Hotel & Residence Castelli

First time trying this hotel during our many frequent trips to Rome. Conclusion is we like it and so we’ll be back soon….

We spent a week here mid July and after a under whelming start quite enjoyed our stay in the end. Our initial impressions after the first days meals (all buffet style) were we were not too impressed with the lunch and evening food however we felt things improved after that and actually had a couple of really enjoyable meals. It might be that we just got into the swing of the sort of food on offer but it was all edible and, as it is a fair walk to any other restaurants, we had all our meals here. The wine was just about OK although a couple of times the white wine served was warm which did not help. The beer was drinkable and the (local) spirits on offer, if taken with mixers or in cocktails, was OK – but I would not recommend having the local brandy neat! The temperature was extremely hot (40C for a few days) and the aircon, after being on for 30 minutes, did its job and made for a comfortable night's sleep. We were glad to be offered a swim-up room for our last few days as a regular dip helped manage the very hot weather. We had a floating breakfast one morning and felt that there was far too much food and giving guests the choice of 2 or 3 options would have been better – the breakfast consisted of a plate of cooked food (scrambled egg, sausage, bacon), two plates of pastries, a plate of bread and jam, and a plate of cheese and cold meats with chutney, a plate of fruit and nuts and two large bowls of yogurt. We really hate food waste and rather than send half of it back uneaten put quite a bit into the fridge to have at lunchtime. I chose this hotel as the reviews in previous years had mostly been generally positive (other than the shower/bathrooms) and gave the impression (it had been ) a quiet family run hotel. It seems to have changed character with the hotel having just opened a new block across the road and there were now quite a few young guests which on some occasions were quite noisy, stood in the pool around the edge all day making it very difficult to use the pool for a swim, and the increase in guests put pressure on the eating area to the extent we had to wait for a table to become available a couple of times. My feeling was the reception staff and manager were surprised by the number of younger guests and saddened to hear about the noise issues. The staff were all excellent and the front office certainly listened to any issues we, and other guests, had and did all in their power to make the holiday the best it could be.

We only slept one night here for transit,but it was terrible. Although they are,or claim to be,a 4 star hotel,the hotel looks like a motel in most rooms. I am aware they are undergoing renovations and that some rooms look decent,but I am here to tell my experience. We arrived at around 8 PM and everything looked good. The reception is renovated,the lobby,bar and outside area are very nice.However,everything changed when we got to our rooms. It was a very old room that looked like it hadn’t received cleaning or renovations in more than 20 years. Next to my sisters pillow there were cut wires that seemed(and probably were very dangerous). On the same note,we went to the other rooms of the people in our group and in some of the rooms there were electrical panels taped with scotch(next to the pillow). Furthermore,there were a few groups of drunken men that were looking quite weird at us only to hear from our friends that they woke up at around 11 PM with loud and frenetical knocking on their doors,due to which fact they had to change their rooms,because they were feeling unsafe. I am not a fan of writing such reviews because I believe everyone deserves a second chance but this hotel is in dire need of renovations and a better staff management. I am writing this because I want to raise awareness to the people that run this hotel so that other people will not have to go through what we did. This review has not been written with any malicious intention but only with the wish that this is taken into consideration and changed if they want to keep their “four stars”.