My travel agent also reports that hotels are getting stingier with upgrades.

I wonder if it's because people are paying for higher category rooms (despite increasingly absurd pricing), so that upgrades are less available, or because hotels have just decided not to upgrade.

I wonder too. Coupled with inflation and the sheer number of luxury-level hotels that seem to be asexually reproducing (and with ever increasing frequency) in most major markets over the last several years.....

The whole thing strikes me as incongruous from a sheer logic perspective. But the wealth and demand must clearly be there, if not the competition between cards/programs/agencys. Mostly, i surmise these systems are complex to a degree well beyond most humans' understanding, certainly mine, and that there's no real way for even a phd in economics to fully understand how they all work together.

Do you remember what the rate would have been if you had outright booked the suite that they moved you to partway through the stay?

I thought the upgrade discussion worthy of its own thread, so I started one at Fewer upgrades with FHR, Virtuoso, etc?

Deluxe Room that I booked was �1850 per night and the Deluxe Suite that they upgraded me to the following day was �3000 per night. I was rather surprised as lower category junior suite was also available.

Generally speaking it�s the 1st time I did not get instant upgrade as a part of FHR benefit, despite higher category rooms (suites) being available. Stayed recently at Four Seasons Dubai and Park Hyatt Vienna and in both cases upgrade was honored without having to ask.

I have a credit card that saves me 20% of the hotels bookings worldwide, which is why I carefully plan whether to go through Amex FHR or book via hotels.com for instant savings. When I see a nice upgrade possibility and I stay 2-3 nights only then FHR benefits come handy. For longer stays like in Maldives I prefer to save 20% and book the room/villa I want.

FYI I posted a Flyertalk hotel review of my experience. Great stay!

Does anyone know when the new bulgari Roma hotel is supposed to open ?

According to its website, Set to open 9th June. https://www.bulgarihotels.com/en_US/rome

glad you enjoyed! I really like this property.

To follow up on my own question, I finally got around to a stay here after COVID wrecked my initial plans in 2020. I'm not going to write a hotel review because it's not a hotel and it is targeting a niche audience. It's a single 2br / 2ba 350 sqm (~3700 sq ft) residence, so it's more like a luxury vacation rental, and it's a unique experience in a former Papal apartment.

The hard product is absolutely amazing. Restored frescoes, elaborate mosaics, great materials and design, unbelievable 26 foot ceilings in the Pope bedroom, etc. The soft product was also excellent given the scope of what they do (i.e. it's not a hotel with 24 hour room or maid service).

While it sounds absurd to say that 4900 EUR / night is a "good value", I feel like you get a lot for your money given the hard product and size of the residence. When I was looking at prices of suites at Hotel de la Ville and Hassler and Hotel de Russie and Six Senses, etc. the same 4900 EUR a night would get you a mid-range not particularly large or distinguished suite. [e.g. Hotel de la Ville wants 4300 / night for 60 sqm "Grand Suite with Terrace" and Six Senses Rome wants 5000 EUR / night for a 75 sqm Corner Suite.]

I'm not going to post a ton of photos showing every room like I normally do because they have very extensive professional photos on their website, but it's very "Instagrammable".

Indeed a stunning apartment.

Is there a washer/dryer?

Are you asking about Holy Deer? I believe they have on site laundry in the non-guest area with the staff offices / kitchen, but I'm not sure what the protocol would be for getting laundry done. I'd recommend emailing [email protected] for any questions related to that.

FWIW, it's not really set up for guests to prepare / cook their own food either. The kitchen area is in the non-guest / staff area. I think their target audience is heavily oriented to folks who would not spend their vacation time doing their own chores :-)

Looks like an EDITION is opening up this summer for more possible luxury point redemptions.

Oh yes, on my last day in Rome, I bought a pass to the Six Senses Roman Baths Experience at the Spa to check out the Six Senses / brand new facilities, etc.

I think you definitely did the right thing not staying with them literally days after opening. The hard product looked quite nice but they seemed disorganized and dealing with technology issues, training issues, service confusion, etc. Felt "off".