The beautiful city of Rome, or the Eternal City as it is more fondly called, is one of the most important tourist destinations in Europe. Since Rome is home to many of the world’s most famous landmarks, including the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and St. Peter’s Basilica, we can easily understand why it’s so popular.

To support this, Rome’s tourism sector offers all types of accommodation, in order to cater to the wide range of travelers visiting the city; of the small’affiticamere‘ (a type of Italian guest house) to the big luxury chains. The following five tips have been compiled to provide you with useful and important information about staying in a hotel in Rome, especially the smaller ones:

1) Billing: It is important to remember that all adult guests must show a formal identification (eg passport) upon check-in, a credit card will not suffice! And normally the DNI will also be photocopied. This is standard procedure in Italy, as the local police regularly request a list of occupants.

2) Late entry: If you anticipate arriving late at your hotel, you must check before booking that the reception will be open to receive you. If the reception is not open 24 hours, you will usually need to inform the hotel in advance of your late arrival and arrange a check-in time. However, please note that some establishments will charge an additional fee for check-in outside of business hours.

3) Only cash payment: Even if you have booked your room with a credit card, that does not necessarily mean that you can pay by credit card. The booking agency will usually guarantee your room with your credit card, but the hotel may only accept cash payments. This is less common today, but is still the case if the room was sold to you at a reduced price.

4) Italian Breakfast: Although many of the larger hotels and higher end establishments will offer a standard continental breakfast (choice of cold meats, cereals, toast, hot drinks, etc.), many of the smaller ones will offer what is called an ‘Italian breakfast’, which includes some kind of croissant, coffee or cappuccino and maybe a fruit juice. In fact, if there isn’t a breakfast room, some places will just provide a breakfast basket to consume in your guest room, or they may provide you with a token to use at the nearest coffee shop.