On a recent trip to Italy for spring break, I just had one night before moving on to Florence. Rates at some of the hotels in Rome on a Saturday night were exorbitantly high. Even a basic hotel was costing $300 per night, and most AirBnbs were not willing to accept a single night stay. In light of these circumstances, staying at the St. Regis Rome didn’t seem to be to be so bad at 10000 points + around $200, especially because my dad had some suite night awards used to confirm a suite.
The St. Regis – Rome
Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, 3, 00185 Roma, Italy
Phone: +39 06 47091
SPG Category 6: (20k points)/night or (10k points + $200)/night
Background:
The St. Regis Rome is adjacent to the Piazza del Repubblica, just a few blocks from Rome Termina (Rome’s major train station). Finished in 1894, the St. Regis Rome was considered to be the first “true luxury hotel” in the Italian capital. There’s no hiding the grandeur of the hotel, both the lobby and entry foyer scream a hotel fit for royalty. There is quite a bit of history associated with the place, which can be found here. Oh if you ever get lost, just note that it is a few doors down from the Fontana dell’Acqua Felice.
Arrival:
We took an Uber from the Rome airport to the St Regis, which took approximately 30 minutes and cost 50 Euros. It’s interesting to note that Uber has now been banned in Italy as of today because of their “anti-competitive” practices. Sounds like the taxi driver way of saying “we don’t like change” so we’ll boot you out, but to be honest taxi rates are pretty competitive with ride sharing in Rome. The only issue could be the payment method: not all of them accept credit card.We arrived at the hotel around 3pm, and were promptly helped with our luggage by the bellmen. From the get go you could tell that the staff really cared about their jobs, we weren’t allowed to lift a single finger all the way to our rooms.
Lobby/Check In:
Check in was an efficient process with our passports being copied, room keys being issued, and benefits being explained within 15 minutes. We chose breakfast as our Platinum benefit in lieu of 500 SPG points.
While my dad finished the check in formalities, I went on to take pictures of the newly renovated lobby. I can keep raving about how elegant the lobby looked, but I think the pictures will do it more justice. Simply put: the lobby was the epitome of understated elegance, it was worthy of the brand name St. Regis.
The Elevator:
One of the highlights of this hotel has to be the old antique elevator still in use. It was supposedly one of the oldest in the city and caters for up to 5 passengers at once though I kind of doubted that at times. It is certainly one of the best photo opportunities in this fine hotel.
The Junior Suite:
We were assigned adjacent, connecting rooms on the third floor of the hotel. My dad’s suite night award upgraded one of our rooms into a Junior Suite, which was directly attached to a Deluxe Room. It was ideal for our family of four and certainly made it feel less like a hotel and more like home.
The Suite itself was a work of art with a beautiful chandelier and design decorating the ceiling as well as some art pieces, which seemed to belong in a museum. There was a living room with a large sofa and desk, a bedroom with a king bed, and a narrow, galley style bathroom. The bathroom was stocked with the usual Remede branded toiletries. Perhaps the most annoying feature of this otherwise lovely room was the tiny stand in shower with a door that didn’t seem to close all that well. Maybe they can’t replace the shower, but they certainly need to think about replacing the door to something that will stick. Water pressure and temperature, however, were good throughout our short stay.
The Deluxe-King Room
Since our room didn’t have double beds, my parents got the Deluxe Room. It featured a better designed rectangular bathroom, a comfortable king sized bed, and a small sofa at the foot of the bed. The size of the bedroom and bathroom themselves were well above the average size of rooms Europe.
Location:
I took a nice morning walk the following day to get the day started (more on that later), but the hotel isn’t far from some of the most charming sites of Rome:
The Breakfast
Breakfast (free for SPG Platinum Members) is served every morning at the elegant CÆLUM Lounge & Bar, which is part of the renovated lobby. The breakfast spread is both high quality and fairly extensive featuring a variety of cereals, breads, cheeses, pastries, and more. There was also a made to order station with omelettes, eggs, pancakes, and some other items.Notably I found that this was one of the few breakfast spreads I’ve seen with freshly cut mangoes and champagne (Moet & Chandon Reserve Imperiale Brut). As you may already know, I don’t drink, but I do believe a fizzing champagne glass makes for a good picture 🙂
Service wasn’t “out of this world”, but still very good. It was prompt and courteous, and pretty much what you would expect at a hotel of St. Regis’s caliber.
After breakfast it was time for us to check out and depart for our train to Florence. It was a rather short stay at the St. Regis, but very much an enjoyable one.
Bottom Line:
The St Regis Rome is a stunning property set in the middle of one of the world’s iconic cities. The city center and most of the major attractions are within a 15 minute walk from the hotel and some of the best restaurants just blocks away. So far I would rank it as my favorite St. Regis property given the ambiance, service, and location. Believe it or not the St. Regis Rome is one of the most reasonably priced St. Regis properties. I checked nightly rates again and you can even land this property for under 300 Euros a night. That’s compared to the $700 nightly rates that most of them demand. This is usually still out of my price range, but for a one night splurge (paired with SPG Platinum status) it certainly seems to be well worth a visit.
What are your thoughts about the St. Regis Rome? Which St. Regis property is your favorite?
