We arrived last Friday afternoon and were given an extremely warm welcome by the Concierge and Front of House staff. The first impression is wonderful! The photos on their own website do not do the place justice. The decoration is a fabulous mix of old and new with a quirky twist thrown in to spice it up. Being the beginning of February, the hotel was very quiet.

We were shown to our room, the Caterina de Medici room, which they made a big fuss over giving us. We were handed over to the Butler for the "St Regis Butler experience". We never used it. If we had never been to Florence before we may have used the service for recommendations but we knew what we wanted to do.

The room was decorated handsomely, again a similar melange of styles which worked. A fault here was that there was only one comfortable chair and a desk chair in a room which could have taken a sofa and two arm chairs at least. They don't want you to stay and enjoy the room I guess. Also, we travel with a large quantity of luggage but the minuscule closet in the room is unacceptable. I understand the restrictions of buildings hundreds of years old but a free standing antique armoire would have been welcome and again there was room for this as well! The bed is like a giant marshmallow and comfortable! The view is lovely but the roar of the river is something you will never get away from. Also beware that the two sides of the Arno river, at this point, seem to be a rat run for ambulances and you can hear them at all hours of the day and night.

The Champagne Experience for aperitivo was lovely and a nice touch - in season, with some more people, it could but quite fun. Breakfast was good not exceptional but the service was extremely charming and made up for the average food offering. We didn't get a chance to try any spa offerings.

All in all, a very good experience! It is on the edge of the action but in season this could be a godsend when the hoards arrive.

Stayed here a several ocasions. Hotel staff is outstanding. Rooms are great and so is the food.
It is located are the Arno River and is easily with in walk distance of most the the key sight seeing stops in the city

This was our second trip to Florence in less then one year and once again, our stay at the St Regis Florence was magnificent! Our suite, the hotel and the staff were incredible in every way. We dined on the balcony every morning overlooking the Arno as the weather was perfect. The fresco’s, décor and furnishings in our suite were spectacular and well done. Our Butler’s were the best as well as the Concierge team as they helped us with our needs like our 2nd truffle hunt, wineries and restaurant reservations and all of the recommendations were far above our expectations.
Kelly and I travel extensively for both business and pleasure and The St Regis Florence has become our favorite hotel in Europe. We want to thank the entire staff of the St. Regis for their hospitality and we look forward to our next visit.
Gary Mazurek Plano, TX

The Grand Hotel in Florence was part of the Luxury Collection. At least in Italy, and elsewhere in Europe, the Luxury Collectiom hotels each have (or had) their own personality. As if they were a loose collection of highly individual hotels.the Gritti in Venice, the Imperial in Vienna, etc., the Goldiner Hirsch in Salzburg ....al luxury collection hotels. Now the Grand has been re branded as a St Regis, part of a tightly branded group of hotels that cater to a different clientele. I loved the one-off sense that the Grand was jut the perfect exquisite, luxury but slightly sleepy hotel, beditting the singular character of Florence. Ot was an unself-conscious but beautiful hotel that happened to be covered with murals or soaring ceilings with collections of antique furnishings, set out in an old fashioned, bu truly well-suited way.
The Grand Hotel on gorgeous Piazza Ognissanti was one of this traveler's life's great pleasures. It was the essence of Florence. It was elegant and quiet and dreamy. Old, and palatial but a bit dusty. It was a true palazzo. The front office really ran the hotel. It wasn't a rigidly organized notch in a company's belt. The St. Regis sucked the originality and the flow and ebb of Florentine life out of the hotel with its uniform and garish "improvements." If, as a guest, innthenpast, if you got to the hotel, and one of the huge rooms facing the Piazza as well as the Arno was free, you would wearily walk up the grand main staircase and the door was flung open to reveal an impossibly huge room with 15 foot ceilings and a terrace or two, were yours to enjoy. As a steady customer, I was always treated in such a manner. When the hotel was crowded, we still got a huge deluxe room, with an enormous green velvet canopy overlooking the Arno for a fair price. Frescos on the wall, of course and a weird little dressing room all added to the charm that said "Italia," " Firenze."
The breakfast room was modest, but a delicious spread was included every morning.
The hideous Westin, across the aquare, that had already been subjected to the branding of its grand corporate owners, was no longer a special spot in Florence, but a convention or tour group hotel...noisy, turbulent and terribly commercial.
But the New St. Regis has ruined and homogenized a treasure. The rooms all have the same cornets above the bed. A new,mirrarional insignia isneverywhere. The categories and prices have been codified and the prices are high! They building has been renovated beyond recognition. I don't believe special top of the line baths even go In this hotel. Sure, room service was a laugh and the TV and pay per view were abysmal. But the new hotel has taken and the Grand and ruined it. Not every hotel,lends itself to some corporate idea of polish and "bespoke" whatever. Whatever St. Regis is selling, at this hotel, is a travesty because the real product, that is The Grand, has been obscured as much as possible.
Of course most guests seem to love it.. It is safe and everything matches. And the St. Regis logo is everywhere. and it's expensive and has fancy everything.
My heart is broken that an old, elegant original has been described as gaudy and compared to other hotels in the St. Regis chain. Garish, ersatz and another one of a kind swallowed by a chain.