eethan

Update on my stay at the Bolivar last month. The hotel is old, 2.5*. I woke up in the morning to find a few small bugs coming out of cracks next to the bath. Breakfast includes some scrambled eggs, cold cuts, and pastries. The place is worth the points, but don't expect anything special.

There was an old guy (Marco?) at the front desk who spoke especially poor English. I asked him for restaurant recc and he pulled out a restaurant business card and wrote his name on them. I asked him for some other reccs, to places he would go himself. Lo and behold, he pulls out more restaurant biz cards and patiently writes his name on each one. Don't listen to him! I thought this was funny and amateurish--I've never seen anything like this at better hotels. Whoever stays here next time should explore the full extent of Marco's pimping services.

If you do find yourself with an early morning flight, stay at the Choice hotel FCO airport. The place is brand new and kind of like a Hyatt Place.

yuel

Totally agree but no found no bugs, for the points and location well worth 8,000

honu

I wasn't sure if I should have started a new thread or resurrect this older one, so mods, feel free to move this post around.

I read all the Bolivar's reviews (I think), but there is nothing about the Clarion Principessa Isabella. Has anybody been there?

Looking on the map, it seems that the Bolivar would be more convenient to most tourist spots, but I get the impression that the Clarion might be newer, perhaps nicer? Is it so much better than the Bolivar that it makes it worth being farther away?

rove312

I've stayed at that Clarion but not at the others, so I can't compare, but... I wouldn't call it a superior-class hotel. It was clean, with a nice breakfast spread; the double room on points was on the small side. I was brave enough to drive to a downtown rental return at the Excelsior, and dropped my wife off at the Clarion on the way; the curiosity of the setup is that it doesn't have a door facing the street: there's a walking ramp down where one turns around and enters a door facing away from the street, so no one to see her needing help with the bags.

bigbuy

I have stayed at the Bolivar @8k per night. It is in a great location. The rooms can be poor to great as most are different. bottom line,,,,,if you are ok staying at 2-3 star property in the USA, you will be fine at the Bolivar. If you liked to be fawned over and have someone carry your bags, you may want to reconsider. I stayed 4 days in Rome, 2 at the Bolivar and 2 at the Waldorf Astoria. They are worlds apart, but I liked them both,,, for different reasons of course.

sailingman22

We stayed at the Bolivar 1 1/2 years ago and used 8,000 Choice points per night. There are multiple restaurant options within 15 minutes walk of the hotel and a bus stop near the corner of the hotel entrance. The Bolivar is better than the average hotel in the US for 8,000 points and you are in Rome. We used points for 11 days during our trip in Europe and the cost was ZERO. We figured that we saved around $2,000.

lwildernorva

There's an excellent restaurant directly across the courtyard from the entrance to the Bolivar, Ristorante Santa Cristina al Quirinale. When I've eaten there, the last time being 2013, they've had a significant minimum purchase for the use of a credit card so check before you go in and order or carry lots of euros. Family run, great food, plenty of Italians eating there, which I consider a good sign given that the restaurant does not face Via Nazionale. Also, definitely do the breakfast at the Bolivar in the morning--enclosed rooftop room with windows on three sides and views across the rooftops of Rome. Plenty of good food options although I don't remember cooked eggs being among them.

The rooms at the Bolivar are basic and simple. You won't want to spend much time in them, and I'd rate the rooms at the Principessa Isabella as superior, but you're in Rome, not far from the Colosseum and other sights, so you probably won't care.

bigbuy

+1^ on that restaurant. A real gem.

honu

Thanks for all the advice. I haven't decided yet which of the hotels I will be staying in, but I definitely don't expect a Park Hyatt. I'm perfectly content with a clean and quiet room, and I don't need to be fawned over - in fact I find that mildly embarrassing and uncomfortable.

lwildernorva

If you're interested in Choice properties, that's the right perspective to have. I've generally asked myself: am I going to a place or to a hotel? The answer is usually the former; some bloggers seem to answer in the reverse, one of the reasons Choice's rewards program doesn't get a lot of focus.

I'm happy with that.

Firewind

+1

Plus, with Choice, I get to go to more places. ^

mster

Totally. I've used these points in Scandinavia and Rome during peak season when room rates are high enough that I might not have been able to visit otherwise. The breakfast spreads at the Choice properties in Rome are universally awful, but the Clarions in Scandinavia do a kickass smorgasbord

honu

Well, it's not fair to compare an Italian brekkie to a Scandinavian one... Cappuccino and pastry vs smorgasbord? Compared to other mid-range Italian hotels, the spreads at the Bolivar and Principessa Isabella are decent IMHO (and almost identical as both properties are owned/managed by the same group).

So I ended up staying at both hotels and these are my impressions:

1) location. The Bolivar probably wins here. You're a 15-30 min walk from much of ancient Rome and right in the middle of the city center.
Principessa Isabella is farther out, although by no means too far, in the embassies area, about 3 blocks from the Marriott Flora and a 10 min walk to Villa Borghese.
2) rooms. YMMV, but we liked our room at the P Isabella much better. Possibly better sound insulation (double-pane windows), larger, etc.
One negative of both properties: very hard beds, but that must be due to the Italian belief that hard mattresses are better for you. Good for them, but I woke up very frequently.
3) service. Overall, people at the Bolivar seemed more harried. No complaints, but we liked the P. Isabella slightly better in this regard. They specified that they don't get too many foreign tourists and they tend to have more of an Italian business clientele.
4) free wifi in both hotels and painfully slow, except in the middle of the night. The Bolivar was actually a bit worse, but I also suspect that it might depend on the position of the actual room. At the P. Isabella, the best location for wifi was in the bathroom...

So, if you've never been to Rome, or if you prefer avoiding public transport, the Bolivar is the better option. If, on the other hand, you know Rome a bit and are comfortable using public transport (excellent, especially the buses!), then the P. Isabella is slightly nicer. Personally, I preferred starting the day with a mellow walk in Villa Borghese after breakfast, instead of jumping into the thick of all the tourist action, but of course that may not be everyone's cup of tea.

eccentricFool

They seem to have increased the required points to 10000 for Bolivar. Or, is there some trick to see the 8000 rate?

sdsearch

The "trick" is to wait.

(1) Choice divides the year into several multi-month stretches (roughly quarters, but don't necessarily align with conventional calendar quarters exactly), and each multi-month stretch can have a different number of points required per night.

The old site used to show a calendar of the current and next one or two multi-month stretches on each hotel's main page. The new site doesn't yet (last I heard).

(2) Choice sometimes puts hotels "on sale" in terms of redemption. That's even less predictable, though.

For both reasons, a hotel can be at 8000 points some of the time and at higher redemption rates at other times, and go back and forth.