Rome: VRBO Apartment Rental Review

When we were in Rome, we rented an apartment through VRBO. Our apartment was located on Via Pierluigi da Palestrina in Rome. Since we were traveling as a family, we rented a four bedroom apartment. The apartment could have been fantastic as it was close to the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Vatican as well as plenty of shops and restaurants but there were far too many issues with the apartment.

The Good

The apartment was very large and had plenty of room and beds to sleep up to 6 people. It had a kitchen, dining area, family room, and 3 bedrooms with the family room having a sofa bed (4th bedroom). It was located near the Italian Supreme Court, Castel Sant Angelo and the Vatican. Below are some views of the courtyard from the apartment.

The Bad

Despite the great location and size of the apartment, that’s about where the good ended. Here is a list of issues with the apartment. First, there was barely any hot water. This apartment uses a tank-less water heater system and it rarely worked. There was a weird combination of having to open the sink faucet to drip then you might get hot water out of the shower. If that were the only problem it wouldn’t have been that bad but it wasn’t. The second problem with the shower was the water pressure which provided but a trickle of water from the apartment. The third problem with the shower room was mold in the corner of the bathroom. The fourth problem with the shower was how tiny it was and there was no shelves for soap or shampoo or much of anything else, fairly primitive even for European standards.

Secondly, one of the AC units (pictured below) was not working. It was well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit while we were in Rome the last week of July and not having AC was brutal. We managed by cranking up the other AC units and strategically placing fans to circulate as much cool air as possible.

The furniture in the apartment was the cheapest creakiest stuff possible. The beds all creaked at the smallest movement and the mattresses were fairly thin and offered very little padding.

The Ugly

We were charged a 170 euro cleaning fee upon arrival which needed to be paid in cash. We’re not sure what the cleaning fee was for because the floors in the apartment were dirty. Clearly it wasn’t mopped prior to our arrival as there was dirt everywhere. The picture below is of the outside shutters, does this look clean to you?

It was great to have a full kitchen with gas stove, fridge and small dining table however the pots and pans provided did not have any lids so we had splatter everywhere anytime we cooked something. When I say pots and pans I really mean a small pot and a wok that was provided to cook.

Epilogue

With all the issues many people are having with VRBO and AirBnB and the ones we’ve experienced, it’s unlikely we will use those services again. I won’t say NEVER because the reality is that some cities simply don’t have enough hotel rooms or offer rooms large enough for more than 2 or 3 people much less kitchens but we will definitely use hotels more frequently over VRBO & AirBnB.

The cost of this ‘fabulous’ apartment was about €400 ($438)/night which was still cheaper than getting two hotel rooms during the prime summer vacation month in Rome.