I was expecting a "luxury" hotel but it fell short. The hotel staff at check in were very polite and helpful, hotel was clean. But the restaurant is not really a restaurant. They get their food from a restaurant behind the hotel somewhere (I was told after complaining about the over 2 hour lunch wait) I was with a party of four and we were the only ones dining!
In addition, I was late to my meeting because they were late on calling me for my wake up call (certainly not a luxury standard when I was paying over $300.00 a night). One expects certain levels of service when you stay at a luxury hotel; at most I would give the Granduca an "Upscale" rating and maybe a 4star at best.

Tip for GM: Keep other guests pets on a leash; I was having a scotch with potential customers when someone's dog was wandering through the hotel lobby bar. Not a good impression.

GRANDUCA HAS OUTSTANDING SERVICE. Very spacious extra clean rooms and have plenty of staff to ensure that all requests be fulfilled promptly. Concierge keep excellent communication and seem to be happy to go the extra mile every time. I have never seen a hotel with all the amenities this one has to offer in the houston area in my years of travelling. So far I had only been there on business but this summer I had a visit there with my family and it went just great. They even upgraded my room. Outstanding hotel!

This hotel is absolutely beautiful! The staff is so friendly and happy to accomodate any request. Parking is free which you don't find at many hotels anymore!

The room was not just clean, it was gorgeous! Everything has a very European feel.

Great location for fabulous restuarants and shopping.

Cozy bar that brings a free plate of appetizers with your drinks.

Free Internet use
Great workout facility

I stayed in a 3-bedroom suite at the Granduca to visit my father who was having treatment at the nearby MD Anderson Cancer center. The suite was very spacious and just about everything in it was great. The master bedroom was huge as well as the master bath and space is definately not a problem in this place. We stayed in the 2nd master bedroom and were very comfortable. The bed was huge and very soft, but the pillows were very uncomofortable and we brought our own from Kansas City. The shower for the 2nd master is shared with the 3rd bedroom and is pretty nice. There are 2 vanities in the master bathroom and only 1 vanity in the 2nd bathroom, which is not that big of a deal if you do not have a fully occupied suite. However, you would think that a place with the quality of the Granduca would have a bathroom for each bedroom. The dining room and living room were great and had tons of room. The TV in the living room was HDTV and was huge and great for watching sports or movies on the DVD player. You could even order movies in HDTV through the TV if you wanted to. The full kitchen was also a great feature and it is a great thing to have the ability to cook your own meal if you wanted to. I used to excercise room once during my stay and was very impressed with the equipment. All of the equipment was top of the line and it was nice to be able to watch TV while I worked out on the elliptical. The pool and hot-tub were right outside from the main lobby and looked very nice. However, since the weather was cold and rainy we never got to take advantage of the pool facilities. Each morning a complimentary breakfast was served near the bar area and it was pretty basic. They had all of the basic stuff (cereal, fruit, bread, eggs, tea, coffee, etc.) and it was not very impressive. However, the breakfast was complimentary and it was nice to have a free breakfast every morning. There was no restaurant in the hotel which I found quite odd for a hotel of this stature. You could order room service from the restaurant next door for some pretty hefty delivery charges if you really wanted room service. Overall, I would have to say that this hotel is a great extended stay hotel and does not have all the features that a full service hotel might have. If I were staying in Houston for a short amount of time I might stay in a hotel that is fully featured.