FrAAmer

I am sure it was a regular King, not two twins pushed together.

spellbound2

We just returned from the Westin Excelsior Florence and had a wonderful stay. We used a 5 night award and were upgraded to a beautiful room overlooking the Arno with a sitting area. It far exceeded anything I could have imagined. Great job, Westin Excelsior!

sdcarver

+1 I had a great stay here, was very impresssed with the personal touch and my room was amazing (Corner Suite with large balcony overlooking Arno River)

sdcarver

JFKSFOLAX_friend

Superb trip report. Thank you.

cohighcountry1k

I also just had a great experience at this hotel. While suites were not available for upgrade, they did upgrade us to a large corner room overlooking the Arno with 3 balconies, including one in the bathroom. There was a bit of a heat wave while I was there and wish the AC was stronger. Concierges were great!

laangelsfan

As the second hotel on our honeymoon swing, the Excelsior in Florence was really wonderful. I felt like we were in a museum with all its paintings and furnishings. They upgraded us to a deluxe room overlooking the Arno and the view was quite amazing. The bathroom was the nicest of the hotels we stayed at during our trip and looked to be recently renovated. The room itself did not seem to be renovated recently and the carpet was a bit worn and some of the wallpaper was peeling. Otherwise, the room was nice and well appointed.

The concierge was very helpful and gave us considerable assistance in getting around and suggesting place for dinner. He recommended a restaurant nearby, and the place was exactly what we wanted. The hotel's proximity to the train station also made traveling very easy, and allowed us to maximize every last minute of Florence.

craz

after reading this thread i was looking very much forward to my stay

Unfortunately once I got to the Check-in on Fri it went straight downhill. I understood that the Grand is now closed (as of 11/1) and if theres something I HATE its being Lied to. Was told I was Uped to a nice room, I asked if it had the River view and was told it has a partcial river view?? Turns out I was given a room on the 1st floor with a huge porch as it was on top of the marque at the Entrance to the Hotel, great car noise all day and night long.

BTW the partial river view is if I hung over the balcony and someone held my feet Id see alittle bit of the River. the worst was when I asked if they had anything with a full river view, didnt ask about any Suite I was told they are yep sold out of everything. OK if i gambled and Lost so be it, but when I checked on Thurs before flying out of NY everything was showing as available, up to my room log onto SPG and low & behold its still showing all types of full River rooms available.

Down to the FD with laptop in tow I think I must be the 1st person to have done that , they were speechless caught with their hand in the cookie jar. they said a few things to me in Italian once I said English please they spoke to one another in Italian , I guess trying to figure out how to get out of being caught.

they said they can give me a smaller room with the full river view if I wanted it, If I wanted it hey its Florence whats the pt to anything else if its avalable. so i ended upn the 4th floor with that view to kill by. leaving early morning both on Sat & Sun most of teh rooms on my floor facing the River didnt have the DND sign on them most other rooms did

Beautiful Hotel and if not for that Room problem Id be singing the praises for this place

1st time in FLR and LUV it so much I CXed my St Regis res in Rome to stay in FLR a 3rd night

just wish Hotels will stop their nonsense of being Sold Out when they arent and stop lying about the views from the rooms

Again if in fact SPG showed only speciality suites and standard rooms I wouldnt have had any problem, I would chalk it up to Rolling the Dice and with them coming up Craps on the roll. But if the dice show a 5 & a 3 the dealer shouldnt say Craps everyone loses as I was told when I checked in

Benjh

Hi all,

I am getting married in Florence August 28th 2011, and I am looking for a great hotel to stay at, and recommend to my 100+ guests (we are getting married in a villa with fewer than 10 rooms, so will not stay there). Most guest will probably stay between 2 and 4 nights.

Of course being SPG gold, I turned my attention to starwood properties in Florence and the Excelsior caught my eye because of all the great reviews here on FT.

So, I was wondering if anyone had experience dealing with management of the hotel, and would be able to introduce me or share contact information for the manager or anyone else in charge.

Thanks!

anchor79

You've got PM.

Sweet Willie

just looked for reservations a few weeks from now, lowest euro rate is 175, C&P is $150US & 8,000 SPG, doesn't seem like a very good C&P rate

craz

C&P is a fixed rate, while the $$ rate will go up and down according to the season etc. When I was there a few weeks ago the rate was closer to 400 Euro so the C&P would be a great deal, but FWNs were even sweeter

A Hilton in Barcelona is a Cat7 = 50k pts or 99 Euro. Bet you when its Peak season youd jumped all over the 50k

sjuhawk_jd

This is a great property and your guests will thank you greatly if you can arrange a discounted rate here for your guests. End of August is slow season, so you should not have any problem getting a decent group rate. We stayed here around August 10th, 2009 for two nights and were upgraded to a very nice deluxe room with full river view.

Djlawman

Just got back from a trip to Florence and Tuscany. Stayed at the Excelsior, on a C&P rate. $150 + 8000 points per night. Reserved that a few weeks ago, and stayed this past Friday and Saturday night. They showed us to our room, and sure enough, it was the exact room FrAAmer had, shown above, room 208. Great room. My wife was ecstatic, and I could not get her off of the balcony, looking up and down the Arno, seeing the Ponte Vecchio.

Great job SPG and Excelsior! Thanks.

sent

I'm looking to stay here at the end of next month. If I book the cheapest room they have (the "Deluxe" room with no river view) will we still have a balcony? Are the balconies in all the rooms?

jschutz

We just got back from a 4 night stay - upgraded to a jr. suite overlooking the main square with a view of the Arno. All in all - a great hotel with a great location (Harry's Bar right around the corner!).

The bad news? The bar! Lit up every night with super bright ceiling lights so that it had the ambiance of a high school cafeteria - even when the piano player (fabulous player) was performing. The other bad thing was that the evening dining area was behind the bar - and the kitchen is on the other side of the bar lobby near the breakfast/lunch main dining area. This meant that all kitchen orders would have to be transported across the bar lobby past lobby bar patrons to the evening dining room - not good.

The good news is that the Excelsior has built a fabulous rooftop bar and dining area - it is jut not opened yet. While it is finished - they are having difficulty in getting the proper permits to start operating - but when they do it will be a super dining/drinking venue!