Hotel Pronto - www.hotelpronto.com

I booked Hotel Esquilino in central Rome through HotelPronto (via Trivago) on 14/02/13 and severely let down by HotelPronto which also operates under the names “Eclusively Hotels” and “TotalStay”.

We arrived at the hotel 23.30 to find it boarded up for renovation; I called HotelPronto to be told a room had been reserved for us at Hotel Giotto. It was 40 minutes away and we had to pay a 20 euro taxi fare to get there !

HotelPronto told us they’d emailed to tell us about the change; however, when we got to the Hotel Giotto, they said they didn’t have a room…the error was due to HotelPronto sending the booking request to the wrong email address and assuming the room was booked !

It is now 00.20 and we are standing in a hotel reception without a room. I protested to HotelPronto that I didn’t want to be at this hotel but wanted to be in central Rome…they said there were no rooms available.

However, when we were in central Rome we had to ask for help from another hotel…they had rooms available so HotelPronto were obviously not telling the truth !

So it’s now 00.45, the receptionist did his very best to sort the problem (even though it wasn’t his error) and all that HotelPronto did was make the situation worse as they couldn’t find a suitable card to make the payment !

At no point, did Hotel Pronto make any offer to pay for food or drink despite them knowing that we had not eaten for many hours;

Eventually, at 01.45, we left Hotel Giotto to walk a further 15 minutes to the Hotel Beethoven, with our suitcases, along a main road, through a very run down, dirty and noisy suburb of Rome.

On top of that, we were told that we would have to take the money to pay the hotel for the room…talk about DIY ! I told HotelPronto to keep us updated the following day.

We passed a group of youths gathered outside a bar; as we approached, with our cases, their conversation stopped and they all turned to look at us as if viewing their prey. I did not feel safe.

When we got to our room at the Hotel Beethoven, we were told there was no water so, having travelled for many hours, we couldn’t have a shower…even a wash or even flush the toilet !

We went to bed at 3.30am, tired, dirty and hungry...not a very good state of affairs having booked a hotel with Hotel Pronto !

The next day, there was no contact from HotelPronto, instead, the receptionist told us that we couldn’t stay at the Hotel Beethoven anymore and would have to go back to the Hotel Giotto !

So, off we walked (again !) to the Hotel Giotto but when we got there, the room wasn’t available so we still couldn’t have a wash or shower.

When we did get into the room, it was small, although clean but located right opposite a late bar which was not good and was the icing on the cake !

To get into Rome, we had to walk 15 minutes (along a busy and dangerous main road) to get to the Metro and then there was a 20 minute journey.

HotelPronto say (in the very small print of their terms and conditions) that all complaints must be registered within 7 days of getting home. I did this and afforded them a 7 day period to reply; to date, they have not bothered to reply save to acknowledge receipt of my complaint.

I have also made Trivago aware of how one of their “partners” is behaving and they have asked me to keep them updated.

I would recommend you don’t book through HotelPronto…it’s a joke and it ruined our stay in Rome.