84 Reviews
Bio Hotel Raphael - Relais & Châteaux
Navona Rome|0.14km from Il Cantuccio al Senato
We're still trying to reconcile the fact that this hotel is a Relais & Chateaux property because the experience was so extremely mediocre. We've stayed in properties around the world and have never encountered such a three-star property. The best way to characterize it is if a Radisson Blu tried to be a luxury hotel. But rather than provide impressions, I'll just share some specifics: Pros: - good central location - quiet Cons: - politely, indifferent service: before we came, we asked them about the parking situation because we were arriving in a car. They gave us two options, self-park a little ways a way or the hotel could park it for us. We asked the hotel to park it, but they did not warn us that they are on a one way street that is difficult to navigate, so we ended up going around in circles (Google Maps tried to lead us down an alley that was half the width of a standard car). When I got out of the car to ask, the front desk was astonishingly indifferent, also pointing out that the only way to arrive at the hotel was to drive through a street that was prohibited for non-locals (which is different than the response we got via email). - the room: tiny and felt like a radisson blu. there is no coffee machine in the room, only a cheap hotpot and teabags. (not a big deal but this should be standard issue at this level). capsule coffee is available by the front desk. - shampoo and soap are in cheap plastic dispensers that are attached to the bathroom walls. You squeeze the bottle to get some. The quality of both were unremarkable. The shampoo and conditioner. I understand that small bottles are wasteful. However, at this level, there are better ways to present this. They might take a lesson from Aman properties, who puts branded products in very nice dispensers. - bathtub is very narrow and the ”rain forest” shower on one end is attached so far to the edge that you have to stand partly on the sloped edge to fully stand under the water. - box of tissues was empty except for a couple tissues stuffed in at the top (which shows that the cleaning person knew it was empty) - the bathroom was so small that the towel holder was right next to the shower head inside the glass enclosure. - the bed/mattress: the hotel has the weirdest feature ever, which is that it has an outdated adjustable feature that ”lets” you move the head, foot and middle of the mattress. It's a feature that no one looks for in a hotel bed, and because the technology is so old, it's not great. Long story short, the mattress actually never laid exactly flat, so I had the most uncomfortable sleep. The foot of the bed was a little raised, so it felt like the middle of my body was in a hole. On top of that, the bed had an extremely soft mattress pad (as if you're sleeping on a bunch of comforters). If you like a firm bed, this is a non-starter. The only explanation for this hotel still being a Relais & Chateaux is that they have not done an inspection in a long time
498 Reviews