Augusta Lucilla Palace Hotel

The reviews are about luggage, and that is not a small thing

Guest reviews usually reward the photogenic. These reward the opposite — the two details that come up more than once are room width and the number of lifts.

Both are Rome-specific problems. The historic centre’s hotels are mostly floors carved out of old palazzi, which means narrow rooms and one small lift shared by every departing guest at 11am. Guests here note there are two, and describe rooms wide enough to open two 30-inch cases at the same time. Nobody photographs that. It decides how the first and last hour of a trip actually feel.

At 300m from Termini — third closest of the seven compared here — this is a property you reach from the platforms without a plan.

	Distance
Roma Termini	300m
Colosseum	1.2km
Pantheon	1.7km
St Peter’s Basilica	3.7km
Fiumicino Airport	24.1km

The Colosseum at 1.2km is the second shortest in the area, so Ancient Rome is a walk rather than a ride. The Vatican, as everywhere on this side of the city, is not.

Rooms — wide enough for two large cases

The reviews here reward something no photograph shows. Guests describe opening two 30-inch suitcases at the same time with room to spare, and three of twelve raise the room size positively. One describes being moved to a wider room at check-in.

Doubles, twins and quads. The quad is the practical reason a party of four books here, and in Rome that is not a small thing — most central hotels stop at two.

A bathtub comes up twice, which in a building of this vintage is worth confirming at booking if it matters to you.

Facilities — a restaurant, and two lifts

The facility list is short: a restaurant, and nothing else. No gym, no rooftop, no lounge.

But the detail guests actually repeat is the lift, and it is a Rome-specific one. Central Roman hotels are mostly floors carved out of old palazzi, which means one small lift shared by every departing guest at eleven in the morning. Two guests here note there are two of them, unprompted.

Breakfast is raised in six of twelve reviews, more than once alongside the lifts in the same sentence — the two things that decide whether a morning runs smoothly.

If you want a hotel to spend time in, this is not it. If the hotel is where the luggage lives between long days out, it is arranged for exactly that.

Where it sits among the seven

8.7 from 7,874 reviews puts it sixth of seven on score, and that is worth stating plainly. The sample is deep, so this is a settled number rather than a wobble. Cleanliness is the strongest positive pattern — seven of twelve reviews — followed by staff and breakfast.

What it does not have is facilities. A restaurant, and that is the list. No gym, no rooftop, no lounge. If you want a hotel to spend time inside, iQ Hotel Roma and THE INDEPENDENT HOTEL in the same area are built for it. If the hotel is where the luggage lives between long days out, this one is arranged for that.

We have not stayed here. These are patterns across the guest reviews on the booking page, read on the date below.

Before you book

• 108 rooms, four stars. Doubles, twins and quads are listed — the quad is the reason parties of four end up here
• Check-in 14:00, check-out 12:00 — the noon check-out is the joint latest of the seven, and worth weighing against Camplus Roma Centro’s 10:30 in the same area
• City tax is charged at check-out and rises with the star rating. It is not in the price you booked (the detail is on the Italy page)

The seven are set side by side in hotels near Roma Termini; the six areas in where to stay in Rome.