Hotel Raffaello, Sure Hotel Collection by Best Western

The rooms are clean and the bed very comfortable. The staff are friendly and helpful. The hotel is located within easy walking distance of most point of interest. The near by restaurants and eateries provide a good selection at reasonable prices.

BEWARE! €2000+ stolen and moldy rooms TL; DR: Backpack containing over €2000 of personal items was stolen in the hotel’s luggage hold - with no CCTV. Manager was threatening. And their ‘king’ room is full of mold. Stay at your own risk. The story of a 2-night Roman trip gone wrong thanks to Hotel Raffaello and their negligent staff and threatening manager, Barbara. It was a cold Sunday morning when my partner and I arrived at Hotel Raffaello with only our backpacks in hand. Upon arrival, we were told by the hotel receptionist that our room would be ready at 2pm, and insisted we leave our luggage in the hotel luggage hold. He ensured our backpacks would be looked after as he placed them next to the front desk in the lobby alongside other guest’s luggage; and told us to return after 2pm. Upon a 5pm return to retrieve room keys, a different hotel receptionist told us we were ‘lucky’ to have gotten the only room on the first floor with a balcony and that our backpacks had been taken to our room - Room 106. We entered the room with quite a surprise: a hole in the wall, a broken bidet, mold on the ceiling, two uneven mattresses put together to make a king bed.. and a backpack which was not ours. My partner’s branded backpack containing a work laptop and warm winter apparel had been stolen and swapped with one containing water and fruit.. while in the hotel’s luggage hold, under the responsibility and security of Hotel Raffaello. We immediately brought this to the hotel receptionist’s attention who only kept stating ‘this has never happened before’ and there is ‘no CCTV’. After some time of hesitation on his end and our persistence to call the police, he finally agreed. The last thing on our minds was the condition of the room we were staying in. We needed this backpack. We were advised by the police to go to the police station the following day which took 6 hours to obtain a police report to give to Hotel Raffaello. At this time, the manager was no longer on shift. Upon check-out the following morning is when we met Barbara, the hotel manager, who lacked interest in finding a solution to our backpack being stolen under their watch. My partner and I insisted that the least Hotel Raffaello, a partner of Best Western (a reputable hotel chain), could have done is comped our short 2-night stay given the stolen backpack situation and condition of the room. To our surprise, Barbara was unaccommodating by only offering a €23 discount, and threatening. Barbara stated that she would not file the hotel insurance claim or discuss the situation further unless payment was immediately received. We felt our safety was being compromised even more than it already had been with our personal items being stolen due to Hotel Raffaello’s team’s negligence. There was no immediate solution, despite Barbara and her team ‘being responsible for any failure that occurs during [our] stay, in the event that the cause is due to a default by [them] or [their] employees’ (Terms & Conditions, Best Western Italy). While we wait to see if/when the hotel insurance claim is made (Barbara said we would be updated immediately, and we have yet to be), we hope to warn future travelers to think twice about staying at Hotel Raffaello. If you would like to have your personal items stolen, no sense of security, mold in your room, and to be treated disrespectfully, this is the hotel for you. But for us, it’s clear that we will no longer be guests of Best Western. Note: This review is written by world travelers who stay in different cities and forms of accommodation based on decent reviews and reputability.