Apollo Boutique Hotel

Very spacious and comfortable room. Convenient breakfast/restaurant in the hotel with really good food. The hotel provides all the essentials in your room and they keep your luggage safe in case you need to checkout but want to spend some more time around the city. The staff was really friendly and helpful!

Kiva pieni hotelli rauhallisella alueella. Metroasema lähellä, joten kulkeminen vaivatonta. Ystävällinen henkilökunta.

I booked Apollo Boutique Hotel a month in advance for a 3-night stay in Rome (May 8–11), paying nearly €1,000. I'm writing this detailed review so other travelers can make an informed choice — what happened to me was avoidable, and the way it was handled was worse than the original problem.

** What went wrong **

On the day of check-in, around 1pm — just hours before my arrival — the hotel messaged me on WhatsApp claiming a "plumbing issue" had made my room uninhabitable. Their proposed "solution":

- A move to a "replacement" property they had chosen
- A €45 refund for the breakfasts I'd no longer receive
- A complimentary dinner at their restaurant

I went to see the replacement before deciding anything. It was not a comparable hotel. It was a guesthouse with a 3.1 Google rating, visibly run-down, with an active construction site directly across the street. I didn't sleep that night.

So: boutique-hotel prices, guesthouse accommodation, and a €45 breakfast refund as "compensation."

** Trying to resolve it **

The next day I returned to Apollo and asked for a refund of 2 out of 3 nights — not a full refund, since they had technically arranged alternate lodging. The conversation was difficult. The manager's framing was that I should be grateful, because "finding last-minute accommodation in Rome's high season isn't easy." Their failure to honor my booking was reframed as a favor they'd done me.

After a long back-and-forth, they agreed to refund €500 (half the total booking). I accepted to end the conversation.

Where it became something worse
They handed me €300 in cash on the spot, and told me the remaining €200 would be paid two days later — the reasoning given was that the €200 "represented the third night, which hadn't happened yet." The logic didn't hold up, but I wanted to leave.
Before walking out, I asked them to sign a written agreement for the outstanding €200. They did.

It has now been two weeks. The €200 has not been paid. My follow-up messages have gone unanswered.

** Summary **

I've traveled to over 20 countries and stayed in a wide range of properties. This is the worst hotel experience I've had — not because of the original plumbing issue (which can happen anywhere), but because of everything that came after it:

- A "replacement" that was a serious downgrade, presented as an equivalent stay
- A manager who treated a reasonable partial-refund request as an imposition
- A signed refund agreement that has not been honored

Would I recommend it? No. There are hundreds of well-run hotels in Rome at every price point. Choose one of them.

A note to fellow travelers: if a hotel ever does this to you — relocates you last minute to a clearly downgraded property — don't accept anything verbally. Get every commitment in writing before you leave the front desk, and don't accept partial payment with promises of "the rest later." In my case, even a signed agreement wasn't enough.

The staff was extremely helpful and kind. The location is perfect as it is close to the metro station but in a quiet area to sleep well during the night in the comfortable bed. The breakfast was made to order, not just coffee and pastries.

Staff molto cordiale e disponibile. Struttura pulita e bella camera spaziosa

Everything

Super przyjazna obsługa

camera molto pulita, comoda e funzionale. hotel in una zona veramente sicura e tranquilla. in 15/20 min a piedi arrivi in centro o al vaticano.

Mooie kamers, lekker ontbijt en supervriendelijk personeel. Dank Annalisa, Misheue en Ginevra voor al jullie goede zorgen!

staff is very nice and attentive
great location

We had five nights at this lovely hotel. We were made very welcome from the minute we stepped through the door. The air conditioned room was clean, comfortable and very quiet. Excellent daily house keeping every day.

The staff were really friendly and very helpful. A very good breakfast was served in the attached Dafne Gardens Cafe and we were very well looked after by the wonderful staff. We also ate in the cafe a couple of times and the food was very good with a vast range of wines available, which we were guided through by the knowledgeable staff.

Easy to get to from Termini train station by metro to Lepanto and a short walk from there. We found it easy to access all of the attractions in Rome either by walking, metro or bus.

A special thank you to the staff that looked after us, Melissa, Stephan, Irene, Edwardo, Frankie and Raj!

We would definitely stay here again!

Posizione top ! Colazione ok staff gentile

Posizione eccellente vicino alla fermata metro Lepanto e al Tribunale civile con possibilità di raggiungere il centro in tre sole fermate.
Ottimo rapporto qualità prezzo.
Camera confortevole e nel contempo funzionale.
Possibilità di cenare nel bistrot sottostante facente parte della medesima struttura.

The entire stay was ruined by the manager, who is a really really bad person. I will explain why. Me and my wife (she is 6 months pregnant) arrived at the hotel to take a shower, after a long day on the road. When she was in the shower, washing her hair, the hot water stopped 😐 I quickly went downstairs to ask the reception to fix the problem and explained the situation, that my wife can’t risk to stay with the hair wet in the shower for too long, waiting for the hot water to come back, because she is expecting a baby. The receptionist said that the problem will be fixed immediately. I mention that the temperature outside was around 15 degrees and in the room around 20, at that time (~21:00). Because the room temperature was not that comfortable to us, we powered on the air conditioner, which was releasing small pieces of black dirt (it looked like mold). Of course that hot water the problem was not solved as mentioned by the receptiomist and my wife spent around 15 minutes freezing in the shower. Luckily for us, there was a kettle in the room and we used it to boil water in order for my wife to rinse the shampoo out of her hair. After almost 40 minutes, the hot water problem was still not solved.
I have to mention that all the staff is very friendly, but the person whom the owners of this hotel put in charge as a manager is doing a terrible job here. We invited this asian person in the room to show the small pieces of mold coming from the air conditioner and also explained the situation with the hot water, pointing out that my wife is pregnant and she can’t risk her and the baby’s health during this period. We asked for a different room, a room with cleaned air conditioner and functional hot water. His exact response was: ‘YOU CAN LEAVE, IF YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY’. I mention that we didn’t know that this person was the manager, at that time. After this response, we asked for the manager to come and HE WAS VERY PROUD TO SAY THAT HE IS MANAGER. What kind of person working in hospitality has this behaviour? And more to that, a manager should give this type of responses when asked to solve a problem? We were terrified by this answer and promised that will do something about that. I hope that everything I write here will get to the italian owners of this place and do something about it, because I know that italians in general are very kind people and also they are really good when comes to hospitality.
We also found some dust in the room and behind the headboard. Not healthy at all!
Another serious problem is the smell from the restaurant kitchen, which enters the room.
The breakfast was good though, but I recommend the hotel to spray the plants in the restaurant, because there are many fruit flies around and they come over the food while eating.
Again, the staff is really nice, especially the girl with bangs, she’s a really hard worker and nice person.
I know that it is challenging to find good employees, but the management of this hotel should be changed, at least to maintain some standards.