Crowne Plaza Rome St. Peter's, an IHG Hotel

The hotel is old, but as to be expected. The rooms all smell like cigarette smoke. Our AC did not work (it was 95F+ each day we were there). We asked to change rooms which the staff quickly helped with. However, the other room also had a non-functional AC. We asked them to come look, which they did, but they told us it was functioning just fine. It was 83F in the room despite running the AC full blast. Location is pretty out of the way, but they offer a shuttle. The staff was helpful and polite.

Reception and restaurant staff were very nice and helpful (especially Giorgia at reception!) but gift shop staff were quite rude.

The rooms are nicely presented, mostly clean and comfortable but some of the furniture is outdated and there are quite a few rips and scuff marks on the wallpaper, ceiling and desk. The bed was very comfortable. The bathroom was clean and modern. The peep hole was broken so I had to cover it myself for safety.

The outdoor pool was open slightly earlier as the weather was so hot which I was grateful for. The gardens are well maintained but quite noisy as the gardeners are in everyday with lawnmowers, traffic noise and there seems to be a park or school behind the bushes at the pool as you can hear children playing during the day. There’s no music playing by the pool to drown it out so I would recommend headphones as it is quite loud.
Note the water is freezing cold despite the heat.
It’s surrounded on one side by bushes and trees and in the shadow of the hotel too so maybe why it is still cold and quite dark by the pool. I didn’t spend as much time here as I thought I would.

It is nice having a spa. It is a small area but a nice warm pool and sauna and steam room. The jacuzzi jets were not very strong and it was not very warm in there.
It is supposed to be a quiet area but there were people playing music or videos on their phone speakers and people jumping into the pool and splashing around. The spa reception staff outside don’t intervene or come in much.
Housekeeping came in regularly and kept taking the towels off the loungers when people are in the pool so you needed to go to reception to ask for more towels.

The changing rooms were closed for maintenance a few days. Hopefully there is maintenance carried out in the spa too as it is looking a bit worse for wear.

I ordered room service twice and ate in the Papillon restaurant twice. The food is expensive compared to local restaurants but it is decent enough. The tiramisu here was the best I’ve had in Italy yet and the fettuccine al ragu was lovely too.

The breakfast is standard continental buffet. However there were often queues and a long wait to be seated from around 7am. Everyone wants to eat and get out as early as possible to explore. So I find it odd they have such limited seating in the breakfast hall for such a busy hotel. Many of us had to regularly ask if we could just grab a croissant and leave as we had transport waiting and tickets booked.

As for transport, I find the fees for the shuttle bus quite high: 4 and 5 euro each way to Vatican or Trastevere and 8 euro to Colosseum but no option back. Considering the price of staying at the hotel I find it disappointing. I have stayed in much cheaper hotels in Italy that offer free shuttle services to and from the city centre and more frequently.
There is a bus stop a few minutes from the hotel but considering the nightmare I have had with Rome busses and how unreliable they are I opted for either shuttle or taxi.

There is a metro stop but it is a very long walk in the heat with not much shade, and the main road the hotel is on it is so busy and dangerous to walk along with the pedestrian walkway. I would not recommend it at all.

The reason for the scoring lies mainly in how noisy it was to stay here. I can’t overstate enough how loud it is inside the hotel.
The sliding doors do a great job of keeping the noise from the traffic of the main road out but the walls are far too thin for such a busy hotel.
At all hours you can hear doors slamming, people walking up and down the corridors, you can hear word for word the conversation in the room next to you, you can hear when they plug something into the wall or run the taps or open the wardrobe. I could go on. I found it really difficult to sleep here unfortunately.

This combined with the location of the hotel means I would not stay here again were I to return to Rome.