I have been looking for apartments for Feb. 14-21, not the best time of year to go to Rome but its the only time I can get 4 students to Rome at the same time. So far the only discount I have been qouted is 50 euro off the entire price for a week in Feb. With the drop in euros and with the winter weather I was hoping to find a better deal. I can get an apartment for 1200 euros for 1150 euros. It is the Plaza Novona area but is Trastevere better for the difference in price? I did find an apartment for 6 there for 760 including cleaning fee. We are flying on a shoestring budget..as 2 of the students are not mine and they have never traveled before. I am trying to keep the cost down for them and their parents. That is why we are going in Feb and not in June. Am I being too "cheap"
Thanks for your help.

I don;t know what kinds of prices you're looking for - but to me those prices look incredibly low for 6 people. That's like $40 per night per person - what you would have to pay for a bed in a dorm room in a hostel - and less than a convent.

How much were you looking to pay?

Not sure if this is why, but I've found the weeks around Valentine's day to be higher priced...maybe thats why you arent seeing bargains.

There was a thread last fall started by someone looking for an apartment for 6. He ended up taking one near the Termini train station--it does seem to offer a 15% winter discount
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2

I think Trastevere could be a good location for you and apartments there are cheaper than near Piazza Navona. However you should check the address to be sure where in Trastevere it is located.

We had very good luck renting from realrome.com.

Also try www.romepower.com we used them in 2007 and they were good.

Looks like it was too good to be true about the cheaper apartment...I was told, after trying to rent it, it was taken and directed to a more expensive apartment that in no matched the niceness of the first one...wonder if its just the "show" place to get you interested. I have some hotels that will give us 2 rooms for a total of 160 euros with breakfast in the Trastevere area. There are 5 of us, one crazy mom and 4 girls, 17,17,18,13! (Only 2 are mine) I will keep sending emails to Rome!

Rome isn't really known for having cheap accomodation. Like vttraveler, I was very happy with realrome. Good luck.

We used sleepinitaly.com twice with success. I would check them out. Have you loooked at vrbo.com? I would definitely stay i Trastevere. I love it there.

Check vrbo. I've used realrome.com happily, but I don't think you'll find huge discounts right in the center.

Look at the Palazzo Grillo listing on vrbo; I had my eye on it but knew I needed something more chichi for my most recent group of traveling companions. http://www.vrbo.com/34749

Remember to get references no matter where or from whom you rent!

well we stayed at the Atlante Garden Hotel for 88 USD dollars per night with 8.89 in taxes
Its a four star hotel with free breakfast buffet in the morning! The service was wonderful and they helped us so much while we were there! I thought that was great because we didn't have to pay for breakfast and it was a very nice hotel!

For spring break 2007 we took our school-aged children to Rome and stayed in an apartment in Trastevere three blocks from the train station, and a block from the tram stop that took us everywhere. The area felt safe, even at night, and not being "centrally located" didn't affect us in terms of dining, as the Trastevere neighborhood had plenty to offer. Overall, we really liked the neighborhood feel, too. (Plus, the difference in price over what's considered a popular area was a big advantage at that time, as the dollar was down even more than it is now against the Euro.)