How to fit five in a room in Rome. (Rome Hotel Pinewood (Rome, Italy))

Member Name: apuskiduski

Product:	Rome Hotel Pinewood (Rome, Italy)
Date:	26/04/09 (401 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfortable, jacuzzi, amazing shower, buffet breakfast, great for families, staff

Disadvantages: Location, a bit pricey, an underwhelming view

The Hotel Pinewood or Pinewood Hotel whichever you want to call it has nothing to do with film studios or celebrities. It's the hotel we chose when we spent five nights in Rome during last year's Easter break.

We are a problem family I have to admit. There are five of us you see and hotels tend not to do five. They often do two, three and four at a stretch, but five - you are asking the impossible, especially in a city like Rome, surely. Surely not as it happens.

I searched on Trip Advisor for a hotel that would meet our needs and found Hotel Pinewood, read a few reviews, and then looked for prices. Considering we would have had to book two rooms everywhere else, and pay extra for breakfasts (10 Euros each invariably) I thought the 1250 Euros that we spent for five nights was fantastic value for five people. 250 Euros a night was only 50 Euros each - a bargain in my eyes when everywhere else was going to cost me at least 300 for two rooms, plus brekky. This price included a buffet style, eat as much as you like, breakfast which the kids thought was fantastic - an even better bargain! Us Yorkshire folk are so easily pleased.

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Booking
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The booking process was a doddle. I typed in my requirements on www.booking.com, printed off the receipt and that was that. No money was taken at the time - we paid when we checked out and this would have been even better with a couple of towels snaffled away but we resisted temptation- I want to go back you see. Having looked on this site again, I've checked availability for the same suite in October half term and it's now 240 Euros. It's got me quite tempted actually.

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Finding the place
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I printed a map off the official hotel site as well as the detailed instructions when flying into Rome. As it happened we never needed them as we ended up in a luxury Mercedes blacked out windows style limo taxi van thing at the airport.

Taxi drivers were touting for business and us being a bit useless in Italian didn't fancy negotiating the train and tube system with luggage, so we were reeled in so to speak.

For 10 Euros each we had a small group tour of Rome with three other people, right under Constantine's arch and around the Colloseum as well as a bit of history from Marco, our highly amusing chauffeur - he'd spent years in Leeds so he even knew what a Yorkshire pudding was and had excellent English. He told us all about the Vittorio Emanuele monument - the wedding cake - in the centre of Rome which became Mussolini's headquarters and also his thoughts on the upcoming Man U v Roma match in the European Cup. It was the best introduction to Rome we could have had!

I was happy as I'd had a 40 minute relaxing journey, if you can call that speed relaxing, a guided tour and had only spent 2 Euros over the odds on the train journey, lugging those cases about. I bet it was Marco who stopped the first escalator we had to climb up, just to get us into his taxi! Well worth it though.

I obviously can't offer you any advice on getting there apart from heading towards Termini station by train from the airport and from there head to Cornelia on the tube.

The directions given by the hotel actually work as we followed them to the letter after our first little jaunt out that evening.

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Locality
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The Hotel Pinewood is located opposite a large green area called the Sachetti Pine Wood. This was a place for joggers, early morning dog-walkers and horse riders. A little bit of the country in the city then. Well not quite, it's also just down the road from a major bus terminal, which makes transport links excellent, and a built up urban area which may not be to everyone's taste.

We loved it as it gave us a taste of how locals live. We enjoyed our early morning walk to the tube station and we didn't come back until late afternoon to get ready for our evening meal. There were very few restaurants in the nearby vicinity but with a good guidebook it was easy to find excellent, and cheap, restaurants in several areas of the city. We felt safe with our three girls the entire time we were there.

It was interesting to note that we arrived in the build up to an important election. There were bill posters everywhere sticking their adverts over their rivals'. Eventually the posters became so thick they could no longer hang up so they were all over the pavement and another round of bill posters began. These huge piles of paper were hard to negotiate on the footpath I have to say. It would never happen in Britain I suppose, with our totally apathetic approach to voting.

So, the pavements were a bit interesting but the entrance to the hotel seemed very welcoming with a small fountain as you approached the main doors. It was lovely to walk back to at night too with fairy lights in the trees. Very romantic indeed! Secure too as you had to prove who you were when you returned.

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First Impressions
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I knew we were going to have a fabulous stay when we were welcomed, in perfect English, by a rather good looking chap I have to say. He was very charming, efficient and had the tightest shirt I'd ever seen on a man. Lots of muscles underneath it too.

My husband had to peel me from the reception desk after we received our keys. I blamed this on exhaustion with such an early flight and the unseasonably hot weather for April. My husband blamed my mother. And my daughters told me he didn't like girls anyway, which was a bit of a shocker.

Anyway, the reception area was quite lavish, with lots of sofas - quite low to be honest - tables and a bar over to one side looking deserted. (It looked deserted throughout our stay actually). Lots of marble about and everything done in a reddy gold combo. It was quite classy looking but a bit over the top for me. I'm more of a modern minimalist.

We needed to use the lift to go down a half floor to our room and we were literally 10m from the lift on this lower ground floor. Lucky for us we were also a very short walk to the breakfast room so we could be first in every morning.

So far, so good.

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What about the room?
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The thing that had attracted us to this hotel was the fact that the kids could be in the same room as us and we'd only have to think about looking after one key - this is not our strong point I have to say.

The 'suite' was made up of a large room with a King sized and a single bed, lamps, TV, sockets, phone etc, like your regular hotel room. It was well decorated, clean and fresh and had a patio door onto a, you've guessed it, patio. Well a slab of paved area with no chairs and a very uninspiring view. Never mind. We weren't going to be in the room for too long anyway, never mind on the patio. We had a very action packed itinerary to get through before Friday.

The large room was connected to a smaller room, where you first came in, by a narrow corridor housing a large mirrored wardrobe, which in turn housed the safe. Very simple to operate unless you're a complete goon like me. I managed to programme it wrong but thankfully there was nothing in it and it was easily fixed by the brains of the family. The 11 year old!

Opposite the mirrored wardrobes was a sliding door to the bathroom, which we were very impressed with. A Jacuzzi bath, that worked, with one of those super jet-water-gets-you-from-every-angle showers, toilet, bidet, plenty of free toiletries that were half decent and a hairdryer too. As well as all this they had even thought of the women in the party and had provided a stool to use for when you're painting your toenails! It was everything the holiday doctor ordered.

The small room, which I think is really a sitting room, had what looked like a made up double sofa bed in it, a flat screen TV, another phone and a coffee table. It was almost perfect. I say this because the youngsters nabbed the best room and us old 'uns ended up on the sofa bed. Typical. Their excuse was that none of them wanted to share with the snorers can you believe?

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And so, to bed!
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Well, after a thrilling day out near the Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain, we stuffed our faces with pasta and pizza, washed it down with a fine bottle of Chianti and meandered back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

And I have to say that a good night's sleep it was - until about three in the morning, when I am usually in my deepest phase of sleep. Suddenly, and for no reason that you might be thinking, the bed leg basically fell off and the corner of my side of the bed fell to the floor. Unfortunately it was the head of the bed, but fortunately it only woke me for a second and I went straight back to the land of nod, only at an angle. My husband never blinked! I woke with a rush of blood to the head and then we all collapsed in a heap laughing at the situation.

I was quite thrilled actually because I could take the broken bed leg back to the nice young man at the desk and drool awhile enjoying the rolling of his Rs.

This I did and when we returned later that day the bed was fixed. Hurray.

So, all in all a good first night's sleep as were they all. The room was quiet, save for a few American and Spanish school kids that were all in bed by 12 anyway, maybe half an hour after we got back. Our floor was mainly taken up by a large Japanese party who were extremely quiet. I think this hotel must offer bargains for large parties as, apart from us, there were very few families around.

The room was kept at a comfortable temperature by an excellent, and silent, aircon/heating system. I was grateful for this as it was hot during the day but a bit chilly at night.
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Facilities
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I think I've covered everything that the room had, apart from wifi access (chargeable).
There are specially adapted rooms for wheelchair users and a special lift down to the breakfast room.

There wasn't a mini bar in the room when we visited, but apparently every room has one now.

They have also introduced a 'wellness' element to the hotel meaning you can book a treatment if you need destressing. This is all new to me so can't really comment.

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Tuck in - you're in for a long day in Rome
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Breakfast was the only meal provided by the hotel and I have to say that on the first morning I was a little disappointed, but by the Friday I was glad that it wasn't a big cooked affair as I had eaten so much great food while I'd been there I couldn't handle anything at breakfast.

There was an option to have scrambled egg and bacon made for you specially, like the Japanese visitors had bought into, but this was an extra 5 Euros so we gave it a miss.

We enjoyed the fruit juice, tea, coffees (both cappuccino and espresso), cereals, a wide range of bread, croissants and pastries and the obligatory meat and cheese as well as some fruit for the health conscious.

It was a great way to start the day and breakfast started at seven for those who wanted to make an early start to their day. You could also order breakfast in your room, but this may have had a supplement. I might have paid the young man to bring it though.

We all enjoy buffet breakfasts and the kids often have to restrain me in my kleptomania as I can't resist the urge to fill up a bag and make some nice meat sandwiches for lunch. It was no different at this hotel. Sad but true.

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Was it value for money?
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Having researched all the hotels on offer there was nowhere else that offered a room for five when we wanted to go. It was much better than having two rooms and we felt that we did indeed get value for money. The hotel had a touch of luxury to it and the Jacuzzi bath and reach-every-spot shower were worth the room fee in themselves.

1250 Euros isn't cheap but it was quiet, enabling us to have complete rest between our hectic days.

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Would I recommend it?
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I would recommend the hotel for families of five with teenagers like us, but not necessarily younger children as you have to negotiate the 10 minute walk to the tube station and then a 15 minute journey into the centre of Rome.

It's fantastic for the Vatican area however as that's only 10 minutes away by bus and the bus stop is virtually on the hotel doorstep. We took the bus a lot on our five day travel card and were highly delighted with the service.

It's a fantastic place for business people who know Rome and also for those attending events at the Olympic Stadium.

Honeymooning couples might want something in the centre of the city, I know I would.

It was brilliant for large groups of people obviously as there were three large parties there during the course of our stay and they all looked to be having a great time, especially the teachers of the school trips!

All in all I would go back to this hotel as I felt like a local, not a tourist.

And as for the young man at the desk, I had just one more chance to bat my eye lids at him when we inadvertently, can you believe, locked the room key in the room on the very last morning! He very suavely reached over, took another key from the hook and handed it to me, with a gorgeous grin on his face.

A great ending to a great stay in Rome.
The hotel address
Via Della Pineta Sacchetti 43
00167 Rome
tel: +39 06 66.36.546
fax:+39 06 66.34.941

e-mail: info@romehotelpinewood.com

Web site: http://www.romehotelpinewood.com/index.htm

Summary: The Hotel Pinewood earns its 4 stars for me.