Gran Melia Rome

What People are saying

Beyond Expectation

thlkenneth on 18/11/2017 15:27

I was traveling alone to ROME for business trip.
Booked 3 nights and arrived early morning 9am.
They were accommodating and helped me arranged a room right away. The room size was good and interior was modern. In particular the lighting was good which was a definite upside as I need to work afterwards and good lighting was important.
Location was very near Vatican with 7minute walk.
There was free chocolates every evening and on the last night a free bottle on champagne! I also had a late checkout for 2 hours and again free.
Service was good and speak excellent English.

An experience I will never forget

964mariateresat on 14/11/2017 11:46

The word "hotel" doesn't even cover the atmosphere and experience transmitted by staff and structure. The most professional yet friendly staff I've ever met. Than you for an experience I'll never forget.

Form over Function

Barbara H on 08/11/2017 21:06

The hotel is beautiful, the staff superior, the grounds amazing....
That being said, our rooms design had us frustrated and irritated. The nightstands were too small, chairs were artistically but awkwardly placed and we ended up going to the spa to shower because of the slippery tub, hand held shower head and high stepover tub. (an accident waiting to occur) In addition, hotel information was printed in a small font with a pale gray ink, making searching for info laborious. Gran Melia Rome forgot the first rule of design,,, form follows function!

'Luxury' in the 'heart' of Rome

TheGlosReview on 04/11/2017 10:03

The Good:

-- Staff were extremely friendly and well informed;
-- Bed was very comfortable -- slept very well.
-- Room was stylish and clearly a lot of work and thought has gone into the design.

The location:

The hotel itself sits atop a fairly steep hill, so be aware if you're planning on walking everywhere -- the last thing you want after a tiring day of being a tourist is hiking up a hill to your hotel. The nearest Tube (Metro) station is a good 15-20 minute walk. St Peter's Square is a 10 minute walk, with Vatican museums being a further 5 minutes from there. There are no decent restaurant choices within a reasonable walking distance. We went to Trastevere each night which is a buzzing area with lots of bars and restaurants but that was a good nightly walk of 20 + minutes there and back along the river. We didn't use taxis during our stay. Effectively, the place is a bit out of the way if you're planning on walking everywhere.

The not so good:

-- On arrival discovered TV didn't work. Mentioned it to the front desk and to be fair they did get it sorted by the time we'd come back from dinner. It was broken again by the next day and never really worked properly the entire time.

-- Woke up on the first morning and brown sludge was coming out of the taps, then no water at all. Informed when we complained that there had been a problem with the plumbing system at the hotel and that it was being fixed. We had an early slot booked at Vatian museums so left the hotel without having showered that morning. Appreciate that these things happen beyond the control of management, but it's not a great look for a 'luxury' hotel. No compensation offered. In-fact, received an e-mail that morning advertising the hotel's other services that I should consider paying for, like breakfast at 36 Euro each or a spa treatment. That was rather galling.

-- Got back after being out that same day about 3pm and the water still wasn't perfect but informed it just needed running through, which was correct. However, room hadn't been cleaned. Asked for the room to be cleaned asap and was told it would be. Got back to the room at 8pm and the cleaner was in there. In general the room seemed to be cleaned very, very late which we've not experienced at any other hotel. Nothing worse coming back hot after marching around a city to an unclean room, especially if you've not had the opportunity to have a shower that morning due to the water not working.

-- The prices of drinks in the bar are eye-wateringly expensive. I stand to be corrected but I think 12 Euro for a small bottle of beer -- if you consider that you can buy 15 bottles of large Birra Morettis at Italian supermarket Conad for 15 Euro, it's a massive rip-off. In addition, soft drinks were, I think, 8 Euro a glass and I mistakenly had a couple of packets of crisps in the room that I'd assumed were complimentary but were, in-fact, 6 Euro per pack. For crisps. My bad. Should've checked. While you appreciate it's a 5 star hotel, even somewhere like Claridges doesn't charge these kinds of prices for drinks and snacks and let me be clear, this place is nowhere near as nice, professional or have the atmosphere of Claridges. This is compounded by the fact that the hotel is a fair distance from any kind of bar and a slog down and up a steep hill to the nearest shop, so your options are very limited. The bar/library themselves have fairly clinical atmospheres.

-- Apart from on the patio right outside the door, the outside areas were closed for winter. We hadn't expected use of a pool but given it was 20C most days we would have liked to actually sit outside in a garden/pool area, as is shown on the website -- seems odd that you're not allowed to just sit in the garden areas.

-- Espresso machine in the room is fine if all you want to drink is espresso. You get 4 pods, so that's 4 espressos. European hotels don't really do kettles, but other similar quality hotels with espresso machines provide far, far more pods for use and usually tea bags or other options for the non-coffee inclined.

Conclusion

The room was nice, bed was comfortable, it was quiet and we slept well every night which is, I guess, the least you can ask of a hotel. The problem with the water was beyond their control, so I'm fairly sanguine about that. For the price paid, the location, the fact that all extras are unbelievably expensive, the fact that the room cleaning was so late and the general feeling that I was constantly being marketed to buy the hotel's food, drink, spa services, I'd avoid in the future. The quality is nowhere near as good as similar hotels on the continent.

Great service lovely hotel

woll on 29/10/2017 09:01

Perfect spot to explore Rome, a little out the way but quite walkable or jump in taxi
Pool was fantastic, always found seats for 4 of us despite being there in summer heat wave ( food and drink was eyewateringly expensive but then it's far from the cheapest hotel, I would buy water and coke from little mini mart at bottom of hill then paying around £16 for a cocktail wasn't quite as bad) door staff great and would have a taxi for you in mins, reception staff very helpful and accomadating ( it was no problem for my husband to join us for weekend even though not booked in) pool beautiful and clean. We ate out in central Rome but found best was just a short walk along river- less tourist rip off prices. The only thing that was not quite to same level was food. Breakfast very fresh but not that interesting, had one meal in hotel which put us off, steak over cooked and pasta undercooked - there is al denote and there is raw) but in all fairness they took it away and re prepared
Rooms small but adequate. Initially our rooms were being made up at 4pm then turn down 10pm but a quick word with reception and this changed to 9 am and 6pm
If I was back in Rome I would most certainly stay here again