Youth Hostel Termini

My experience dates from early 1997. We pre-booked the youth hostel in Rome from Ireland. We were two female adults (sisters) with one child each, her 10 year old girl and my 8 year old boy. We arrived to the hostel after the evening flight from Dublin followed by a very stressful public transport experience in Rome where we got pickpocketed and lost our ready cash. We thought the hostel would give some respite. How wrong we were. The man behind reception spotted that we had my son with us. He immediately insisted he could not sleep in our pre-booked room and that he must go the the men's dormitories which, he said, were 1/4 of a mile distant. We refused and he made us sit there, refusing to show us to our pre-booked room. He repeated over and over that my son must sleep with the men. I feel shocked now that we even considered our options. It was very late at night. Now the reception started arguing that he was about to lock up and we needed to get to our beds or get out. Eventually we got thrown out on the street, left to our fate by a youth hostel that didn't give a damn for our safety so long as their ridiculous rules weren't broken. We left Rome first thing travelling to Salerno and further south to other hostels where we experienced no more such hostility and outright danger. We had the most horrendous experience in this place in Rome and never got further than the reception desk. Some 'reception'!! Horrendous!