Rome Apartment #123
Colosseo / Via Carlo Alberto

October 2011

We returned home to Toronto this past Monday feeling most content and rejuvenated.

Thank you for your part in making our stay in Rome so memorable. We enjoyed our stay in your lovely apartment. It was clean, comfortable and so very convenient to the grocers, the Metro, and, of course, to Santa Maria Maggiore and many other historic churches. Thank you, too, for your kind advice on places to dine, places to see and, most especially, how to cross the streets in Rome! Even though this was my fifth visit to Rome, I never understood how to cross the streets until you explained the rationale, i.e., to cross with confidence since the drivers are calculating how long it would take you to cross! We had a lovely lunch at Da Michele and had coffee at Il Pasticcaccio, dinner at Il Convivio Troiano and many other excellent places.

Please accept our sincere thanks for making our trip so enjoyable and peaceful.

We will definitely consider hiring your apartment again next time we come to Rome.

With kind regards and best wishes,

Yours very sincerely,

July 2010

This apartment is well furnished and in a convenient and centralized location, near metro, grocery and bus stops. Marco was an excellent host with tips and advice that was very helpful during our stay.

July 2010

This is a nice apartment, but I would not recommend staying here because the check in experience was a disaster. We phoned our contact person 30 minutes before our on-time arrival. When we arrived, he was already ill-tempered. He gave a cursory overview of the apartment, ending with "don't call me in the middle of the night like the last person did, just because your air-conditioning does not work." At that time, we had been in the apartment for 30 minutes (while he tried to guess how to turn the TV on), and the apartment had not cooled at all, despite him turning the units in each room on when we arrived. I told him we could not stay in the rooms if the airconditioning did not work, at which point he starting yelling about Americans. The thermastat at that point read 31. He initally refused to call the owner, until I said I would not give the rest of the payment until the issue was resolved. After some animated discussion with the owner, it was clear that the person orienting me had not properly turned on the airconditioning units. This disorganization continued. The lighter for the stove didn't work, and no one (not even the owner) knew how to work the washer. The last thing the contact person said, after a prompt from the housecleaner, was that I should watch the condensation drain, which occasionally needed emptying. It was 3/4 full when he left. He said it only needed emptying every 3-4 days, if you run the airconditioning full time. The next day when we came home, the room was flooded, although we did not leave the air conditioning on. Apparently, the condensation jug must be emptied daily. Overall, I would not recommend this chaos for anyone.
KeyHolder Replies:
I'm awfully sorry about this and I didn't mean to be rude when I showed you the circuit breaker and mentioned the last clients had called me in the middle of the night for it. I deny to have ever said what you put in brakets above, I find it rather unfair that you would quote me saying something I didn't. It's a big apartment and it does take longer than 30min to cool off, the way to see if ac works is placing your hand in front of it to verify the air coming out is cold and we had done that, the machine was measuring the air coming out as 12C. therefore perfectly in order. You had asked me to do something unreasonable, wait in the apartment until 150sqmts of apartment are cool attending to your perception, I just said I couldn't do it, I didn't mean to be unfriendly. Lastly, let me say that I doubt the cleaning lady doesn't know how to use the washer.
Again, I'm sorry you took it this way but I never meant to be rude to you and I think what you perceive as chaos may just be a little cultural shock all of us have when relocating to a private home thousands of miles away from home.

March 2009

Thank you for all the help with accommodating my wife and her broken leg on March 9-12. The elevator helped tremendously and the apartment was spacious and very clean. The man who helped us check in (Ansel?) was a great help and very easy to work with. It made our sad situation a little brighter, and for that i am thankful.

We will certainly call on you again when we are in Rome (hopefully without a broken leg next time).

Grazie mille!

May 2008

Excellent. We had a very nice time. Thank you!

April 2007

Thank you very much!We had a nice stay...