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Do NOT stay at Hotel Sonya in Rome

Our stay at this hotel started off well enough and we were happy with the room and the location. On our second night, both of our cards were de-magentized and we got locked out after the staff left.

We called the after hours service and were told they would come. We waited in our friend's room across the hall with the door open and placed a note by our door. We called and left several voicemails and text messages but he didn't show. We slept on our friend's floor after giving up at around 2 am. In the morning, we were told he arrived and went to the end of the hall. When he didn't see us, he left. Had we been sitting at our door, he would not have seen us as it was around a bend. And he didn't walk to the door to see our note, or we would have seen him. We left several messages and he clearly did not check when he got home to know we were still locked out. Thankfully we were able to get into the building.

In the morning, we told the person at the desk what happened. The after hours man was there and insisted he did show up and that he didn't see us at the door. He admitted he didn't go to the door and looked from the end of the hall. When I said we wouldn't pay for the room we didn't stay in and that we were not happy with the service provided, she actually yelled at us that we should have been at the door, argued he would have seen us (which is untrue), and said we lied that we slept on the floor. They insisted we pay for the room.

Instead of de-escalating the situation or even apologizing, she refused and yelled at us. After a sleepless night, it was horrible and unforgivable. I would not recommend staying at this place to anyone. They know the key cards are an issue as they warned us to not have them near our phone. And we did not, and yet they were still demagnetized. Then, they have useless after hours help for emergencies. It's inexcusable that he didn't go to the door to let us in. And didn't check when he got home that he didn't have another message.

Posted by
4256 posts

Thanks for posting. This is inexcusable at a time when everyone has a cell phone. All he had to do was call your cell phone when he arrived at the hotel.

Posted by
127 posts

I just found another negative post for the Hotel Sonya in Rome on the RS forum. It was posted 5/6/18 and sounds like a miserable experience. Thank you for your report. We definately will avoid this hotel when traveling through Rome next spring.

Posted by
4 posts

This hotel is on the Rick Steeves recommended list in his guidebook. Anyone know how to notify them about this? They might want to omit them in updates. Thanks!

Posted by
7049 posts

Right at the bottom of the webpage, there are multiple "Contact Us" options. I would either send an email or call, whichever is more convenient.

Posted by
23178 posts

Mistakes happen and sometimes there is more to the story. We have stayed and highly recommended Sonya dozens of times over the past 20 years or so. During our stays there has always been a night clerk on duty. One of the things that we liked about Sonya. Are you saying there was no night clerk on duty? Your posting is unclear with your reference to the "after hours man."

Posted by
26840 posts

If occupancy levels are still way down, I don't think it would be surprising for a hotel to save money by cutting overnight staff.

The situation as described by Sam sounds inexcusable to me.

Posted by
9404 posts

Sounds very bad to me. I would never want to stay in a hotel that doesn’t have someone there 24/7. I would not feel safe. Covid or not, that’s bad in my book.

I would absolutely fight the charge with my CC company.

Posted by
4 posts

We called the night clerk on duty and were told he was coming. We waited nearly three hours, and called both the English-speaking night clerk and the Italian-speaking night clerk and neither answered their phone or texts after we made the initial contact. We left two voicemails. What we were told is that the English-speaking guy contacted the Italian-speaking guy and it was him that came to the hotel. However, we did call both several times each after waiting an hour and a half and neither responded.

Posted by
46 posts

I am so sorry to hear about your horrible experience with Hotel Sonya. We stayed there because we read such good reviews of it on here. We were there about the same time you were, and we had a great stay. There was a night person on the desk when we returned at night, but we never got in after 10PM. We did have an emergency early in the AM when a defective water kettle in our room caused a blown fuse. Good thing I carry a flashlight. My husband went to the front desk and someone was on duty that early. The gentleman fixed the fuse and got us a new water kettle right away.

Posted by
3218 posts

That is one of the worst hotel experiences I have ever heard about that didn't involve a felony!

Edit to add that I'm glad you posted about your experience on Trip Advisor..

Posted by
77 posts

I am so sorry to hear about your experience. We have stayed there numerous times and never had an issue. We found the staff friendly and helpful. Hopefully they will improve from your experience since traveling will increase this year.