The excellent location of the Westin Excelsior Hotel was matched by the hotel’s splendid restaurant and bar, both with their demarked outside seating areas along the pavement of the Via Vitorrio Veneto. Certainly this is one of the best locations and hotels that Rome has to offer. The area is also currently benefiting from new pavements being laid that will improve the general setting.
The restaurant service was pleasantly friendly, the food generally good, and the restaurant was fairly priced for the area. Breakfast was excellent. If you are going to book here go for the breakfast inclusive option as it works out better.
Some of the rooms did seem to match the website pictures. However the room allocated, which was supposed to be a ‘Grand Luxe Room’, didn’t look or feel like a ‘sumptuously furnished room’. Spacious yes but it was sparsely furnished compared with the pictures on the website. At least it was quiet though and the bed was very comfortable. The bathroom soap was good but the other toiletries were of industrial grade. Mini bar charges were laughable: do what it suggests in a guidebook, and what other guests were doing, and get your own stock at a local store.
The nearest lift to the room broke down three times, which meant quite a walk to the next one. It also seemed to be too much to expect that there might be notices put on the lift when it did break down. This is similar to not being told in advance, or even on arrival, about the closure of the restaurant and the alternative arrangements that had been made. These arrangements were in fact fine but it would have been nice to have staff that knew about it as well (three people gave three different responses to questions about the arrangements). When the restaurant did reopen it was great.
The internal public lounge area and its adjacent bar are in need of attention. There is a world of difference between faded elegance and having carpets, furniture and upholstery that is just simply old, worn and dirty. Bar prices are somewhat over expensive, which probably explains why it was mostly empty: for example a 200ml bottle of Coke cost more than a litre bottle of sparking mineral water!
The comments made by other reviewers about the concierge seem to be well founded. More time by these people in providing service, instead of judging if they can be bothered with the guest in the first place, would be a good move in the right direction. Some sales opportunities were lost at this desk. Reception staff on the other hand seemed efficient to the point of being almost abrupt, but were not really receptive to any comments about the stay. And no guest comment cards were found anywhere. Interesting also to note that only some guests were shown to their rooms, and helped with luggage!
Overall then the stay was a fairly pleasant one and reasonable value for the money. However the excellence of some parts of the hotel (especially the restaurant and its staff) only showed up the inadequacies in the other parts. This hotel would be a truly fine international hotel if it all came together just a bit better.
