I've been doing similar research and can share these options with you...

Pensione Erdarelli http://www.romeguide.it/erdarelli/erdarelli.html
Albergo della Lunetta www.albergodellalunetta.it/
TeatroPace http://www.hotelteatropace.com/information_request.htm
Residenza San Pantaleo www.residenzasanpantaleo.com
Pensione Panda www.pensionepanda.com www.hotelpanda.it
Relais Banchi Vecchi http://www.banchivecchi115.com/inglese/
Pantheon View B&B http://pantheonview.hotel-roma.net/
Hotel Parlamento http://www.hotelparlamento.it/

The best way to book is directly with with the hotel. The Oceania website has an email link. Hotels generally are very responsive this way, and you can ask any specific questions you may have or make any requests (room size, room location, etc.).

We are going to Rome 4/7/05-4/11/05 and we read the same glowing reviews about the Hotel Oceania. We had the same problems as you trying to find the hotel on all the sites such as Expedia and Cheapohotels. Therefore, we sent an email through their website. www.hoteloceania.it Their website isn't under construction they are just updating a new site that will be launched at a later date. This site still works. Enrico the reservation assistant will answer you. If you mention Rick Steves you will get a room rate of 138 euro. This is a very reasonable price with the research we have done. In addition they will arrange transportation for you to and from the hotel. This will cost 47 euro which is costly, but inexpensive by the Rome standards. If you prefer, Enrico will give you directions on how to take public transportation. Just for a point of reference we made our reservation on 2/13/05 and confirmed it today 2/14/05. I made my initial inquiry on 2/10/05.

If you do stay near the spanish steps, the Metro is VERY VERY easy to use and quite convenient. I zipped all over Rome solo with no problems. I stayed near the spanish steps but for the life of me can't remember the name of the hotel. It was right off the Via Condotti. It may have even been Hotel Condotti or something like that. While there, don't miss the Villa Borghese. I went early in the morning. I walked up the Spanish Steps and through the park surrounding the villa. It was so quiet and pretty and the Villa was nearly empty just after it opened. There is also a great store for purses called Red Wall. Again, I think it was on the Villa Condotti. Great leather bags at great prices and the staff was super helpful. Enjoy!

At your price range, you should also investigate apartment rentals. We just rented -- as I have mentioned recently on these pages -- a nice antique-filled one bedroom in a quiet square near P.zza Navona -- for 110 Euros a night.

(This took quite a bit of research)

The apartment is San Salvatore in Lauro and the agency is sleepinitaly.com

We stayed at the Hotel Trevi a few years ago. It was sort of between the Spanish steps and the Pantheon, so everything we wanted to see was a short walk. It seems a pity to rely on the metro in Rome as wandering about the streets is half the fun. I am not sure what the price range is for the Trevi, but it was 2-3 stars, and excellent value.

For business recently had to stay near the Spanish Steps - it was convenient walking to many different sites and also had all major metro conveniences as well. If you are looking for a decent hotel we stayed at the Hotel D'Ingleterre (I may have mangled the spelling). Also we took a peak at lunch at the Hotel L'Art - WOW...very incredible place...but a tad more expensive. I really enjoyed being near the Spanish Steps - when we had time to shop there were plenty of lovely places in the area and we had no trouble finding places to eat or have a cafe.

If you're looking for 100 Euro or less, do not waste time looking at the Hotel d'Inghilterra mentioned by the previous poster. It is one of the luxury hotels of Rome.

We were bumped from another hotel and only paid 119 euros...I wouldn't call it a luxury hotel either as it is quite old and worn compared to say Hotel L-Arte which was worth a premium for the experience. We may have been comped a special rate but I doubt it - plus the hotel had two rooms very last minute in mid January.

Sorry I haven't checked thisthread lately. We found Oceanna in Rick Steves--who can sometimes lead one astray but not on this hotel. We must have gotten the website from his book because we looked it over carefully. It is very well priced for room. Bathroom was fairly luxurious and they offer free internet service.

How nice for you that you only paid 119 Euro at the d'Inghilterra!

Yes, it is old; its history is one of the reasons why many people like to stay there. Henry James was a frequent guest.

But perhaps it will impress you more that one of the Spice Girls stayed there recently.

We decided to book a room at the Daphne Inn (Trevi location). We don't mind climbing stairs or having a small room, or no TV -- we're in Rome to see Rome, not to hang out in the hotel. I think it will be great. We got a great price and the hotel owners are very prompt & helpful in getting back with us. When asking another hotel if they had availability on dates we were considering, they simply said 'no, sorry we don't.' But Daphne went further, 'no, sorry we don't, but is your itinerary flexible because we have other availability in May.' to which my response was 'yes, we do have flexibility.' so now we have our hotel booking taken care of. Regardless of what some reviews have said about the Daphne (no reviews that I thought were as appalling as others I've seen RE: other hotels in Rome), I have seen equally as many (if not more) great reviews of the place -- even published reviews from "professional" travellers.

One question though, does anyone know if Daphne Trevi is considered to be in Rome "city center" or Rome "downtown?" Looking at shuttles/taxis from the airport & noticed some charge extra to go "downtown" instead of just to "city center." Was going to email the Daphne hotel about this, but know how quick the responses are from these boards, so thought I'd try here first. Thanks for all of the prior suggestions!

I'm think Daphne Trevi would be "city center". I do consider the location very convenient and walkable to just about everywhere (I stayed a short distance away from there). The thing I would worry about is their reputation for moving people around.

My husband and I just spent 7 nights at the Relais Banchi Vecchi in Rome. The location was just perfect perfect perfect! Walking distance to EVERYTHING! It's in between a hotel and an apartment. Milana the owner was there when we arrived and was very helpful and spoke English well. She showed us to our room and gave us the keys to the buildings front door as well as our room key. The rooms are nice, clean and had some GREAT GREAT shutters! Shutters??? I like total darkness to sleep. The windows had one set of workable shutters on the outside, one set on the inside and drapes! That makes for a dark pretty quiet room!!! Newton is the "handyman/go-to" guy in the mornings. He cleans the rooms and does general things including bringing breakfast to our room on the weekends. He was just great as well! One morning my husband left to go jogging and locked me inside our room not realizing I couldn't open the deadbolt from the inside! Thank goodness Newton came to the door with breakfast. He had to let me out!

The bed was very firm not lumpy, cotton sateen sheets, a medium weight comforter and 4 pillows (which was nice) None of the wall switches in the room are labeled and they control the lighting, a wall outlet or two (I think) and the heating so that was interesting. lol

Ladies, We tend to like very HOT baths so I would suggest asking (I don't know if they can) if the water heater could be turned up some. By the time the water fills the big marble tub (which was great) it's luke warm which doesn't cut it when you come in from the cold! I was actually boiling water on the cooktop to add into the tub! The cooktop was nice to warm things up such as leftover pizza although they only provide one small pot. Try smushing a slice of pizza in the bottom of that! lol (I rarely saw a microwave anywhere in Rome, maybe its a U.S. thing) We layed a heavy duty sheet of foil on the cooktop to reheat things. The minifridge was working hard but wasn't cooling too well although it was on the coldest setting so we put a couple of cans of soda in it and put the rest on the marble ledge outside the window as it was cold enough! Bring a portable dvd player and movies if you like to wind down at night as the t.v. is of course in Italian (except for M T.V. at times) What's funny is I'd catch myself seeing something on T.V. and turning up the volume like I could make out what was being said! Sorry if this is long but I like very specific info on the rooms I stay in and thought someone else might as well. All in all out of 5 stars I'd give it a 3. Microwave and hotter water would have pushed it up close to 4 stars. We have stayed in American dumps and the top of line American hotels so I think this review is on target. The price was fair for the great safe location.