Has anyone stayed recently post renovations? How have they turned out?

Also, how is the area of this hotel? Is it walkable to main sights in Rome? Thanks in advance!

Some recent/post-renovation observations and discussion of location in the SPG forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...-thread-8.html

I haven't stayed post-renovation, so I'll stay out of that. I'll comment generally that I've stayed there, it's a very nice hotel, but that I'm probably not willing to spend what it costs in the future. It's very old world luxury, and while I value a nice place to sleep, we tend not to spend significant time in city hotels (versus a resort somewhere more isolated) so I just don't think I'm the market for this.

You'll probably get mixed reactions to the location, so this is just my two cents. The location is fine - walkable to Termini without being too close to it, and my opinion of the value in that has gone up since the Mercato Centrale opened up there. Walking to the shopping on Via Veneto is also very convenient. It's not a bad walk to the Villa Borghese. It's a little further to the common tourist sites, but still walkable for the average person. In essence, I wouldn't pick it for its location unless I were going on a shopping trip, wanting something higher end convenient to the train station OR really wanted to burn some SPG points (since last I checked, it's not too much more than the nearby Westin when redeeming points). I think it really comes down to whether you want a hotel with a classic feel and lots of service.

If you are on a business trip and are going to be staying in a conference room all day, and going to company dinners at night so that location doesn't matter, then it's OK. But for someone going to Rome to enjoy the city, it's in a terrible location.

It's not that bad. I once lit a whole bunch of SPG points to stay there on our honeymoon. We spent very little time at the hotel, lots of walking, but doable.

I'd echo your comments verbatim for the Hilton Cavalieri and hotels out that way.

I wouldn't personally stay in that neighborhood. mbluecpa provided a great link. It takes you to a 2010 FT page with reviews, where some say it was great, and others say it was bad. You can then click on the last page and see the post renovation reviews.

If the OP is just looking to stay at a hotel, the St. Regis would be fine, especially if redeeming points. If paying cash, I think people can do much better. It would depend on whether the main purpose of the trip is to enjoy the hotel amenities, or to be out and about seeing Rome.

in the link that mbluecpa provided you can see the 2010 reviews and the post-renovation reviews are similar; concierges sending people to restaurants where no one speaks Italian and everyone eating there seems to have been told to go there by the concierge of whatever hotel they were staying at, or commenting that it's not in a nice neighborhood, it's in a boring neighborhood, etc. There are too many troubling reviews both pre- and post-renovation.

I agree with PWMTrav on this part of what he said, "lots of walking, but doable." There is "lots of walking" because it isn't located in a neighborhood where you would want to be.

I don't care how good a hotel is, in my opinion location is critical. If you shop and want to buy something, do you want to carry it around with you all day, or be in a nicely located hotel where you can go back and drop it off, or maybe head back to your hotel to change your clothes because of a change in the weather, or just to have a place to rest". I don't care how "good the breakfast is," or if you get a free massage: if the location isn't good I wouldn't stay there, unless it was a points deal or something like that where you are not directly paying cash out of pocket.

I think it's better choose the neighborhood you want, then find the best hotel deal in that neighborhood, rather than just search for the best hotel. To choose a neighborhood located between Piazza Barberini and Piazza della Repubblica (meaning the plaza outside Roma Termini train station), almost defeats the purpose of going to Rome.

Barberini and Repubblica are giant city streets full of buses, taxis, horn-honking cars, fast food places, and chain stores like Zara, H&M, and other trendy clothing stores with brands you can buy at any mall in the USA. People go to Rome to be near its marvelous fountains, its great places for food, its quaint neighborhoods, it's antiquities, and not for the hotel. I'm not saying this is true for everybody's tastes, but when visiting Rome, location takes precedence over most other things. The best thing is to find a great hotel in a great location, rather than a marginal hotel in a marginal location.

I'd stay at a slightly lesser place where you can walk outside and stop at a great cafe to have coffee and pastry, or in the evening stopping for a glass of wine, not at hotels near giant plazas with 6-8 lane streets that a pedestrian can't cross on one green light, so they have to have an island in the middle so that the pedestrian can wait for the light to turn green for them again. Not at a place where if you step outside at night all of the chain commercial stores are closed, and the only place to have a coffee or a glass of wine is to go back to the hotel.

Rome is full of romantic places and I wouldn't personally settle for that, unless it was on points to help make the trip possible.

If the purpose of the trip is that it is free because the company is paying, or because it is a points redemption, or the main purpose is to experience hotel amenities and not to see Rome, certainly. Otherwise, it is not the place to be.