The best B&Bs in Rome

How to find, and reserve, the best bed and breakfasts in Rome in every price range and neighborhood

The B&B concept—a handful of rooms run as an inn by a family in their own home—has recently spread throughout Italy and there are now nearly than twice as many B&Bs in Rome (around 2,000) than there are hotels.

A Roman bed and breakfast essentially works something like a small hotel that provides breakfast and is located in the owner's home (or at least an a converted apartment in their building). The size is limited to no more than 3–4 rooms or 6–8 beds total.

This usually means a cozy, welcoming, friendly place with a bit more interaction with your hosts than at a hotel—and B&Bs are usually anywhere from 5% to 40% cheaper than hotels.

Expect to pay anywhere from €35 to €140 for a double room at a typical B&B.

Note that there's a thin line (often just which set of local standards, requirements, and legal complications the owner wants to deal with) between what's called a B&B and what's called an affittacamere (rental rooms).

Finding the perfect Roman B&B

The Rome tourist office provides a complete list of all bed and breakfast outfits in town, but it's simply that: a list, of all 2,000 B&Bs, presenting in alphabetical order by name. Each entry includes the address, phone, website (if any) and price range. That's it. A great resource, but one that requires a lot of legwork to use, since you have to click on each entry individually to find out more.

At least the entry for each, once you click on it, provides a bit more intel—"Numero camere" means number of rooms; "Numero posti letto" means number of beds—including, crucially, a little interactive inset map showing you where it is located.

If you want more intel to go on, try using a private booking site that will provide descriptions, user reviews, photographs, and more information to help you make a choice.

Best sites for booking B&Bs in Rome

• Booking.com (www.booking.com) - Another general booking site, and one of the few that includes B&Bs—some 406 in Rome (filed variously under "Bed and Breakfast" and "Guesthouse").
• BedandBreakfast.com (www.bedandbreakfast.com) - Massive site and database with thousands of choices all across Italy, including nearly 200 in Rome.
• Bed-and-Breakfast.it (www.bed-and-breakfast.it) - Probably the biggest and best of the huge, national services, with more than 10,000 B&Bs across Italy.
• Bed & Breakfast Italia (www.bbitalia.it) - Another major nationwide service, with more than 1,000 members and three quality categories where prices range from €44 to €116 ($52 to $137).
• Airbnb.com (www.airbnb.com) - Network of both official and unofficial B&Bs, homestays, and apartment and house rentals, including 563 B&Bs in Rome. Its rates are among the lowest around, charging anywhere from $15 to $250 per night (a handful charge more)—in part because many of these are unregulated rentals. That means they don't pay local taxes (resulting in a savings for you), but that they are also un-inspected, and are technically illegal (though regular, legal B&Bs sometimes also use this as a listing outlet to drum up traffic). Buyer beware.
• Bed and Breakfast Association of Rome (www.b-b.rm.it) - Great service with more than 100 rooms for let in my old hometown; downside: prices can be pretty steep (nearly as high as hotels).
• Generalist booking sites - The following sites have limited listings in Italy (from a few dozen to a few hundred total), but you never know where you'll find the perfect place, so feel free to sift through the offerings: www.innsite.com, www.karenbrown.com, www.lanierbb.com, www.bbonline.com, www.ibbp.com, www.1bbweb.com. 

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