Fishbait

Posting live from the St Regis Florence.. What an amazing renovation here - the hotel is divine, both old and brand new at the same time. Our rooms are fantastic, and service even more so - a nice change after ho-hum stays at the Gritti and Europa&Regina in Venice. Reserved two "Specialty Select" rooms, was given two rooms , both facing the Arno on the fourth floor with balcony, one has THREE balconies spanning the corner with views all around, including Ponte Vecchio (Plat upgrade?). Will take some pics during next day or two. Does anyone have any specific questions they want answered?

Robin

krhflyer

Great to hear! I have a stay booked for a week in October. Looking forward to the pics!

-Kevin

dingo

Some kind of a work stoppage or delay in Italy? I don't believe it!

Roka

Is the bedding a king bed or two twins pushed together?

Fishbait

Good question! Pretty sure it was a regular King, at least it was made up that way... Very well might have been two twins made up as a king, but never noticed a gap, lump, or anything obvious like the twins pushed together at the E&R in Venice..

Robin

Roka

It's listed as two twins combined when I went to book, but heard it at least used to actually be a king. And can't imagine why they'd regress as part of a renovation.

AZ Travels the World

This hotel was formerly The Grand Hotel Florence. Here is the thread for the hotel prior to the St. Regis renovation and re-branding in 2011.

-AZ
Moderator

m3m3m3

Any special Platinum benefits?

By any chance do you know how is parking? Thanks

Fishbait

We were given a fantastic room as Plat, and the staff was amazing. No breakfast offered, but we didn't really need it anyway - the butler service for coffee in the morning was perfect, just enough to get us up and out the door. We generally choose the "local gift" in European properties, and we were given a small bottle of Santo Spirito (the name is from memory, so could be incorrect) which was like a fortified wine - very nice but strong! We got requests from the general manager to meet with us, but our schedules never seemed to line up. We used free wireless internet on our large balcony (the BEST feature of the room! the other two were more walkout/standing balconies) and it worked very very well, but not sure if it was available inside the room.

Parking - didn't use it. But one evening, there was a dinner at the hotel for Alfa Romeo (salesmen?dealers?execs?) and they had lined up five or six Alfas just outside the hotel entrance in the square. They were only there for dinner, so I don't imagine that there would be parking permitted there overnight - we never saw any other cars there. I know there is valet parking available, and it is based on the size of the car and subject to availability - so I suspect they use street parking nearby. Your only other choice would be to find street parking yourself or perhaps park outside the city and take a cab in if you weren't needing the car during your stay.

Still waiting for hubby to download all the pics. Will try to get them done today and post a file to look at!

Robin

teege

Just booked for next summer. Weird thing happened though, haven't seen it before. I couldn't book a king. I could only book "1 King Or 2 Single Beds".

Is there any way to guarantee one larger bed? We're not going to be thrilled to find out we got the worse of the two when we check in.

CIT85

I also just booked 5 nights award stay for next June, and the room description was 1 King or 2 Single Beds. I'm hoping for Plat upgrade to a large enough room since we'll have my 16 yo daughter with us.

lucozade

Stayed there this August. The hotel is excellent and WOW WHAT A SERVICE! The position is great, food is nice and definetely recognising Platinums. By far better than westin florence. Strongly recommended.

UALFLYER1

I am an SPG Plat. Showed up in the hotel in the summer. The manager came running to me when he heard I was at the front door. I did not even set foot in the hotel. He apologized for the fact that the rooms rooms were sold out and that they had bumped me to the Westin across the street. I was so annoyed because I paid almost 500usd for the room and they put me at the Westin.

I argued. They would not adjust the lower rate. They gave me normal room at Westin. After complaining, they upgraded my room, gave me free breakfast and free parking. I felt it was fair.

Not sure if i will get a chance to stay at St. Regis again. But the place looked nice from the outside.

CIT85

Did the St. Regis pay for the first night at the Westin and then given you 20K starpoints for the walk? Those are the defined pentalties for the offending hotel. The Westin is also Cat 6 and room rates are similar to the St. Regis.

jhm

Staying for 2 nights at the StR here. Booked yesterday, upgraded as a plat to a room (prem deluxe ?) overlooking the river with two small balconies (not big enough to sit outside).

IIRC it was EUR 31 for 24-hours parking.