We have now completed our trifecta of Italian St.Regis hotels in the last few months after staying in Florence, Venice, and now Rome so we can easily compare the three properties.  The quick takeaway is that in our experience Rome was the best for service, Venice was the best for the room hardware / view, and Florence was the best for food & beverage (including breakfast) plus room design.

Location

The location of StR Rome is hard to beat: it’s only a 10-minute walk to Roma Termini station which allowed us to go on day trips during our stay without wasting time commuting to the train station.  The hotel is also walking distance to major tourist sites such as the Colosseum (25 minutes away) and also very close to the Repubblica metro station for people who prefer public transit rather than walking.  I had considered staying at Waldorf Astoria (in a lower price range) instead of StR, but the location of WA is far from everything, even the closest metro station is a 20-minute walk away in the middle of a residential neighborhood with nothing to see.  

Room

I booked the entry level room and with a special rate package I received an immediate confirmed upgrade to the deluxe room.  In part because of my excellent suite upgrade track record with Marriott since the Starwood integration, I have not seen much value in the Suite Night Awards - I usually receive suite upgrades anyway.  Generally speaking I am aware that some guests who used SNAs sometimes received upgrades beyond the junior suite as a result of using SNAs, therefore I gave it a try in StR Rome.  During our stay the hotel had low occupancy not only because it’s low season in March but also with the virus going around in the country the hotel was definitely not close to full.  I got upgraded to the first suite category as expected (called “St.Regis Suite Junior Suite”) - in retrospect it was probably not the wisest use of SNAs because I suspect as Marriott Ambassador Elite I would have received the suite upgrade regardless.  Because I was booked in a deluxe room and because I used SNAs during low occupancy but received “only” the entry level suite, it’s safe to say that this property will most likely not upgrade higher than this suite category as per the Marriott rules, which is different from our experience at StR Venice where we received a very generous upgrade to a Canal View Suite which is the 4th category of suites.  Anyway I am probably not maximizing the value of my SNAs very well and not just using those awards at the appropriate hotels, and this is another good example.  

Regarding the suite itself, it’s actually more like a standard suite despite the name “junior suite” because the living room is fully separated from the bedroom with a sliding door.  This room has been renovated recently and I liked the result, it had a soft color scheme with a local design (unlike StR Venice which was too generic).  The bathroom was a tad inferior to Venice but much better than our bathroom in Florence, and we had good water pressure in the shower in Rome.  Unlike our room in Florence and Venice, there were no views to speak of in Rome – we just saw the building in front despite being on the top floor.  Also the way windows are designed it is not helping natural light come into the room very easily so they probably chose the light color scheme wisely to avoid a feeling of darkness.  Soundproofing was not the best and we could hear our neighbor from the living room and it was notably different from StR Venice which has thick walls even within our own room where we could barely hear the shower from the living room but in Rome we could hear from other parts of our room very well even with doors closed. 

Dining

Breakfast in Rome was nice particularly with the beautiful and quiet restaurant and superior service, but in terms of food offerings it fell a bit short of Florence which had more choices.  In Rome the hot dishes included standard fare such as ham, bacon, sausages, a daily rotation of veggies, pancakes, and a live omelet station.  Fruits were ok but not as varied and not as luxury as Florence and Venice, so overall not much stood out.  There was free flow Prosecco available like in Venice and Florence, and we could also order breakfast as room service as the Ambassador breakfast benefit which is nice, also like the other two Italian StR hotels.  

We ordered room service a couple of times and as expected it’s more expensive than local restaurants but not overly so for a hotel of this caliber.  While the prices were a bit high, it was tempered by the fact that portions were particularly generous relative to what we received outside the hotel.  Everything we ordered was delicious and higher quality than when we ate out, so in my opinion it was well worth the price premium especially for room service standards in any StR hotel.

Service

As mentioned above service in Rome was the best of the three StR hotels in Italy, both in the restaurant for breakfast but also from the butler team which was sometimes more visible than other StR for example we saw them greeting guests near the entrance to welcome people back after a day out and to keep in touch and ensure everybody has what they need. 

Upon departure we received a very thoughtful gift of two polo shirts with the appropriate size which fits both of us.  This kind of special touch is what builds loyalty and makes guests want to come back.

Common Spaces

Similar to the beautiful restaurant, other common spaces in the hotel look fabulous and very impressive.  

Gym

The gym was fairly small but equipment was in good quality and was not overly crowded when we went there.  

Wifi

Wifi worked without interruptions during our entire stay with speeds of about 15 Mbps although uploads were sometimes considerably slower.

Overall

Overall we had a fine stay without glaring weaknesses unlike Venice and Florence, and we enjoyed the suite.  The room was comfortable even if not overly wow such as our suite in Venice which had views.  Breakfast in Rome was good particularly the restaurant environment and the service was polished throughout.  We normally stay in chain hotels to maximize benefits and based on my observations, alternatives from other chains in Rome are not in the same league as StR.  Waldorf Astoria is considerably inferior given what I saw of the common areas (I stopped by to check it out), and the price reflects it.  The best from Accor in Rome (= Sofitel) is also not up to StR standards,, Hyatt is non-existent in Rome, Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) has some choices but none that seem to be on par with StR, and other Marriott choices are a notch or two below StR. All things considered I would not hesitate to go back to StR on our next visit in Rome and I can highly recommend it.