In a previous post, I discussed my experience in 2006 with hostels in Italy, France and England. Once again, we’re planning a trip for late February, and I thought I’d share how we saved a few dollars, without compromising the experience.
The planning process (well, after deciding on Rome, and choosing a date), started with booking the flight. Expedia.ca is my favourite way of finding and booking a flight. They have all the major airlines, and allow you to easily compare prices, connections, and flight duration. I searched flights with a few of Expedia’s competitors, and none of them could match the prices. Also, Expedia includes all fees and taxes in the listed prices; many airline search tools only list the base price.
It’s also worthwhile mentioning that it’s usually best to book airline tickets early. Airlines have advanced pricing systems, and will increase prices as departure dates approach. (Because last minute travelers are usually doing so out of need, and therefore will accept the higher price, while forward planners have the luxury of shopping around, or changing departure dates.) So while there’s fun and excitement in a spontaneous vacation, you’ll save by booking your flight a few months to a year in advance.
When booking a flight with Expedia, it’s easy to book a hotel at the same time. You even save when doing so. But there are definitely better offers elsewhere.
For Rome, Expedia’s hotel selection is severely lacking. They’re either outside the city centre, or too expensive (or both). I don’t need a 4- or 5-star hotel. I want something clean and quiet, and above all, very central.
Once again, I turn to Hostelworld. For finding central accommodations, they have a great “Show on map” feature in their search. At first, I was very disappointed that Hostelworld turned up very little in the historical area of Rome. The bulk of the hostels were located near the train station, but far from the Vatican and the city centre.
But the default Hostelworld search only includes hostels and campsites. Add hotels to the search, and central Rome fills right up. That’s how we found, and settled on Domus Ester. At €30 per person per night for a double room with ensuite, it’s more expensive than most hostels, but the central location (in my opinion) is worth it. It gets great reviews, and is one of the few budget hotels in Rome that gets booked solid months in advance.
(We learned about a great Hostelworld feature when making this booking. For a couple dollars, they offer “Cancellation Protection”. If you have to cancel a reservation, they will credit your deposit to a future Hostelworld reservation. Without cancellation protection, the 10% deposit is nonrefundable.)
We get more and more excited for Rome as February approaches… I’ll post our actual experience with Domus Ester later in March.
Tags: budget hotels, expedia, hostels, hostelworld, italy, rome, traveling
March 25th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I await the follow up to this post with interest as I’ve booked into Domus Ester for later this year. It’s always hard to get a complete picture from some of the shorter reviews on sites about the place. But, I figure if the largest con that a number of people could come up with was that it’s hard to find, it can’t be that bad… or can it?
Hope you had a good time in Rome!
March 25th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Hi Dan,
Sorry for the delay…
I’m happy to say that Domus Ester was a very pleasant experience.
The “hard to find” warnings were well warranted. The hotel is on the 3rd floor of an apartment building, so the only indication on the outside is a business card next to the door. Also, it’s located on a small street that is not listed on all maps of Rome. But as long as you mark the location on a map before arriving in Rome (search the address on Google Maps and print it out), you’ll be fine!
Our room was a good size and very clean. It included a small TV (for catching the weather or watching MTV Europe in the morning), and a heater.
Breakfast is served in your room between 7:30 and 10:00 in the morning. They’ll ask you when you want it delivered, and what you would like. It was more than enough to get us going until lunch. (If you ever want to get groceries and eat in, just ask for dishes/cutlery at the front desk.)
If you’re traveling with a laptop, the hotel offers free wireless internet. Just ask at the front desk for the password.
Finally, you can’t beat the central location of Domus Ester. Everybody’s definition of walking distance is different, but for us, we could easily walk to nearly all of Rome’s attractions. Including
Campo de’ Fiori, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Coliseum and the Roman Forum.
So I have no hesitation in recommending Domus Ester. I would definitely return in the future.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Matthew,
Thanks for the quick update! It all sounds perfectly reasonable and certainly helps put my mind at ease.
Having read all the comments about how hard it was to find I was already intending to go armed with printed maps and phone numbers. After reading your comments, I might throw emergency supplies and a compass into the mix, too.
In the meantime, I shall stop worrying about my accommodation and go back to reading about all the best places to go and worrying about the exchange rate!
Thanks again.