I started planning a surprise milestone birthday trip for Mr. Ericka about a month ago. He is a world history buff, so Rome was a natural, but the choice of hotel wasn’t so easy. There is nothing quite as nerve-wracking as planning a surprise trip for someone who is generally frugal, especially in this economy. Whereas I might normally “talk him into” a somewhat expensive vacation, the decisions for this one were all on me. I was determined to keep the costs under control. With this in mind, I began researching hotels and enlisted the help of DavidO. The best deal by far was the St. Regis, which was offering a MasterCard third night free promotion which included Virtuoso amenities like upgrade, one lunch, and breakfast (a tremendous value in Rome where breakfast buffets go for as much USD 60 each).

Check In

We arrived at the hotel around 9:30am. The dor was in keeping with our taste… old-world, grand-dame. But happily, I didn’t notice any of the wear or tear that usually accompanies these older hotels. We were shown to our room about an hour later. As we entered the room, we asked what category it was. The gentleman said, “This is a deluxe, but….” He never finished his sentence. He didn’t need to. The room was very small. So small that the chair for the desk opposite our bed had to be placed to the side as it didn’t fit otherwise! We were anxious to start touring as we only had 2.5 days in the city, so we agreed to let it go. The room had all the big room amenities in a smaller package….king bed, high ceilings, chandelier, marble bath, separate tub and shower, bidet, a little dressing room, two nice-sized closets, etc. They had gotten us into the room early and had acknowledged my request for a nice view, and had we been willing to wait a little longer, I’m sure they would have been happy to find us something bigger. The lesson here is that the rooms at this hotel come in all different sizes. You can see this especially on the hotel’s emergency exit map. If room size is important to you, make sure you say it upfront.

Service

Service was pretty good and everyone was generally friendly and helpful. The hotel had butler service which included unpacking, complementary espresso, cappuccino, tea and afternoon cookies. The manager acknowledged Mr. Ericka’s birthday with a welcome note and a bottle of Prosecco. Still, we were pretty much a room number for most of our stay but I expect that at any large hotel these days. The only hiccup was one missed/late turn down. We had returned to our room after dinner before heading out for the rest of the evening and had to notify the front desk that housekeeping had forgotten about us. We used the concierge for dinner suggestions and were happy with where he sent us. I had booked my own car service and guide so we didn’t use the concierges for much else.

Overall

While in Rome, we did the usual touristy stuff; a half-day just casually walking around, a full day at ancient sites, and a full day at the Vatican. All in all, it was a great weekend. By the way, we flew UA biz class. The lay-flat seats and IFE were great, but the food this time was pretty awful. And any Star Alliance folks flying through IAD should use the Lufthansa lounge over the UA RCCs....better food, newer, cleaner, quieter. Ciao!