Grand Hotel Fleming, Rome

The front of this hotel reminded me of those pictures you see of old buildings in East Berlin - kind of like a prison motif. This is an old and tired hotel. The location is sketchy. I don't know if its a bad area or an okay area that is just congested with tons of graffiti. As far as touring, the location is not good as you need to take a cab to arrive at any of your destinations. I didn't see anyplace I wanted to go in the area at night. The room looked fairly clean but very tiny although I was hoping not to find a mouse crawling over me during the night. If you are standing in front of the mirror, your roommate has to climb over the bed to get around. The shower is so small you would have to step out to retrieve a dropped soap. When the people next door are using the facilities, it sounds as if they are in your room! The dining facilities for groups are atrocious. Downstairs in the basement. Again, early East Berlin - like a prison dining room. The breakfast was sparse. There were tons of people waiting in line to get into the facility - again - waiting in line for the mess hall. The staff at the front desk were rude and very unhelpful. They did not even have a city map on the front desk which most hotels have in abundance for guests. All I can say about this hotel is, it beats sleeping in the street but it is on the level of staying at the YMCA. Do yourself a favor - spend a few more dollars and go someplace decent.

We were traveling through Italy through Contiki, and were told that the hotel in Rome that was previously booked for us had overbooked, so we ended up staying at the Hotel Fleming instead. Our tour giude insisted that this worked well for us though, as it was an "upgrade" from our original hotel, as it was more central. This hotel was really dreadful in fact. Our room reeked of urine and mold, (there was mold growing along the window casing in plain sight) the breakfast room was located in the basement and the floors were sticky, the dishes were dirty and there was a huge cockroach on the steps leading down, flailing on its back (it must have eaten the breakfast). As well, we were supposed to get a wake-up call the next morning and not one single person in our tour group received one. It cost 10-12 euros to get to the Colosseum from this hotel, which ironically, was exactly how much it cost for us to get to the same location from the Roma Park Hotel, which was our original hotel and where we stayed for the last two days of our trip, so the Hotel Fleming was in no way an upgrade in terms of distance or anything else.

I stayed in this hotel a few summers ago and found it to be overall not too bad. The front desk gentlemen seemed humored with Americans, although sometimes annoyed. The rooms were nice, but the bathrooms were tiny. The elevator was a little frightening. Beware! Just because you put the "do not disturb" sign up, doesn't mean they'll listen. To be on the safe side, lock up any valuables. The staff was notorious for entering our room when we requested that they didn't. The locations wasn't very close to the center of the action, but there are a few shops and a wonderful little grocery store nearby. The cab stand was directly across the street and there were several banks nearby for currency exchange. All in all, it was a nice hotel. I think the cultural difference gave me the impression that the staff was somewhat rude, but then they were probably thinking the same thing about the "silly Americans."

The gentlemen at the front desk were rather rude. I think that they pretended that they didn't speak any English at all. Coffee was terrible, bring your own instant and coffeemate! Location was too far from center of Rome.