To find a room in the historic district at this price is great. Definitely not what North Americans expect from hotels (really really small)but for a Euopean budget hotel it is great. Breakfast in the AM is a nice touch and gets you on your way (no more, no less but hey what did you expect?). Rooms are clean and the air conditioning works. Internet is a little slow but it's free & works.
What realy makes it is the guy on the front desk. He is great. Friendly helpful and a great sense of humour. I have recommended this place to several friends. after all I did not go to Rome to check out the hotel.

I checked in the Augustus Hotel on the hottest day of July. The first night went allright except that the breakfast was really not worth mentionning. I was then moved to a different rooom on the second night and this is where the problems began. The room smelled terrible. Also the AC unit was bust and shut down on its own every 10 min. The night shift guy could not speak a word of English and was not at all sympathetic nor helpful. I was told the next day by the manager that the problem was due to excessive heat and had nothing to do with the hotel ("Excuse me!!?!?!"), therefore my request for a significant discount was rejected. Well, that was not his exact words. It would be too rude to mention them on this review.
My advice is: do yourself a favour and go to a different hotel!

We went toRome a group of High School's students to spent 4 days in February 2010. The hotel Augustus was very nice, goods rooms, has friendly staff and we felt like at home.
It has free internet, and breakfast service:) for free
Close to the bus 62, 60 and 63 that takes you to all around Rome.
I would recomend it to everyone.
From Ubrique, Cádiz

Hotel Augustus was a bit surprising at first – as it’s located on the complete second floor of a historical building on piazza Fiume. At first I was puzzled, as I’ve expected to see a reception on the entry level. There is one directly after the entrance on the second floor. Once we’ve reached it – things came back to normal – the room was clean and visibly new. There was a PC in the room with a hybrid LCD display – playing the role of a wall-mounted TV and the computer monitor at the same time. For non-techies finding your way through the remove might take a while though. :)
The bed was very comfortable; breakfast was delivered in the room every morning on a pre-defined point in time (6:30-9:30). Ask the guy at the reception to set this for you the previous evening. Bathroom was clean and new, although a bit small. The room was nicely decorated (with Michelangelo replica poster) and had a direct view into the ruins located in the middle of piazza Fiume. When closed – the windows provided perfect isolation from the street noise, generated by the otherwise busy traffic.
Transport connectivity is quite good – there is a Metro stop 10 minutes away and Termini station is only 3 stops of all 6 different busses stopping 50 meters from the building on via Piava.
We’ve stayed there for 7 nights and we’ve enjoyed the stay. Something definitely worth mentioning is the exceptionally friendly staff. The guy there was always available to give us advice on where to buy and additional suitcase from, where to have nice dinner in a romantic place at a decent price, what would be the most optimal route to take in order to visit 5 different places the same day, which buses or other transport to take to get to a certain place, where not to shop, what is a reasonable price for the local ceramics, etc. It was exceptionally useful when he called us on the mobile phone roughly 15 minutes after we’ve left, to notify us about the keys and the mobile phone we’ve forgotten on the way home. I rushed back to collect them before going to the airport.
There are a number of great restaurants around - one pizzaria directly on the opposite side of the Piave street made the best lasagna we've had there. A small restaurant called "il Rifugio del Buttero" provided the best Napoli-style pizzas and other delicious Italian kitchen samples.
Of course you can always argue that the breakfast is the same every morning and that there are not gym and swimming pool in place, but practically looking – all we were looking for was a nice place to spend the nights at, at a decent price and ideally at a walking distance from the center. This is what we’ve got.
Augustus met those expectations quite well. It is by far not luxurious, but a very good deal for the money which I can recommend if you’re going to Rome for sightseeing.