Great 5 star hotel for location, spaciousness of rooms and baths and great view of St. Isaac cathedral from several upgraded rooms while basic rooms have views of courtyard :((
Has a small spa and training facility with co-ed sauna and turkish bath and Astoria guests can also use the indoor splash pool at the internally connected Angleterre sister hotel. Breakfast is great, specially if included in your stay, otherwise be ready for a $50 check p/p. Also be aware of minibar charges as they are ridiculously overpriced. Rooms have a great sound insulation from street noise therefore lower floors stay represents no problem. Available also an afternoon russian tea (charge $$$) in the tea room. At night the hotel bar is quite lively..
Cons: Ridiculous prices (but that applies to everything in Russia), service a little slow and not yet polished compared to other 5 stars visited around the world..

The rooms are really tiny. It took us 4 room changes to finally get a room that three of us could fit into which is ridiculous considering how expensive the hotel is. It took the writer for Departures magazine three room changes so this must be the only way to receive an appropriate size room.

The staff and service were excellent once we sorted out the room size issue.

I understand that St Petersburg hotels are expensive, but at 590€/night I expected a whole lot more.

I'm still at the hotel bar writing this, so the complete experience will be over after reaching the airport.

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Airport transfer (extra charge 3000 rub / ~100€ each way)

Starting with the positives. The hotel cars are very nice S-class Mercedes. The driver spoke no English, but the ride was comfortable.

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Check-in:

The older lady at the counter didn't speak good English, but check-in was quite smooth. (Most of the people at the reception had acceptable English skills).

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Room:

On the 2nd floor. Nice view of St Isaacs cathedral.
A bright streetlight just outside my window flooded my room with light during the night.

The wooden floor in the room was worn down and had stains on it. The bathroom had a tub and the bathroom utensils were of standard quality. The bathroom floor had not been cleaned properly.

The housekeeping was spotty at best. My half full glasses and beer bottle had not been taken away during the day. Maybe the ladies thought I'd like to enjoy a warm bottle of a day's old beer after a hard day of work.

The bed was good. The pillows were too high/big for my liking, i.e. no chance to select something more suitable for your own preference.

No wifi-connection in the room. Only a LAN-cable (very short retractable cord). The connection speed was acceptable, price was 800 rub/~25 eur day.

TV was a small Samsung LCD tv with the standard selection of Russian and international channels (CNN, etc.)

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Breakfast (extra 1250 rub, ~40€):

Pretty much what you expect from a hotel breakfast.
Ok selection of fresh fruit. Bonus points for the strawberries.
Warm food would have had to be ordered separately, I didn't bother.

Coffee selection was good. You could order cappucino, espresso or americano among others.

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Lobby/Business center
800 rub/25 eur 24hwifi access in the lobby. Luckily it's iPass enabled, so at least my company will b ebilled automatically.

NO WIFI ACCESS IN THE BUSINESS CENTER. This is unacceptable.

I could not get a late check-out and ended up sitting 4 hours at the lobby bar to have wifi access to be able to work (and write this :) ).The cigarette smoke in the bar is very annoing, coming from a country where bar smoking is now banned.

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Concierge:

Oh my god. The young chicks on the concierge desk hardly give a reassuring feeling of being able to cater the needs of travelers.

I asked the concierge to book airport transfer for me today at 4pm and the girl happily replied, yes, a car will be waiting and the cost is 3000 rub.

When checking out today, I asked about my transportation, just to make sure that it's confirmed; the concierge's list for today's transportation needs didn't have my name on it. Unacceptably bad service.

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Summary:

I have stayed at the SAS Royal on my previous St Petersburg trips. At roughly half the price of the Astoria, the SAS Royal offers a far better experience.

I sincerely recommend staying somewhere else.

This hotel is very heavily overpriced

Like good hotels in Moscow this hotel isn’t cheap, (with Russia it seems everything is either very expensive and good, or very cheap and poor, there’s nothing in the middle!) but this is one of the best hotels I’ve ever stayed in – I loved it. The service was second to none and my (standard) room was airy, bright, large and very clean. It’s in one of the best locations in St Petersburg, opposite St Isaac’s Cathedral which is huge and impressive – pictures just don’t do the cathedral justice. The hotel is in easy walking distance from all the other major sights in the centre.

It’s hard to find a fault with this hotel, nearly all of the staff spoke English, were very attentive, helpful and polite, great food (albeit expensive). I used the hotel car to go to the ballet – absolutely wonderful service. I would highly recommend this hotel.