Raeli Hotel Archimede in Rome

I recently stayed at this hotel and while the location was undeniably convenient—close to Roma termini and easy to access—the overall experience left much to be desired for travel comfort and carry the travel bags.
Room Comfort: The room lacked basic amenities such as air conditioning, which made the stay extremely uncomfortable, especially during warmer nights and the room temperature was 26.5 Celsius . To make matters worse, the in-room phone was not functioning, making it difficult to communicate with the front desk. They tell us on first day that will fix tomorrow but our booking was for 4 nights and still they didn’t fix the phone which gives worst experience to stay.
Customer Service: When we reported these issues to the reception, the response was shockingly dismissive. Instead of offering a solution or even showing concern, we were simply told to “open the window and sleep.” This lack of empathy and professionalism was deeply disappointing.
Overall Experience: While the location is a plus, the poor service and lack of essential amenities overshadowed any positives. I hope the management takes these concerns seriously and improves both their facilities and staff training.

TLTR: This is not a 4 star hotel. The location is great, but literally everything else is a compromise…

Let me start with 2 advantages of this hotel, since it won’t take long. The first is location. You literally take the north exit from Roma Termini to Via Marsala, cross two streets and take a right - and you are there! It’s that simple :) The other advantage is breakfast: it’s the same everyday, but it’s decent, much better than I expected.

And now to the disadvantages… First and foremost: there was black mold in the bathroom! Lots of it. Why “lots”? Because the acceptable amount of mold in the bathroom for a 4 start hotel is zero.

Second, the bed didn’t have a headboard. Do you know the acceptable number of headboards for a 4 start hotel? You guessed it: at least one :) The bed was actually two beds crammed together (which I don’t mind), but there was no duvet cover! Seriously: there was a sheet to sleep on, a separate sheet to cover yourself, a warm blanket and a sheet to put over it! Needless to say that during the night the sheet that was between the body and the blanket would be carried away. And yeah, all this 3-in-1 construction was tucked under the mattress like the future of Italy depends on it! What the actual ****?! Do you sleep like that at home? I bet you don’t; so, why would you sleep like that in a 4 star hotel?!

Thirdly, there were no slippers, no microwave, no ******* table to eat from, no teakettle, no iron, no shower curtain, nothing! What we got was two paper cups in the bathroom and that’s it. 4 star hotel class service, right? It gets better! If we wanted hot water, we had to go downstairs from the 4th floor to get it from a broken *** mid-sized boiler located right next to the reception desk! Dear guests of this 4 star hotel, please don’t mind my wife getting some hot water for her noodles while you check in and pay tourist tax, it’s fine. When in Rome, you know…

Fourthly, the quality of everything in the room was not great… to say the least. The walls were dirty, the hair dryer was really bad, the bottom of the bathroom door was broken. What the ****, guys?! Have you heard of amortization of assets or something? Not cool, not cool. I pay the tax, you fix the ******* door, ok?

Lastly, my favorite… there was such a big gap under the front door of the room that everything that was happening on the hotel floor sounded like it was happening in our corridor. I don’t mind people walking past our door, but it really felt like there constantly was a stranger in our room. Couldn’t sleep well because of that. And let me tell you that there was some loud love-making somewhere on the floor… and I felt like a couple was ******* in our corridor! 4 star hotel experience? Not by a bit…

All right, let me tell you why I put such a stress on this “4 star hotel” thing. The problem is that in Italy stars in a hotel don’t mean anything! I mean, they mean that the building has a certain amount of facilities, space, etc., but there is no correlation with the quality of staying in a room. Seriously, we stayed in a 3 star hotel in Venice and the room there was much better!

To sum it up, this hotel is nice if you need a quick stay next to the railway station… but if you plan to spend more than two days in it… just pick something else if your budget allows. If not: well, you still got the location and the breakfast :)

P.S. Cheers to the Asian and the African girls at the reception desk! You are the best :)