Originally Posted by rogo

Restaurant staff: A+

Lovely people. Lovely treatment. Breakfast itself is a solid B+/A-, albeit completely repetitive every day. The welcome drink on patio (vs. 500 measly Marriott points) is a no-brainer. It was yummy. The extras they threw in at happy hour totally unnecessary but lovely. These people are 5* people in a 3* hotel.

Housekeeping staff: B+

Doting, but flawed. Went out repeatedly to find the room tidied. Then went out one night at 5:30, no turndown / towel refresh despite returning near 12. Then went out next day at 10, no housekeeping despite returning around 330. Then asked for towels/toiletries -- after we went out again -- and got 4 visits from housekeeping in the next hour while we were still in room.

Front desk staff: D-

Condescending, Insulting even. Thanks, I know how my room key works. When I tell you it doesn't, just replace it. Thanks, I know my thermostat is off as the display is blank and it doesn't respond. Don't tell me you "need to confirm", tell me you will "do everything you can to fix it and get the air conditioner working". Thanks, I know how your do not disturb button works. When I tell you it's stuck on, please just offer to fix it.

Condescension: A+++++

See above. Also, maybe this is a European thing but I know I paid on points. When you tell me you see I paid on points with that dripping tone, I think you're planning on treating me "less than". And you did nothing to disabuse me of that notion. "I see this is a rewards stay, so we only need a credit card for incidentals. Of course, as a valued Marriott Rewards member we will do everything we can to make this a wonderful stay for you."

Room: C+

First of all, don't insult me by telling me this room was an upgrade. It was a regular room. Maybe they get smaller because I had a vestigial vestibule at the front, but the room itself contains the bed and the minibar / console. When you have every class of suite available for every night of my stay -- and yes, I checked each day -- I wonder why you don't upgrade me as a Platinum. Was it perchance that it was a "point stay"?

The room plays well on looks, but in reality fails to deliver. The lightning controls are bizarre, with scene control at the entrance but no logical control at bed other than "all off" and the ability to control the searingly unpleasant overhead lights. This room also has a slightly less unpleasant overhead fixture and two sets of pleasant, indirects (one behind headboard, one sort of a "soffit" style. From the bed? No soup for you!

The bathroom has a lighted mirror and multiple other options. The searing overhead on the toilet is dumb as heck. The fact you can't make the mirror dark at night? Dumber. That meant keeping the bedroom door fully closed at night which is fraught when you stumble over there.

Inside the bathroom was an unfinished corner that clearly led to a maintenance access. It was out of the way to the point you wouldn't mind excess it compromised the soundproofing of the entire room, leading to lots of noise in the room, a horrible buzzing hive sound every time an elevator was used, et al.

The room door constantly failed to unlock cleanly. At first, you'd swipe 2-3x to get it to unlock (key registered every time, just no unlock). Then that stopped and you had to do a quick "pull-push" motion on door after swiping or else no open.

This room looks 5*, is 2*.

Miscellany: C-

A fire alarm one night forced everyone to the street after midnight. Smoke in the stairwells, no announcement of any kind to guests. They did start calling out names on street to see if people were there. Eventually two idiot couples were retrieved from their rooms 30 minutes later. Hotel says fire was next door and detectors just "sensitive". Credible except for 6 false alarms next day, none of which were followed up on by hotel.

"Fire" led to shut down of all HVAC, which led to thermostat incident above. Waited 2 hours for A/C to come back, believing all were experiencing. When finally came down, got the lecture on thermostat but the staffer who came up didn't condescend and show me how to operate a non-working thermostat. He simply reset breakers in a closet in hall and voila. I should've gone down sooner, but, fire and such.

We did on first night break a bottle of wine trying to make space in wine fridge. Staffer who handled that also was a pro. Came quickly, cleaned well, no residual glass or odor detected. This was 5* service, albeit for 10 minutes.

Recommendation: Do not stay here at this time

The pluses are nice, but it's 400 euro a night right now and their intended high-season price is 500 euro and up. The location is amazing, that's true. You can't be more centrally located for Rome's great sites. You fall out of bed and you're at the Pantheon. But to be clear, Vatican is 35 minutes by foot (and not a ton faster on taxi), Borghese is 35 minutes by foot (and not a ton faster in taxi), Colosseum is a bit closer but not much. So you're central, but you're not near the big stuff. You are near Trevi, Spanish Steps, et al. It's a great location.

The problem here is value and staff. If I want to be insulted I can get on Twitter and express any unpopular opinion. It's hard to imagine the staff here at St. Regis Florence being 1/3 as rude as the Pantheon Iconic front desk people.

This hotel needed a soft open to work out the technology glitches. It needs some real staff training to explain that pretentiousness is not a substitute for high-end service. This is a small property, was half full, as is actually likely overstaffed at this time. And there are gems like the restaurant team, to be sure. But goodness, I don't want/need to be greeted by 2-3 people every time I walk in or out of the building -- especially when at least one of those people has already offended me in some fashion. (Oh, one door greeter did warn of rain once when we were about to go out. More of them, less of the others.)