Hotel Contilia

On Oct 27, 2023, we arrived at Hotel Contilia in Rome, at about 1:30 PM, after an overnight flight from Toronto. We had made a booking for three nights via Expedia.ca, for a total fee of €766. We were told by the man at reception that Expedia had sent them an e-mail at 7 am Rome time informing them that our credit card on the booking had been declined, & our booking was cancelled. However, they had ONE room left for the exact time period & it was an upgraded room which would cost us €650 per night or €1950 for the 3 nights. We said that we didn’t think we were being told the truth & the hotel staff threatened to call the police. Eventually, he offered us a special “discounted” price of €1350 for the three nights, approximately double the booking price. In our situation we felt we had no choice but to pay the €1350 to get a room. The staff at first wanted us to pay cash but eventually accepted our credit card, as did our credit card company. Hotel Contilia has a 7.4/10 rating on Expedia.ca; but when we returned home & searched the reviews back to 2019, the same scam was pulled several times with bookings made through booking.com, Expedia & other sites. Upon returning to Toronto, we reported the complaint to Expedia, foolishly expecting some meaningful help from the booking agency. They confirmed that Expedia had not send an e-mail at 7 am Rome time informing Hotel Contilia that our credit card on the booking had been declined, so Hotel Contilia was not truthful. We informed Expedia of the reviews where the same scam was reported by Hotel Contilia customers. Expedia sent back an email reporting that they had requested the difference in funds between our booking fee and the fee paid to be returned to us. Hotel Contilia stated that it was “against policy” and there would be no refund. As far as Expedia was concerned, this was the end of the issue, even though they had the whole detailed story, and were made aware of the fact that Hotel Contila was not always honest. As of Nov 16, Expedia.ca is happily taking new bookings for Hotel Contilia. I expect they got their commission. It appears that Expedia does not discourage low ethical standards. Don’t book with Expedia.ca, and don’t book Hotel Contilia in Rome. We travel frequently, as do many of our friends. We’ve told them as well as our travel agent of our experience.

My husband and I stayed here for three nights with our cat in a room with a balcony. It was a last minute booking of the first available hotel that was pet friendly and we were very pleasently surprised. The hotel is very nice, clean, with a simple but stylish room design, for a three star hotel it is more than we thought it would be. The bathroom was nice and clean, and the balcony was charming. There was an overall nice feeling to the room. We were particularly happy that the hotel is pet friendly as we travelled with out cat and the staff was very mindful not to enter our room to clean while we were away. Breakfast options were limited but there was good coffee, which is really all you need to get you out the door and then you are in Rome and you can eat anything you want. It is also very close to a bus stop which makes it easy to come back after a long touristic walk around the city.