Hotel Smeraldo or Hotel Marcus?

I stayed at Marcus and it was fine. Nothing fancy. It's about half way between The Steps and Navonna. A few steps away is the restaurant that "invented" fettuccine alfredo and they still serve the original recipe. http://www.alfredoallascrofa.com/

I don't like the Hotel Smeraldo's non-refundable first night deposit policy so I would never stay with them. There are many many god hotels in Rome with great locations without that kind of policy. For that simple reason I would not choose that hotel.

Tim,
I just double checked the refund policy. You must cancel before 4 days from your arrival date. While that's not as user friendly as some hotels, I have also seen worse. Where have you stayed? Cynthia

I'm booked into the Smeraldo for October, after much research. Trip Advisor looks OK- thought it is also a Karen Brown mentioned hotel.

We stayed at Hotel Smeraldo in 2005 and did not like it. It is not in the Pantheon neighborhood. On a return trip to Rome we stayed at a very nice hotel on the square where the Pantheon is and liked that location much better.

Susan,
Do you remember the name of the hotel?

The hotel is called Albergo del Senato. It's rated #12 on TripAdvisor if that matters to you. It's a classy hotel, our room was huge with windows opening onto the square and the Pantheon right in front of us, to the left. The view was amazing, especially at night. As I wrote previously, we loved the location.

I visited the Senato and I think that it is far better than the Marcus, and more expensive

We've traveled to Italy every year for over 12 years and have stayed in Rome every time we go. We've tried quite a few hotels all over the city. Our favorite was a stones throw from the Pantheon but it's not in our price range. We discovered Hotel Smeraldo two years ago and love it. We just stayed there for the second time a few weeks ago. Unless we stumble on to something better, it will be our hotel/location of choice.

Thanks to all, I guess we will be staying at the Hotel Smeraldo, the Senato is way over our price range! I took RS suggestion in his guidebook, and emailed both the Marcus and the Smeraldo, asking them for better prices than they offered online. the Smeraldo reduced their price by 20 euro, and threw in breakfast! Hopefully, we won't be in the dungeon!