how far in advance to book Rome hotel for April?

I will often book a second choice hotel which has a cancellation policy and watch the rates. This will be your backup hotel. If you find a lower rate at another hotel you like, you can always cancel your first reservation. Sometimes booking.com will offer the ability to cancel within a certain window. If you book with a US hotel chain, you can also oftentimes book a reservation and have the ability to cancel within a time window. Just make note of the date you must cancel by on any reservations you make.

Have you looked at www.booking.com and filtered by price? Give it a shot. I do what the first poster says....I watch the rates and have a back up hotel that I can cancel. On booking.com it's often (although not always) the case that prices advertised way in advance come down over time, but it depends on factors that you cannot predict...and then there are times that the price doesn't budge at all. The only thing you can do is track over time because no one has any control over dynamic pricing that varies by supply and demand, which is calibrated constantly. There's no reason that you should settle for over your budget - I think you can find something below your maximum. Although Rome is expensive, there are tradeoffs you can make (even a convent stay, which is obviously a lot less luxurious but still doesn't break the bank).

I agree with Agnes. Booking.com has an incredible number of Rome hotels listed. We filter our search by cost--lowest to high--and start looking for properties with higher than normal customer ratings for comparable prices. We've never been disappointed. As perpetual travelers, we never even get close to spending $200 a night anywhere we go.
We were in Rome in April, and stayed 4 blocks from the Vatican for around $110. An underground station was just 2 blocks, and it was easy to get there from Termini to avoid having to take taxi's to get there.
Our previous visit was to a very good B&B 20 miles south in Zagarolo--OliveTreeHill.com for 70 Euros. We did day trips into the city via commuter train. Our host also took us to other travel sites in the suburbs like Palestrina. And he cooked for us for breakfast and dinner.
You can make room arrangements anytime. We usually book'em within 60 days.

I now like to use Trivago.
I also check the Italian version Trivago.it, which gives prices in Euro, to make sure they don't inflate prices expressed in US$.
They check prices in all search sites, like Expedia or Booking, and give you the lowest.
I filter 3 stars and above, and set the max price range. Then I filter by user evaluation.
I don't know how fussy you are, but for the dates you mentioned I saw some great 4 star properties well under your budget and all in the historical center.

Thanks - I've been looking on Tripadvisor and Expedia. l'll check out booking.com and trivago both this weekend. I've found several properties under $200 as well but by the time you add the VAT charge (it seems to be $20-30 on average and then the additional 3-6 euro pp per night charge that you pay when checking out (varies by star level I understand), the hotels magically become much more expensive than that rate they advertise when you first search for them.

David, we always prefer to pay more to be right in the heart of things. Sometime we need to try booking further out and see what we think of that method but with our limited time on our trips we prefer it this way for now.

Roberto, I'm a designer so the design and atmosphere is always important to me...can't help myself! And, it's our actual anniversary so I'd like it to be a nicer place to celebrate. Also a comfortable bed for sleeping! We were really looking hard at somewhere close to Piazza Venezia area since it seemed to be pretty much square in the middle of our daytime sightseeing and nighttime activities.

Julie, I don't know about other sites, but booking.com's prices normally include VAT. It's just the local per-night tax that's paid separately (typically in cash) at the hotel. I'm a down-market traveler and am able to ignore that city tax completely (other than paying it), because it's such a paltry amount of money if you stay in budget hotels.

The Monti area (Colosseo and Fori Imperiali/Piazza Venezia area has lots of places. I found a nice hotel that I recommend often, but it's below your budget and perhaps not special enough for an anniversary. PM me if you want info.

I would book soon. We have a reservation in Rome for mid March (that I made several months ago)and when I tried to add an extra day yesterday, I couldn't since they were booked up. We typically book through Booking.com with cancellable reservations in case something better turns up. We try to stay in the Piazza Navona or Pantheon neighborhoods since they have so many pedestrian only streets for walking and exploring. We stayed at the Hotel Palazzo Navona a few years ago for my retirement celebration and found it to be very nice. It has a great location, nice rooms, a rood rooftop terrace and good breakfast,

Becky, if your Rome reservation is through booking.com, you might contact the hotel directly to see whether you can extend your stay that way. It's my impression that a lot of hotels don't give booking websites access to their full itineraries.

Previously we booked at hotels but for the next trip I used Air bnb. About 2/3 the cost and nicer places. I just booked for May/17 and average price was $91 Canadian for 3 apts and a room with private bath

Bobb

Likewise, we'll be in Rome on Campo de' Fiori end of February into March for 6 nights and booked a small studio apartment--a 'residenza' as the hotel calls it--overlooking the market for less than $100/night, and it includes maid service. Reserved it in October. Queen bed, 'corner kitchen' (all I need is a fridge & a microwave for all the stuff I buy at the market and surrounding stores), nice window, separate en-suite bathroom. Plan is to only eat out at dinner. The way to go.

Count me in as another booking.com fan. I booked all our hotels (7) though that one for our last European trip and didn't end up with a single dog. Have also used it occasionally for our domestic trips (although I'm more likely to call direct for these) and for some other hotels on another trip abroad.

It's just the local per-night tax that's paid separately (typically
in cash) at the hotel.

True. This particular tax is (to my knowledge) never included in the total, and has always been asked for in cash upon check-in. Amount varies based on the room rate, and noted as an extra on booking.com listings. The website also lists apartments, if you're more interested in those; I booked a flat at a B&B in Bruges through the site.

A few days ago I booked on booking.com with free-cancellation reservations. Tonight I just found the same room, again with free cancellation, for less money on Expedia, saving us $90 total ($60 less than booking plus we could use $30 in Expedia rewards). And we netted about $30 in rewards for a future reservation. It pays to watch I guess! I'll be anxiously waiting for more reviews to see what people think of the place.

Even if using Booking.com, it's a good practice to check with the official website of the lodging you are considering. Often, it will offer an equal or better rate, or maybe something in addition to the equal rate. You might make out better and most operators appreciate you using their website. Plus, if there's a problem, you go directly to the source and don't have to worry about an OTA ignoring you or passing the buck.
I search Booking.com and then go through the lodging site and correspond with the operators asking about lodging. I am currently booking for several cities in Italy for a trip next summer. Going this route, I have already gotten a better rate than the room search websites AND better than the lowest offering on the official website. All because I emailed the operator asking which room was quieter than another. He offered the better rate and reserved the better room for me. I didn't even ask about a lower price, but I have in the past and sometimes got it.
It never hurts to ask.
Booking.com is a good place to start. It's up to you to take that further and see if you can save even more on the accommodations you have selected.

Sometimes you can call or email the hotel directly and get a better rate, since they then avoid the internet fees (even through their "own" website. And sometimes the hotel will give you an additional discount for paying cash, to avoid credit card fees.

Booking.com story: I arrived at the train station closest to my destination (30 kilometers away). No one at the station, no taxis, no info. Called the hotel, answering machine only. Called booking.com, spoke to an agent, who contacted the hotel (she made three calls, the last apparently to a neighboring hotel which also lists with them), contacted my hotel and arranged transportation to it. She was on the case for about ten minutes. She called me a half hour later to make sure it had worked out.

So, I am a fan. True that sometimes contacting the hotel directly is the only way to extend a stay, booking.com may only have access to book a percentage of the hotel's rooms.

This particular place is more expensive on their own website. I definitely always email my lodging too. I have actually had people offer better rates via email, unfortunately not this one. I do have other lodging for our trip that is giving us a cash discount (yay!) l also don't trust the booking sites completely and prefer to have communication confirming bookings. Seems like I've read a few reviews out there where people show up to find they don't have a reservation. I don't know what actually happened to them but I prefer to follow up with the lodging personally speaking. I always reconfirm a few weeks ahead of time too :)

Zoe, that's some wonderful customer service!