Taking a cruise out of Rome and will be arriving day before. My husband, my self and two teenagers looking for a nice 4-5 star hotel room that will accommodate the 4 of us- would like to be in a happening, lively are that might be near some of the landmarks... thanks

Five star hotels in Rome are unlikely to have rooms suitable for four people. Anyway, below five stars, the star system means very little. There are a lot of tired, run-down four star hotels. The star classification depends entirely on the staffing level and the facilities on site. I tend to stay in basic mom-and-pop hotels, so I can't give you advice on specific hotels.

There are landmarks all over Rome, so it would help to know what you're planning to see in your very limited time. You'll have to be very careful not to try to see too much, as you'll be tired after the trip. If you try to cram in every famous and unpleasantly over-crowded tourist mecca in the city, you'll have an unpleasant time and end up telling people that Rome is an awful city. Any neighborhood in central Rome is safe and has plenty of restaurants.

I use www.booking.com to find hotels. If you enter your destination as "Rome center city" instead of just "Rome", that will week out the hotels that are too far from the center. You can request specific features on the left-hand side of the website, and you can sort the list by guest rating, which is much more reliable than the number of stars.

I like to choose hotels that have a good number of ratings, and then I make up a short list by clicking on the ones that interest me, which opens the description in a new tab. Sometimes the description makes me realize I don't want that hotel, so I close the tab. I read the guest reviews of the finalists.

Each hotel has a different policy about advance payments and cancellations. Often there are two prices for each, one for advance payment and no cancellations, and another for payment at checkout and penalty-free cancellation. Make sure you've read and understood the conditions before reserving the room.

I agree, check with booking.com - that site is easiest to navigate to figure out a family room (IMO). I also suggest not getting too hung up on the stars, it's just one night! go for location.

Stars are awarded based on amenities some of which you won't care about anyway. There are a lot of hotels in Rome that AREN'T run down, too, but I guess we've been "told" by the expert so it must be true.

BTW, I agree with using Booking.com and it will show how many people a room will accommodate, too.

<i> There are a lot of hotels in Rome that AREN'T run down, too, but I guess we've been "told" by the expert so it must be true.

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I never said there weren't. I think anyone with a grain of intelligence could understand my point.