a fast and free internet connection.

Not fair

My mother and I arrived late evening and the room assigned to us instead of double it was a single room where they just put two beds, so it was extremely tiny and uncomfortable. A/C was on from 5 to 10pm, i found about it the next day when asked. It was just because I complained about the room, that the next day we got a double room, and I did not get from them any compensation for the first night spent in single room despite i was insisting during my whole stay there (five nights). Breakfast buffet was good and location too, even though train station was two blocks from hotel. No attractions nearby at all, so you have to take train to downtown or anywhere else.

Traveller's tip on local attractions

If you want to visit the Vatican Museums and the Sixtine Chappel is very convenient to buy the tickets on the Vatican website, so you will avoud the huge lines to enter. However, I will suggest not to take the guided tour, it takes like two hours in a very crowded area, so you really get stressed and do not appreciate too much.

by far not 4 star

Upon arrival they tried to put us into a single room with a further mattress squashed into it. There was no space left, even to get around the bed to the bathroom, mind you put a baby cot as we were travelling with a baby. Then they moved us to another room, also tiny, but at least there was about 40cm to the wall and we managed to put our son’s pop-up baby cot for him to sleep. The room was very old, dirty walls, bathroom about 15 years old, chipped tiles, grey sink and toilet. There is only central ventilation in the hotel which is turned off at 10pm and considering that the room is so tiny, after 20 minutes it gets very stuffy and hot. And we were not even in the summer. No idea how people cope when it is really hot outside. You cannot open the window, only the balcony door, but if you are unlucky to get the room facing the motorway, you will not be able to sleep as trucks and cars pass by all night long. Also I caught a cold because of the open door. When we asked to move at least to the other side of the hotel, we were only offered the same single room they tried to put us initially. If this was a 2-3 star hotel – would not be surprised. No idea how they keep their 4 star rating.

Avoid this hotel if you can. There are hotels with a similar price tag located more central. Not worth the money.