Thomas P.
Yelp
Mixed feelings...
My wife and I booked 1 week in Palazzo Montemartini through Voyageprive.com, including 1 dinner at the Senses resturant and a massage for 2 in the Spa.
When we arrived, we were offered a coffee & tea at the beautiful Senses restaurant. The staff was very welcoming. Then we went to our Collection room and found it nicely decorated. Nothing extravagant but modern style, which we like. In the evening we received a bottle of spumante in our room together with a personalized letter from the hotel manager. Again, we appreciated this attention and started to feel like in a 5 star hotel.
It was confirmed when we went to the Senses restaurant for dinner and to the Spa. The cocktail, dinner and wine were excellent. The place is gorgeous, really looks like the pictures. We also had the breakfast served in the Senses restaurant (from Tuesday to Thursday). The buffet is gourmet, high quality food and delicious crepes were made on demand.
Then we went to the Spa. The place is very modern, top quality, and hostesses/masseuses had strong attention to details.
Well, until now, everything seems perfect, so why did we only put 3 stars?
Because the 2nd part of the week was much less pleasant.
Point# 1: Since we visited a lot Rome, we realized day after day that the hotel is quite far away from the city center.
There is no much to do around the hotel. Termini station is surrounded by tramps. So no choice than go to the city center to visit.
We walked 13-15 kms/day, of which 30% of this distance required to from the hotel to the city center were most areas of interests are.
At the end of the week we were more reluctant to walk to the different places and used uber which did cost on average 18-20€ each time. At the end of the week, it is quite a budget, especially if like us you come back to the hotel to change and go back to the city center or Trastevere to find a nice place to eat.
Point# 2: when we went back to the hotel on Friday evening (22:45), there was a huge party organized in the Senses restaurant. Very loud music, many very young ladies dressed on high heels, short skirts, hanging around in the lobby. What a surprise for such a hotel.
We went back to our room, located just above the restaurant and realized that the hotel is not sound proofed at all, especially for such loud music. We called reception to complain and they promised that it would stop at midnight. We could not even hear the sound of our own television!!! Impossible to read to wait. Impossible to sleep either. At 20 past midnight we called again the reception to complain again. They promised it would stop in 10 minutes. It finished at 1AM and after that they started to move around all tables generating some noise again. It was quiet at 2am...
In the morning, we went to the reception to ask for the hotel manager. To keep us waiting the concierge took care of us and offered us a coffee. After many back and forth discussion they offered us a dinner for 2 (including local wine) at the restaurant on Saturday evening. We had to change our saturday evening plans to " enjoy " the " compensation ". It sounded like it was the best we could get as a compensation of our night without sleep in a palace...
During the whole day, despite the fact that we asked specifically to speak to the hotel Manager and gave our personal phone number, we never got the chance to discuss live with the hotel manager. The concierge (extremely nice person, very helpful) was our contact for the whole process.
We thus went to the Senses restaurant and indeed did not pay for the meal but were invoiced 7€ for a bottle of sparkling water and did not get the promised wine. We also felt a different attitude of the staff vs our 1st dinner (which we paid for) at the Senses. Just did the job. Nothing more.
All of this could have been avoided. We could have received a letter in our room to tell us that this event was planned and would last until 1 AM. The staff knew that this event was booked and should never have given us a room that is right above the party. They could have offered to give us a different room, proactively, just for that night. And certainly the manager should have been in front line to address the complaint and not send his concierge.
So, in the end, mixed feelings.
My wife and I are used to travel the world for business and stay in 4/5 star hotels. We have had many experiences to compare with.
Most of the staff is smiling, caring as you would expect in a 5-star Hotel.
The hotel is a very elegant and rooms are OK. But organizing such events at the expense of your customers who booked a room to sleep in your Palace hotel is absolutely not OK.
And apparently such parties are frequent. The manager did not call us at any time to handle direct'y the complaint is not OK either for a Palace.
It all started well. It's a shame it did not end up the same despite some efforts to " compensate ".
The tagline is " The Exceptional ". Quite not there yet.