The catch at Palazzo Manfredi
Four things stand between the photograph and the stay. None of them is hidden, and none of them is a reason not to book it for what it does well, but every one of them has cost someone a night they expected to be different.
On our shortlists
- Best design hotels in RomeA Matteo Thun travertine residence and a shower facing the Colosseum
- Best central hotels in RomeBeside the Ludus Magnus, five minutes from Metro lines B and C
- Best hotels with a view in RomeThe Colosseum from the Master Room window and the rooftop breakfast
- Best hotels for food and drink in RomeAroma, one MICHELIN star on a roof facing the Colosseum
Only the Master Room and the suites see the Colosseum
The palazzo sells three room categories and two of them do not face the amphitheatre at all. The Prestige, the entry room, looks into the inner courtyard; the Executive looks the other way, up the slope of the Colle Oppio park. Only the Master, on the second and third floors, has the Colosseum and the Ludus Magnus in the window, with a shower pointed at them. For 9 to 11 February 2027, the courtyard-facing Prestige was 493 euros a night and the Master 722, both non-refundable with breakfast: 229 euros a night for the view the hotel is photographed for.
The rooms also get less than the suites do. Every rate includes breakfast on the roof, but the hotel lists a one-way airport transfer and a 50 euro food and drink credit per stay for the suites alone, and the Master gets neither; check what your rate includes.
What to do. Book a Master Room or a suite. A Colosseum photograph beside a Prestige rate is showing you somebody else's room.
The entry rooms are 25 square metres, and value is the weakest score
Prestige and Master are both 25 square metres; the Executive is 27. At the February rates above that is roughly 20 euros a square metre a night before you have paid for the view. The building is a small 17th-century palazzo of four levels, about 18 metres by 22 on the ground, so there is no floor area to give away. Guests rate the location and the service well above the value, and the gap between them is this paragraph.
What to do. Decide that you are paying for a window and a rooftop, not for space. If you want room to spread out at this price, the suites start at 60 square metres.
Via Labicana is loud, and the walls are thin
The address is a main road between the Colosseum and San Giovanni. Buses, tram 3 and scooters run along it until late, taxis circle the amphitheatre, and the queue for the roof forms at the front door. Guests report traffic noise and rooms that do not keep it out, and after value, sleep quality is what they rate lowest. It is the kind of thing that is fine at nine in the evening and not fine at two in the morning.
What to do. Ask for the third floor, the higher of the two the Master category occupies, and pack earplugs. A courtyard-facing Prestige is quieter and has no view, which is the whole trade.
No spa, no pool, and the bar charges guests to get in
The hotel has no spa, no pool and no wellness page. The only gym it mentions is the mini gym inside the Colosseo Suite. What it has instead is a starred restaurant and a cocktail bar, and both bring non-residents through the same front door every evening.
The Court is not a residents' perk. Its own page and its printed drink list make a minimum of two creations a head a condition of entry, 60 euros on the August 2026 list and 55 on the website, with no exemption published for hotel guests, and under-18s are not admitted.
What to do. Treat The Court as a bar you happen to be able to walk to. The terrace over the Ludus Magnus is yours without a minimum in the morning, because breakfast up there is included on every rate.
Who should skip it
Light sleepers, anyone travelling with very young children, and anyone whose Rome includes a pool or a spa afternoon. Also anyone booking the entry room for the view, because it does not have one, and that is the most expensive mistake on this page.
Who should book it anyway
Anyone for whom the Colosseum in the window is the reason for the trip. Nothing else in Rome frames it from a shower, and breakfast on the roof is included whatever you paid. Book a Master or a suite, take the third floor, and everything above is something you already decided was worth it.
The catch elsewhere in Rome
- Orient Express La MinervaPigna
The view is not in the entry rooms, and it is not in the first upgrade either. The hotel's own words put the Pantheon or Piazza della Minerva in five of its fourteen categories, plus some but not all Deluxe Rooms. The Junior Suite with View is described by the hotel as a view over Rome, and the cheapest category the hotel itself says faces the Pantheon is the Stendhal Suite, at 3,842 euros against 1,105 for a Classic on a January 2027 night.
- Bvlgari Hotel RomaCampo Marzio
January and February open near 2,000 euros a night for the 33 square metre entry room, and May and August pass 2,700.
- ROMEO RomaCampo Marzio
Il Ristorante opens Tuesday to Saturday for dinner only and La Terrazza Thursday to Sunday, so a Monday or Wednesday arrival gets one or neither.
- Six Senses RomeCentro Storico
The bathhouse that justifies the rate admits nobody under 16, so it is closed to you if you are travelling with children, and non-residents buy in at EUR 85 for 75 minutes, which is why it is rarely yours alone.
- Eitch Borromini Palazzo PamphiljPiazza Navona
Most rooms look at the cloister or the side lanes, not the square. The hotel's own site says so, and only the categories sold as City View face Piazza Navona. A midweek January 2027 night ran about 460 euros for a Deluxe Suite and about 730 for the Deluxe Suite with View, before city tax, and the two are not the same room, since the view category is sold in a larger size band.
- Rhinoceros RomaVelabro
No spa, no pool, no gym and no lobby to sit in. The rate is sold as bed and breakfast, but breakfast is groceries restocked in your kitchen rather than a room you go down to, and guests who expected a five-star breakfast service say so.
- The Inn at the Roman ForumMonti
What is sold as one hotel is seven separately licensed units at five addresses on two streets, Via degli Ibernesi 8, 23, 30 and 32 and Via Baccina 4, under three different companies, and the hotel's own website sells four of them as separate collections. The Autograph collection is at Via degli Ibernesi 23, licensed as a holiday apartment to a different company, and is priced the same as the main-house Elegant rooms. Nothing states that guests in the outlying units get the same round-the-clock access to the crypt, so ask.
- Donna Camilla SavelliTrastevere
The hotel's own rooms page says room assignment is random in the Executive, Deluxe and Chiostro Prestige categories, which is the middle of the ladder. The room in the photographs is not the room you are promised.
- Hotel San AnselmoAventino
The rooms are small and the hotel publishes the figures itself: Economy 14 square metres, Double Budget 15, Twin and Double 16, Deluxe 20. Book on the square metres, not on the category name.
Questions people ask
Good questions about Palazzo Manfredi
What are the downsides of Palazzo Manfredi?
Four things stand between the photograph and the stay. None of them is hidden, and none of them is a reason not to book it for what it does well, but every one of them has cost someone a night they expected to be different. Only the Master Room and the suites see the Colosseum The entry rooms are 25 square metres, and value is the weakest score Via Labicana is loud, and the walls are thin No spa, no pool, and the bar charges guests to get in
Who should not book Palazzo Manfredi?
Light sleepers, anyone travelling with very young children, and anyone whose Rome includes a pool or a spa afternoon. Also anyone booking the entry room for the view, because it does not have one, and that is the most expensive mistake on this page.
Our verdict
Book it for one thing: the amphitheatre about 190 metres west, framed from a bedroom window, a shower and a rooftop table, in a house of 24 rooms and suites that does breakfast up there for everyone. Pay for a Master Room or a suite, or the view is not yours.
Last checked: September 2026