Would you rather: Hotel Lancelot (w terrace 1st flr) or Smeraldo (double superior alley )?

I've stayed at both hotels while on RS tours, Hotel Lancelot in a single room and Hotel Smeraldo in a double (twin beds) room. Both are the epitome of accommodation Rick Steves prefers: family-run, great value, excellent location and I enjoyed them both. Looking at the city map, Hotel Smeraldo is more 'central' but really, when visiting the Eternal City and wanting to get to as many sites as possible, it entails venturing into many of the city's 22 rioni. I'll give the nod to Hotel Smeraldo because of its roof top bar and proximity to both Campo de' Fiori and Piazza Navona. For Hotel Lancelot, of course the Colosseum is mere blocks away and I took advantage of touring the nearby Baths of Caracalla, with fabulous private guide Wally Zanchetta (Ms). Congrats on 10 years and have a great trip!

Hi,
I've stayed at both hotels - just returned from a trip where I stayed in a first floor terrace room at Hotel Lancelot. I've stayed at Hotel Smeraldo several times since 2023 - it's a nice hotel in a good location. The rooftop bar could probably qualify as romantic. The breakfast is good - but the breakfast room gets noisy and crowded very quickly. The Campo de' Fiori area is generally very busy (though I've only stayed there in March and April, I can't speak to October). Ultimately, this year I wanted to stay somewhere a little quieter so I tried Hotel Lancelot. It's a quieter area despite being so close to the Colosseum with some good restaurants.
If the choice is only between these 2 hotels, I think one significant factor is how you want to get around. If you only want to walk, Smeraldo is probably better situated. You can easily get taxis at either one - though the car situation is a bit chaotic at Smeraldo because of the narrow streets and throngs of people. It's hard to speak to bathroom size and room orientation as rooms at both hotels are variable, but from my experience, the rooms at Hotel Lancelot were bigger. The balcony adds some lovely extra space. If you choose Smeraldo, I'd highly recommend a room that faces the interior as the street noise is significant in my experience. I spent a very hot night there one April because it was too noisy to open a window for fresh air but too early for the AC to be turned on.

Honestly, you can't really go wrong - and getting to be in Rome for a week is amazing. I hope you have a fantastic trip.

After a long back and forth, we booked the Smeraldo for next May based on location and recommendations here. We are 8 people traveling together around Italy and I was tasked with finding the hotels. This was based on other trips we took together and my success rate.
I wanted the Hotel Regno, we stayed there last trip in 2017. Their rates come out in January. I was anxious (pressured) to have something booked so we went with Smeraldo
.

in addition to all the other places in the vicinity of the Smeraldo, it is also very convenient for the Jewish quarter and just across the river from Trastevere. Around the corner from the main entrance is a lovely little bakery /deli / hot table Antico Forno Roscioli which is very tasty and reasonably inexpensive and exceedingly convenient. It has been there over 50 years but the food is incredibly fresh. You are also very convenient there to the cat sanctuary and Largo Argentina. And a straight shot up to the Pantheon. Reasonable walk to the Vatican, though I always took my favourite bus the 492.

Our room overlooked the nearby bell tower and I loved the bells (not all night at all).

No complaints.

I've never stayed out by the Coliseum.

I stayed solo at The Lancelot in April 2023 for 5 nights--I really loved the location and being able to see the Colosseum every day delighted me. I was close to 2 metro stations and used both, and ate several times at neighborhood restaurants. I had a double room on the 3rd floor and since it was April they didn't have the A/C on, so I had the windows open at night...that would have been fine except that I was at the front of the hotel and directly across the street was a rooftop bar with loud music until 1 am or so. Thankfully I always travel with ear plugs. Breakfast was excellent and front desk staff were always wonderfully helpful.

We stayed in both hotels with RS tours. I felt Hotel Smeraldo had a much better location for getting around Rome and feeling part of the action as soon as you walked out the door. There are lots of restaurants around the area and easy to walk to many sites or grab a cab. Our room at Hotel Smeraldo was the smallest available and my husband didn’t care for it, but I was fine for me so it sounds like the one you are thinking of would be bigger than the one we had.

Thank you so much for the responses.

Based on some of the responses, I charted out the walking times to various attractions from the 2 hotels.

I figured why let my research go to waste. Someone else may search the forum and have the same or a similar question.

All numbers below are time measured in minutes, walking by foot, per walk time estimated by google maps.

For each hotel, attractions are listed in descending order from shortest to longest walk times.

Yes, formatting is weird - I copied and pasted from excel.

FROM Hotel Lancelot
San Clemente 2
Colosseum 8
Roman Forum 12
St. Peter in Chains 13
Cappella di San Zenone 16
circus maximus 17
Monti 17
San Giovanni Lateran 17
Palatine Hill 19
Santa Maria Maggiore 20
Roma termini 21
Trajan Forum 23
Baths Caracalla 23
National Museum 25
orange garden Aventine hill 28
Trevi Fountain 30
Piazza Venezia 31
Santa Sabina Aventino 31
palazzo Barberini 31
Baths Diocletian 31
Jewish Ghetto/Portico Octavia 33
Doria Pamphilj 34
Jewish museum 36
Campo di Fiori 38
Pantheon 38
Spanish Steps 39
piazza Navona 40
largo Argentina 40
Capitoline Museum 41
st Theresa d'avila in agony 45
appian way aqueduct 45
ara pacis 46
Piazza del Popolo 48
Castel Sant'Angelo 51
Testaccio 52
San Pietro in Montorio 53
Borghese Gallery 53
Villa Farnesina, Trastevere 55
Gianiculo/Piazza Garibaldi 55
Villa Torlonia 58
St. Peter's Basilica 60
Catacomb Domitilla 66
Vatican Museums 68
Catacomb San Sebastino 76
Catacombs of Priscilla 76
Catacombs of Callixtus 78
EUR 190

AVERAGE 41.04255319

FROM Hotel Smeraldo

Campo di Fiori 3
largo Argentina 6
Jewish Ghetto/Portico Octavia 7
Jewish museum 7
piazza Navona 7
Pantheon 10
Piazza Venezia 12
Villa Farnesina, Trastevere 13
Doria Pamphilj 14
Capitoline Museum 14
Roman Forum 15
circus maximus 17
Castel Sant'Angelo 18
Trevi Fountain 19
ara pacis 19
orange garden Aventine hill 21
Trajan Forum 22
San Pietro in Montorio 22
Spanish Steps 24
St. Peter's Basilica 25
Monti 27
palazzo Barberini 27
Colosseum 29
St. Peter in Chains 29
Piazza del Popolo 29
Palatine Hill 30
Santa Maria Maggiore 30
Gianiculo/Piazza Garibaldi 32
San Clemente 33
Cappella di San Zenone 33
Baths Caracalla 35
National Museum 35
Santa Sabina Aventino 36
Testaccio 39
Vatican Museums 41
Baths Diocletian 42
st theresa d'avila in agony 42
roma termini 43
Borghese Gallery 44
San Giovanni Laterano 54
Villa Torlonia 59
appian way aqueduct 62
Catacomb Domitilla 78
Catacombs of Priscilla 79
Catacomb San Sebastino 91
Catacombs of Callixtus 99
EUR 132

AVERAGE 34.14893617

to be honest, I don't think anybody would walk to EUR.

If you want to improve upon the data you are welcome to do so.

Wow, looks like you've done your research for some great days walking, good for you!

We loved Smeraldo, and breakfast was especially nice as not in the basement, lots of natural light and DELIGHTFUL staff there as well as at the front desk.

Smeraldo (double superior alley) No matter what time of year, I would strongly advise a central courtyard facing room, don't recall. but perhaps called 'superior comfort'? The noise from the street won't change much during the year, because late at night and early in the morning very large recycling bins are filled with loud cascading bottles from those lovely little restaurants mentioned above. It's NOISY! We moved from a street-facing room as soon as we could. Good luck!

We were in a street facing room at Hotel Lancelot and every morning the trash trucks rumbled by around 4am emptying the bins…

I would be concerned with the first floor. I like a window open while sleeping, and, generally, if I am in my room or not, 1st floor rooms are an easy target. That is how I would choose.

We’ve stayed at both of these hotels. Loved the ambiance at Hotel Lancelot. It was quieter than Smeraldo. Our room there was street side but we were ok with that although I think it would be an issue for some people. Honestly if $$ are a bit tight I’d go with Lancelot and you’ll relax more about having an occasional gelato or spritz. 518 euros is a lot of euros to spend on a room you won’t spend much time in.

Also related to Wray’s comment. In Europe the ground floor is 0 and the first floor is what in the US is the second floor. So a room on the first floor is not at street level.

UPDATE: Many of you advised me against an ally facing room at Hotel Smeraldo due to noise concerns. Here are some fun facts that may help other travelers facing a similar question.

Hotel Smeraldo
1. small double (12 sq meter) interior courtyard facing room for 2 adults, direct booking, refundable rate w/ reasonable prior notice, is going to be about 259 Euro per night, for 7 nights, that's about 1,813 Euro.
2. comfort double (17 sq meter) interior courtyard facing room for 2 adults, direct booking, refundable rate w/ reasonable prior notice, is going to be about 319 Euro per night, for 7 nights, that's about 2,233 Euro.
(contrast: what I had booked, the superior double, (15 sq meter) alley facing room for 2 adults, direct booking, refundable rate w/ reasonable prior notice, is going to be about 310 Euro per night, for 7 nights, that's about 2,170 Euro)

Hotel Lancelot
1. Double room with terrace (15 sq meter), 1st floor (meaning, in American, 2nd floor), for 2 adults, direct booking, full refund with reasonable prior notice, is going to be 236 Euro per night, for 7 nights, that's about 1,652 Euro.

So, if I go with the small double room (12 sqm), interior courtyard at Hotel Smeraldo, v, the Hotel Lancelot Double Room w/ Terrace 1st floor (15 sq m) it's about 161 Euro or roughly $200 more expensive to stay at the small Hotel Smeraldo Room.

Notes:
1. For either Hotel, the taxes will be the same - 6 euro per person, per night.
2. For either Hotel, I believe a complimentary breakfast is included.