Rome - Best way to Arrange for Car Service
 

My wife and I will be arriving in Rome and were lucky enough to get upgraded to first class. As a part of that upgrade, we will get to use the airport Hilton hotel for our arrivals lounge (they give us a room for a few hours). I'd like to arrange for a car to take us from the hotel to our hotel in Rome. I'd like an air conditioned car from a reputable firm.

I think my best bet would be to assume an ontime arrival, add on an hour or 90 minutes and have the car pick us up at the Hilton.

1. Does that sound right / doable?
2. What is an appropriate cost for such a service?
3. What companies are reliable transportation?
4. Do you normally pay in advance for the car service or after services are rendered?

We routinely do this in Paris and are planning to do the same when we arrive in Rome this Sept. The best way is to fax your hotel's concierge and have them arrange it. Large hotels may have their own drivers; smaller ones book through a car service that they use routinely.

Personally, I would skip the airport Hilton as you'll have to schlep your bags over there yourself.

If you do the other way, the driver will meet you in the baggage claim or outside customs and will have had your flight number and arrival time. He will have monitored the flight so he knows if it's late or early. He will also take your bags from you at that point and you will be mighty glad to hand them over.

Sometimes the hotel will put the car service on our bill and sometimes we settle directly with the driver.

If you're set on making the stop at the airport Hilton (I'm curious as to why you would want to do that), you can always get the airport Hilton to arrange it or you can call Carey Limo or book them on their website http://www.ecarey.com/eCarey/. I've used them in several U.S. cities but not internationally. That's who American Express usually books through but why pay the 20% booking fee?

In Paris we've paid anywhere from $80 booked by a small hotel to $150 when staying at the Georges V or the Meurice.

I agree with your reasoning though. It's vacation. You'll spend 50 to 60 on a cab so it's really not that much more.

www.limoservicerome.com
Andrea will take care of you and pick you up whatever time and place you want to be picked up. Just be sure you don't get this company confused with a later one that took a similar name called limoserviceSrome.

I second Limoservice rome.com. They were great and recommended by many on this site.

Reason why: we get in early in the day and our room in Rome will not be ready. This allows us to take a shower, relax a bit, get clean and then start out our day in Rome for pretty much a full day (if the Sonata works that is).

It is quite a walk from the airport to the Hilton, but we enjoyed it last time we went.

I'll 3rd or 4th www.limoservicerome.com

I don't know how early ."early" is but I've never had a problem checking in ..and our room has almost always beeen ready..or we were offered a coffee or cappochino while we waited.

Asl I recall the price was below 50 euro for an A/ced Mercedes and we paid the driver

One more ((Y)) for Limoservicerome.com Our group of nine used Andrea and his staff for several trips to/from the airport and to/from Termini in April. His drivers were professional, his cars/vans clean and shiny, and met us on time every single time we booked them.

I just booked an airport pick up with them and thanks for the recommendations.

We highly recommend
Airport Connections.it
++39 063383221
They were reliable in May, picking us in in a van ; however, they returned us in a really nice luxury car. I believe you can request either.

Just adding my recommendations for Andrea and Limoservicerome. Professional, on time and available when we needed to call and make changes for our pick-up from hotel to airport at the end of the trip.

Are you sure you won't be able to check into your hotel? My hotels have been ready as early as 9 am.

I am sure that the hotel won't be ready.

I sent an email via the website on Saturday asking some quesitons regarding how to arrange for this ride. Is two business days without a response usual? It sounded like this company was a bit more attentive to customers based on the responses to my query.

If these folks fall through, what is another reliable company in Rome?

It usually takes at least 24 hours for a response. I would try one more time. He sent several e-mails to confirm our booking and a day before we were to leave he sent an e-mail to warn us about the heat wave (summer 2003).

I have his phone number but it's on an old computer that doesn't work very well. I'm sure other people on here have it also but if not I could try to boot my old computer.

It's possible that they don't answer emails on week-ends. And by Monday have a backlog. I'd give it another day..I've always had fairly quick responses and follow up emails confirming the reservations, nearer the date of departure.

Thanks folks. I had sent another email this a.m. prior to this post simply asking for confirmation that my email was received. They've had a lot of good comments on this board so I'd like to do business with them if they want me as a customer.

I also sent my request on Saturday. Got an answer today. I think I saw on their website that they would reply in 72 hours so I wouldn't worry.

Great price by the way. I hope they don't get so booked up because of this forum that they can't keep up!

Andrea took good care of us. The cars were right on time, clean, comfortable. Neither driver spoke english very good, but that's ok. thanks for the recommendation folks.

We arranged for car service to and from airport in Rome directly through the hotels we were staying at.

Rates were as competitive as the car services and websites themselves, but the hotel arranged directly which saved us phone calls, etc.

We stayed in two different hotels, which used two different car services, but in both cases the rates were good and the services were excellent.