The hotel and rooms are very clean. is def 4* as rated. it is far from the city centre. the hotel offers a free shuttle to the city...but on has 8 seats which you need to book in advance. Taxi costs around 15-20 euro one way. The female staff are unfriendly on the front desk. Not once did i see them smile in the 5 days i was there and were not helpful at all. Paulo on the front desk was extremely helpful, very welcoming. The air conditioning in the room is not great and the reception area has no air conditioning. in the shower the water leaks onto the floor. There is no iron facility and the hair dryer provided hurts your hand. it does get noisey as the hallway has wooden flooring, so people walking with shoes can be heard clearly and the cleaners are not considerate when they start cleaning at 7.30am a lot of banging.

My wife and I stayed 4 nights in mid-June 2008. Our primary reason for choosing this hotel was its proximity to another hotel where family members were staying (in order to meet up with them daily). That said, I don't understand when reviewers weigh location so heavily against a hotel--it's not as if the hotel changed locations before you arrived. You know in advance where they are, and you can look them up on Google Maps, multimap, etc. A little research goes a long way! This hotel is indeed not very close to the central tourist area, but the price reflects that. My wife and I were regularly able to walk 10 minutes to Balduina station and take the light rail to Trastevere, or transfer to the Metro at Valle Aurelia. For anyone who has used big city transit before, this is not a big deal. We were in the historic center within 30 minutes each day. A ticket costs 1 Euro, while lesser hotels in a "better" location are often an additional 50 Euros or more per night. You can do the math... PLUSES: 1. Excellent and friendly desk staff, especially Paolo. All spoke very good English and most were extremely helpful--you could transfer this staff to the Cavalieri Hilton (EUR400/night) and they would fit in perfectly. We were very impressed with their professionalism and work ethic. 2. Clean rooms with plenty of information available. 3. Good closets and lots of shelving space 4. Very good breakfast staff, plus a pretty good breakfast. The eggs were marginal, but the cold meats, cheeses, yogurts, coffees and pastries were all very good and filling. 5. Free parking and exercise room (we did not use either one, but worth noting) 6. Bellboys were VERY quick and helpful. 7. Common areas were fairly clean and well maintained. MINUSES: 1. The air conditioner in our first room stopped functioning after a few hours. The replacement portable A/C required the window be left open for the exhaust hose. It rained that night. Not very pleasant. However, they were able to move us to a new room the next morning. 2. The wallpaper in both rooms was peeling, though not excessively so. 3. Upon check out, the desk clerk insisted that my credit card would not work (this would have been the first failure in 9 years, including 5 trips abroad). I ended up having to walk nearly 30 sweaty minutes round-trip to the nearest ATM to find cash to pay the bill. I am almost certain that this was a ploy to get me to pay in cash; if not, it sure is an odd coincidence. I used the same card without problems for two additional weeks in Italy. This particular desk staffer had a bad attitude in general, nothing like the other two we dealt with during our stay. If the key statistic is "Would you stay here again?", then the answer is definitely YES. Even if I wanted to stay closer to the historic center, I would still consider staying at Zone and making the transfer into town each day--I doubt you'll find a better experience for the money anywhere in Rome.

The good news -Clean hotel -Great Breakfast -Security safe in room The Bad news -90% of hotel staff unfriendly -Could not obtain internet access in the hotel the login/password didn't work -Very, Very Very hard to find the hotel -The "full size" consisted of 2 twin beds pushed together -AC did not work -Shower leaked water onto the rest of the bathroom floor -shuttle will only take you to the very outside of the city and its last return to the hotel is at 6:30 p.m. -you have to sign up for the shuttle and may not get it if it's full. -TV had no reception **Spend the extra $ and get a hotel closer to the city

Hotel is clean but the service leaves a lot to be desired. On the good side, they have free underground parking and provide a free shuttle to downtown if you sign up--only seats 8. Don't count on it being ontime, no guarantee of a return trip either if full. This hotel is far from downtown. Our problems were with the a/c. It was hot and the air didn't work well. They ran out of most everything for breakfast on our second day because 'a large group came in ate it all'.The desk clerk told us they were full (they weren't) and wouldn't change our room when we had a/c problems. Requests for restaurant recommendations were met with only 1 choice by the desk man. We had a car but he wouldn't recommend any other place--odd. The keys are cancelled anytime the hotel staff comes in to change a bulb or to try to fix the a/c. The don't tell you this either. No hot water one day. After 3 days, we had surprises everyday--not the Holiday Inn. Minus the sarcastic desk man, the place is tolerable. Not the worst place I've been to, but close.

Better be in good shape if you stay out here. The location is about a 20 minute, 1-euro, many stop bus ride to downtown. And, that requires a 5-10 minute, mostly uphill walk to the bus stop. (The hotel has a one-trip, free shuttle you can reserve, but it only seats eight people -- you do the math!) The Room: Our first room on the 1st floor was awful -- crammed, noisy all night and early am -- thin walls. Also there was a notch out of a metal piece on the outside door -- apparently forced open (maybe by a guest). No chain or peep hole on hallway door. Couldn't sleep! The unhelpful guy at the desk suggested we keep it, that it was as good as it gets. I almost did! Our second room was a big improvement -- spacious, reasonably quiet, not at street level! This may account for differing opinions. The Neighborhood is nice -- some upscale cars at the neighboring apartments; good pizza place, and a snack bar nextdoor, a few minutes away. BEST of Zone...great full breakfast, wonderful meats. WORST...Front Desk (& cab drivers) not friendly or real helpful. (FYI: It cost 22 and over 24 euros, respectively, to get to and from the main train station (Termini) in town.)