Hotel Duca D'alba

“Lovely hotel in a great location for exploring.”

Lovely little hotel in an amazing location a stones throw from the Colosseum. The rooms are clean and fresh, an ideal base for our trip to Rome being no more than a 30min walk to any of the main attractions. The reception staff were all extremely helpful and friendly. We didn’t try the breakfast bu… more

Lovely little hotel in an amazing location a stones throw from the Colosseum. The rooms are clean and fresh, an ideal base for our trip to Rome being no more than a 30min walk to any of the main attractions. The reception staff were all extremely helpful and friendly. We didn’t try the breakfast but popped in to see what they offered one mor big and all looked lovely and a good selection of hot and continental. The Monti district where the hotel stands is a great vibe with lots of bars and restaurants on your doorstep. I would definitely return.

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“Worst stay in Italy”

This location was 2 “blocks” from the Colosseum and a metro station 750 m away. That was the only positive. The room was tiny and dirty. There was an inch of dust on the mini fridge, dust bunnies in the curtains and splatter in front of the toilet. There was so much “decor” that it was probably im… more

This location was 2 “blocks” from the Colosseum and a metro station 750 m away. That was the only positive. The room was tiny and dirty. There was an inch of dust on the mini fridge, dust bunnies in the curtains and splatter in front of the toilet. There was so much “decor” that it was probably impossible to clean. Less is more. Bonus: our balcony was shared.

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“"Sorry, he was very busy"”

The location is wonderful. Everything is within walking distance, including public transportation, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets and pharmacies. Tatiana welcomed us and was very accommodating. Went in the room only to find that one of the water bottles in the mini fridge was OPEN. Clearly sippe… more

The location is wonderful. Everything is within walking distance, including public transportation, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets and pharmacies. Tatiana welcomed us and was very accommodating. Went in the room only to find that one of the water bottles in the mini fridge was OPEN. Clearly sipped from by the previous guests! How does this go unnoticed when preparing the room for the next guests? Apart from that, there were ONLY shampoo bottles in the bathroom. Eight of them - and nothing else. Clearly somebody saw the bottles left behind by the previous guests and figured there’s no need to replace or even check them to make sure guests have shower gel and conditioner available to them. One of the two glasses in the bathroom was visibly dirty. The bathroom floor had stains on it (see photo). Also, The safe was faulty and did not lock properly. After becoming aware of these minor annoyances, I went down to the front desk, holding the 8 shampoo bottles, the open water bottle and the dirty glass. I politely informed Elisa, the person manning the front desk at the time, about these three issues. She apologized profusely. She was clearly embarrassed. I said “it's perfectly okay, it happens, we’re all human beings” to make her feel less bad about it. Elisa called her colleague and yelled at him in Italian. I couldn’t understand anything, but the tone and body language were clear. She said he's going out to get new batteries for the safe and we can go up and wait for him in the room, which we did. After 15 minutes of waiting, we were getting hungry and impatient. This is not how we wanted to spend our precious time in Rome. Went down again and told Elisa we're too famished to wait and we’re going out to eat. Elisa asked us if her colleague may go into our room while we’re out, assumingly to replace the open water bottle with a new one, put new batteries in the safe and change some of the shampoo bottles. We said it's okay. Nearly three hours later we finished our dinner and returned to the room. I went to the bathroom to take a shower. Grabbed one of the bottles, only to find that none of them had been replaced as promised. Still 8 shampoo bottles and nothing else. The safe was also in the exact same state it was when we left. No new and unopened water bottle either. I had to get out of the shower, dripping wet, go to the front desk *yet again* and ask Elisa why oh why they haven't done anything whatsoever to address the issues we raised while we were out, as she clearly said they would. She apologized again and said, very casually, “so sorry, he was very busy”. I replied that it has been three hours and that this is simply ridiculous. She gave me two new, unopened water bottles and the other person came by with shower gel and conditioner bottles. She said he will be up "soon" with new batteries for the safe, to which I replied "That's okay, I'll just do it myself" and took the new batteries upstairs with me. It is one thing to make a mistake when preparing the room for the next guest. It happens. Nobody can be expected to be perfect 24/7. However, it's a completely different matter to ignore the problem for nearly THREE HOURS once you've become aware of it, and to excuse the lack of any follow-up whatsoever with the phrase “he was busy”. Whatever he was busy with was more important than fixing a mistake that prevents your guests from taking a shower on their first day at your hotel? for three whole hours since the guest had made you aware of said mistake? The priorities of this hotel are simply unacceptable. Also, the water in the shower smells of chlorine. To be fair, it might be the city water though, not the hotel’s fault, but one still smells like chlorine for hours after taking a shower. Another minor but annoying issue, the housekeeping staff at Duca d’Alba don't seem to respect the “do not disturb” sign. It’s written clearly on the sign, in 5 languages (see photo), including Italian, and yet they kept knocking and even trying to get in if we did not respond quickly enough. There was one silver lining - one of the people at the front desk, Max, was simply amazing. Always courteous, always helpful. He is the single positive thing about this hotel. Duca d’Alba simply does not feel like a 4 star hotel and their nonchalant attitude towards issues guests are facing is unacceptable.

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“It’s okay”

Everything was okay. It’s just not a 4 star hotel as it is described. It needs updating. It felt more like an apartment. It’s very close to the Colosseo though. I would not go back. Next time, I will do more research. It’s kind of hard to tell just from photos online though.