3 Rome Hotels - any comments? Columbia, Apollo, Res.Antica Roma
 

Narrowing down hotels for Rome for a Sept'07 visit.... trying to keep the budget 'reasonable' (150-180E/dbl), hotel that gets good comments and extremely limited negative remarks, has A/C, fridge, TV... special feature such as rooftop breakfast or tiny 'American' bar.... I have viewed literally hundreds of hotels on Venere and Romeby, read Tripadvisor ad-nauseum,etc.

Guess I'm looking for comments that would be a deal-breaker, or some comparisons,etc between these.
Here's the short list:

Hotel Apollo - Via dei Serpenti 109, Roma, 00184
http://www.romeby.com/apollorome/index.html

Hotel Columbia - Via del Viminale 15, Roma, 00184
http://www.romeby.com/columbiarome/index.html

Residenza Antica Roma (decor gives me pause)
via del Tritone 82, Roma, 00187
http://www.romeby.com/anticaroma/index.html

We stayed in the Apollo in 2005 and will again this year. Nice place, good location, great breafasts. The breakfast area on the roof is nicely done also, and the gentleman who takes car of the breakfasts and room does a great job.
This is a family run hotel, clean, and is one of the few in Italy that we found carpet in. There are several restaurants in the area, and one bar that had live band playing one evening; very enjoyable.
[email protected]

The location of Residenza Antica Roma is the most central. The Apollo and Columbia are not bad, but not quite so walkable to so many locations.

Without having stayed in any of them (I read about the Apollo), I would choose the Apollo. Via dei Serpenti is great, I think, and the Monti neighbourhood is one I would love to stay in, it's interesting and characterful.

Does the Apollo stick with the published rate of 180E/dbl or does an email request yield anything a bit less?

The other thing was someone complained of their 'smoky room'.. is this pretty common? Did you (italybound) experience any issues with smokiness at Apollo?