24 Hours at the Falisia Resort, Portopiccolo
Membership: Starwood Preferred Guest
Tier status: Platinum Member
Room booked: 1 Classic Room
Room upgrade: 1 Deluxe Room (normally. 1 Junior Suite)
Points: 8 out of 10
It would be a lie if I say there were no problems before our arrival. It did cost me one full evening handling with the nice lady from Starwood Platinum 24h Hotline and three calls from the personal SPG Ambassador. The problem in detail: I have used my starpoints and one Suite-Night-Award on top of it to stay at the brand new Falisia Resort, a Luxury Collection Resort (which has been the called La Falesie, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World until July). Exactely three days before check-in I received a confirmation that the Suite Night Award has been approved. Now it was clear. Unfortunately I forgot that the hotel was in Italy and things get difficult. They insisted on technical problems for the reason and after an email to the Manager of Falisa and an upset call to my Ambassador, it fugured out that they were selling Junior Suites without even having them available...! Does not even sound strange, it really was. So the hotel cancelled my reservation, I was getting more upset. Happily my Ambassador solved eveything for me - Thanks Starwood!
However it did came completely different than expected! The Falisia Resort was amazing and one of the Top10 best hotels I have stayed in 2015 (after Raffles Istanbul, RC Abu Dhabi and Dubai and some others). I like elegant and luxurious hotels, and I love them when everything is new and expensive. At the Falisia all materials and textiles were extremely wonderful with leather walls, elegant lights, sexy looking interiors and amazing views. So I drove through the garage and there was it: the entrance inside the garage. There is just one hotel that has got something same (the Interalpen in Tyrol). The bags were taken by the kind bellmen, I was accompanied to the front desk where the young Front Desk manager welcomed me in a friendly way. Soon afterwards the Marketing Manager arrived and introduced herself as well. Maybe they found out about Starwood Preferred Guest programme and finally knew what a Platinum guest was.
Although they had no Junior Suites available, I found the room to be nothing less - in fact it was a Deluxe Room but super spacious and so elegantly furnished. Extremely (and I mean top!) beds, a vast working desk with coffee machine by Illy (Benvenuti in Italia - Where Style meets good Taste) and a bathroom to dance in with luxurious Acqua di Parma toiletries (well honestly they knew I won't be writing bad about them :) ). Unfortunately I did not have a balcony like all other rooms and there were no bath salts (like advertised in all categories on the homepage), but that's it!
The Beach Club is really amazing, it's so huge and the best is that the hotel has a private area at the end of the long, long peninsula. There is also a Golf Cart service bringing you from the Hote to the beach. Everything is included in the price, as a bottle of San Pellegrino (yeah!) and wondeful views of a clear Adriatic sea. In the next months they will build the spa which is going to be amazing as well. In fact I found the whole Portopiccolo to be truly perfect. There are two stores by Duca d'Aosta concept store (famous from Farfetch online shopping) and they even had a 20 percent discount, so what else do I need to bring you to Portopiccolo? Well there is a restaurant called Maxis, serving good sesfood (although they can't cook mussles as good as they cook the rest). Some of the Cozze had to be changed without any costs because they were still closed.
Breakfast at the Falisia was huge for italian standards and you could even sit on the terrace overlooking the artifical Portopiccolo resort which slightly was waking up again. At check-out they even asked if everything was alright. Yes, everything was alright and I truly enjoyed this new seaside luxury resort. Who knows maybe I am back next summer, but only if they really have a suite available to avoid complications and to also enjoy the pre-arrival happiness.
To all Starwood Platinum Guests, who enjoy their high tier status, I would recommend to wait one year if you would like to have a spacious Junior Suite. The usage of the Starpoints is an extremely good idea and a super value for points!
