Did anyone just get back from Europe that stayed at some of the Starwood hotels? CUrious mostly about the Grand in Rome, Excelsior in Venice, and Excelsior in Florecnce. Is it hard to get upgrades as a gold starwood member and any tricks?

I've stayed at the St. Regis Grand in Rome. Didn't bother to try and use Starwood points for an upgrade as we had a reasonably decent room through my company.

But, be prepared for sticker shock on prices for things like room service and services like shirt pressing. An example, chicken consomme soup 30Euro. That isn't a typo. 2 pressed shirts and pair of suit pants - 45Euro.

While the hotel is lovely and the staff very professional, you must be willing to be comfortable with the idea of being a source of significant profit margin to enjoy your stay.

The obvious answer is stay there, eat elsewhere, and do your own laundry!

We stayed at the Starwood Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan and couldn't believe the charges for food on the room service menu. $15 for a pot of coffee, $9 for a yogurt!

I should add, however, that the Milan Starwood was absolutely gorgeous property from the lobby to the dining area to the doors into the rooms and the furniture in the hallways and luxurious bathrooms. It was our last night in Italy and a little luxury was lovely. They were obviously used to a very rich clientele however as they seemed amazed we would drive to a store by ourselves and not take a taxi or get a driver! (We had discount rooms through an employee.)

We just stayed at the Europa in Venice and got a fabulous room upgrade with our Starwood Card. I didn't even have to ask for it.

Stayed in all Starwood properties last summer for my honeymoon. Rome - Excelsior, Florence - The Grand, and Venice - Regina/Europa, although we spent our days at the Excelsior on the beach. Each property was more exquisite than the previous one. All 3 properties we had kingsize beds and decent size rooms (The Grand and Regina upgraded us b/c i emailed them ahead of time and told them it was our honeymoon.) We paid E295/night at all 3 places - all included full american breakfast (which could feed you for the day and the hotel charges E50 pp a la carte) except in Rome where bfast was not included. Keep checking the Starwood Italy website for deals - we shaved hundreds of dollars off our original reservation b/c they kept dropping the room rates as the summer season got closer. I love these hotels and will not stay anywhere else on return trips. Concierge service was great, rooms were beautiful, amenetites are stellar. See my trip report for more info.

we're going to italy and paris in the beginning of october and will be using points to stay at the prince de gaulle in paris, the westin in florence, denali in venice and will be paying for the rome leg. hopefully the rooms they give us will be decent. quick question - will we need a cot for sure if we have 3 people?