Review: St. Regis Rome


We were spending two nights in Rome, after arriving from San Francisco and before continuing to Sardinia. I’m generally loyal to both Hyatt and Starwood. Hyatt has no hotels in Rome, while Starwood has quite a few.

The St. Regis Rome looked like the most attractive option, and was a Category 6 property. Category 6 properties cost 20,000-25,000 Starpoints per night, and since this was in the high season, the cost was 25,000 Starpoints per night. The paid rate at this hotel was 550EUR per night. In theory this was more or less a breakeven redemption, since I value Starpoints at ~2.2 cents each. However, I’d rather part with Starpoints than cash, so that pushed me towards redeeming points.

This still seemed like the best option in Rome, given that the Westin (which I’ve heard is great as well) is also a Category 6 property.

We took an Uber from the airport to the hotel, which took about 30 minutes, thanks to the lack of traffic on a Saturday afternoon. Ubering from the airport in Rome is interesting, because the Uber driver actually parked and met us inside the terminal at the airport. If I understood him correctly, apparently they’re not allowed to directly pick passengers up, so I’m not sure if this is just a workaround, or what.

The St. Regis is nicely integrated into the neighborhood, and you’d barely know it’s a huge hotel based on the block it’s on.

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St. Regis Rome exterior

The hotel doesn’t have an actual driveway, but rather just has three big “gates” you can walk through to enter.

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St. Regis Rome entryway

The hotel’s public areas are under construction, though I believe the project is slowly wrapping up. That’s why there was a huge facade as you entered the hotel.

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St. Regis Rome entryway

Once past the “gates” you can either turn left or right. Turning left takes you to the reception area. I believe the current reception area is just a temporary setup while the public areas are being renovated. The area was very small, and we had to wait a few minutes before we were helped. However, once we were helped the associate was friendly and thorough.

I had used Platinum Suite Night Awards for this stay to confirm a junior suite, so he recapped that and also explained that we’d be entitled to butler service. I also chose breakfast as the SPG Platinum welcome amenity.

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St. Regis Rome reception area

The lobby area also has a small sitting area. Again, I assume this is temporary, until the renovations are complete.

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St. Regis Rome lobby area

Once we were checked in we took the elevator up to the second floor, where our room was located. The hallways of the hotel are classic and beautiful. They’re immaculately maintained, and manage to strike the balance between feeling classic without feeling outdated.

The hotel is basically in a rectangular shape, so we turned left upon exiting the elevator, and then eventually turned right down a smaller hallway.

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St. Regis Rome hallway

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St. Regis Rome hallway

There our room was located on the right.

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St. Regis Rome room exterior

As you can see on the below floorplan, our junior suite was rectangular and quite long and narrow.

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St. Regis Rome floorplan

Typically when I think of junior suites I think of a single, large room. However, this felt much more like a full suite than a junior suite.

Upon entering there was a large living room with high ceilings.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite living room

The living room featured a couch and then two comfortable chairs.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite living room

Then in the corner of the room next to the door was a desk.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite living room

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St. Regis Rome junior suite desk

On the opposite end of the room was a TV.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite living room

Underneath the TV was the minibar. I found it interesting that it featured a full size bottle of champagne, which you don’t usually see.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite minibar

Waiting on the table next to the desk was a lovely welcome amenity, I assume thanks to my great Starwood Ambassador. There were a couple of bottles of sparkling water, some white wine, a fruit plate, and some cheese. Nom nom.

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St. Regis Rome Platinum welcome amenity

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St. Regis Rome Platinum welcome amenity

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St. Regis Rome Platinum welcome amenity

Past the living room was a sort of awkward room with a vanity. Even though the room was huge, there wasn’t actually a door separating the living room, vanity, and bedroom.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite vanity

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St. Regis Rome junior suite vanity

The bedroom was narrow and beautifully appointed, with a chandelier above the bed.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite bedroom

On the opposite side of the room was a Bang & Olufsen TV.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite bedroom

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St. Regis Rome junior suite Bang & Olufsen TV

Also next to the bed was the bathroom, which featured double sinks, a soaking tub, a shower, a toilet, and a bidet.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite bathroom

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St. Regis Rome junior suite bathroom

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St. Regis Rome junior suite double sinks

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St. Regis Rome junior suite shower & tub

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St. Regis Rome junior suite tub

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St. Regis Rome junior suite toilet

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St. Regis Rome junior suite bidet

The water pressure and temperature control were excellent.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite shower

As usual, toiletries were Remede branded, which I quite like.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite Remede toiletries

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St. Regis Rome junior suite Remede toiletries

Also next to the bedroom was a rather large closet, which ended up providing a good laugh.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite closet

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St. Regis Rome junior suite closet

Perhaps the one downside of the room was the view. When we checked in the associate described the view as “quiet,” which I think was pretty accurate. While the view was a bit underwhelming, at the same time it was indeed very quiet, which was nice.

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St. Regis Rome junior suite view

One of the benefits of St. Regis butler service is that you can get complimentary coffee & tea 24/7. When ordering coffee early in the morning I was happy to see that they even brought some pastries along with it.

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St. Regis Rome butler service complimentary coffee

In terms of other features of the hotel, there were two different sets of elevators. While one set was no doubt more practical, I loved that they had a vintage elevator that actually worked. To use it you’d first have to open the door leading to the elevator, and then would have to open the door to the actual elevator. I wouldn’t exactly describe myself as an elevator enthusiast, but I thought this was so cool.

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St. Regis Rome classic elevator

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St. Regis Rome classic elevator

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St. Regis Rome classic elevator

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St. Regis Rome classic elevator

That elevator dropped off on the first floor, on the opposite side of the hotel of reception.

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St. Regis Rome hallway

From there it was just a short walk to the hotel’s grand restaurant.

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St. Regis Rome hallway

We had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant the first morning, and to say the space is impressive would be a severe understatement.

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St. Regis Rome restaurant

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St. Regis Rome restaurant

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St. Regis Rome restaurant

And if you think the restaurant is grand, it pales in comparison to the adjacent lounge. Amazing, eh?

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St. Regis Rome lounge

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St. Regis Rome lounge

Breakfast consisted of a huge buffet, along with drinks of your choice offered by a server. I’ll let the pictures of the buffet (mostly) speak for themselves.

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

There was even Moet champagne with breakfast!

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St. Regis Rome breakfast buffet

Given that we were in Italy I ordered a cappuccino, which was delicious.

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St. Regis Rome cappuccino

The hotel also had a gym on the fifth floor, which is inside the spa complex. While the room itself was a bit bland, the equipment was pretty good.

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St. Regis Rome gym

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St. Regis Rome gym

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St. Regis Rome gym

Breakfast at the St. Regis technically only began at 7AM, though we had to leave the hotel at 6:30AM the second morning. I was impressed that the hotel offered to bring us fruit and pastries (and anything else we wanted, for that matter) via room service at 6AM, even though they weren’t serving breakfast yet. That’s good service, if you ask me.

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St. Regis Rome room service breakfast

When we went to check out, I was also impressed that in the lobby they had a setup with complimentary water, juice, coffee, tea, etc.

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St. Regis Rome complimentary coffee & tea in the lobby

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St. Regis Rome complimentary coffee & tea in the lobby

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St. Regis Rome complimentary juice in the lobby

Check-out was quick, and the associate helping us was super friendly.

As far as other things to note about the hotel go…

The hotel has a great location. It was within walking distance of most of of Rome’s popular sites, and we didn’t use a taxi or public transportation once while in the city, other than to get to and from the airport. Instead it was just a nice 15-20 minute walk to the Coliseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc.

I also have nothing but great things to say about the staff at this hotel. Everyone was exceedingly friendly and professional in an Italian/charming way.

St. Regis Rome bottom line

The St. Regis Rome was fantastic, plain and simple. From the decor to the location to the service to the size of the junior suite, this is a top notch hotel. If you can swing staying here (either using cash or points), I’d highly recommend doing so.

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SpgFan Guest

Had a cash+points stay at the St. Regis Rome recently. Somewhere in the room my partner found a Key-holder with a guest's name on it that was dated back in 2008. We thought it was a funny remnant from the past, and gave it to the front desk agent upon checkout (as a joke). Days later there was an email from Vincenzo Falcone, the hotel general manager, apologizing and clearly mortified that this card had been left in the room all these years. He then proceeded to write that the entire charge for our stay had been refunded to my cc (circa 475 euros) as well as 10,000 SPG points. He concluded the email by attaching the credit note for the refund.

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craig b. Guest

Hotel De Russie is nice (fantastic back garden restaurant), but had the hardest beds I've ever slept on. It was like sleeping on plywood.

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AlexS Diamond

I hope they don't destroy the classic character of this hotel as part of the renovations. One of my fav. NYC hotels, the Intercontinental Barclay, has been utterly destroyed by its most recent renovation, to the point that I won't stay there. It was getting quite worn before the renovation, but it just needed some refreshing. Instead, they've wiped any classic character from the place.

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JennaG New Member

Thanks for the Timely Review. In a month I plan to stay at the St. Regis or the Boscolo Exedra (TomSan's comments not withstanding). With the ability for me as a Platinum (MR Plat who is now SPG Plat) to book SPG or Marriott with the points transfers option, I can't decide between the two hotels. St. Regias Jr. Suite for 67,500 SPG or a standard redemption of 135,000 MR (with option for upgrade) at the Boscolo Exedra, and the possibility I may be upgraded. I have the points for both. Any advice?

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TomSAN Guest

@Jane I couldn't agree more. The most interesting parts of Rome are also the oldest and offer the fewest hotel-chain choices. We stay at the Smeraldo near Campo dei Fiori when we visit. The Smeraldo is hardly a fancy hotel, and it is not super cheap either. But its location is outstanding and the rooms are clean and serviceable. The morning market in Campo dei Fiori and the proximity to Piazza Navona, my favorite square in Rome, are just two sights that are nearby. I shake my head at those who come to Rome and stay on the Via Veneto (where a few chains lurk) or where Ben stayed. No thanks.

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