‘What rules today is money’: Rome’s five-star hotel boom

“Rome is now the city of luxury hotels,” said Giuseppe Botrugno as he served his loyal crowd of lunchtime customers, mostly office workers who pile into the humble bar and eatery for affordable, no-nonsense Roman fare.

“There is one opposite, one around the corner, and another planned next door to that one,” added Botrugno, who along with his brother has run Bar San Marcello on Via di San Marcello, a narrow street close to the Trevi fountain, for more than two decades.

They have seen plenty of changes in the neighbourhood, most recently the boom in five-star hotels.

Opposite the bar is Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini, a 15th-century building with a Unesco-listed facade that now hosts the well-heeled guests of Six Senses, as the first location in Italy for the international chain. In another ancient complex around the corner is Umiltà 36, a Shedir Collection hotel. Down the road from that, a building that until Friday was the headquarters of Rome’s foreign press association is being vacated to make way for the neighbourhood’s next five-star offering.

On the one hand, Botrugno is pleased that Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini, which lay abandoned for years, has sprung back to life. “It gives some lustre to the city,” he said. On the other, he wonders if such an abundance of luxury might diminish the eternal city’s spirit. “The move in this direction is inevitable, as what rules today is money,” he said.

Rome’s leaders are certainly making the most of it. The Italian capital came second after London for luring the world’s top luxury hotels in 2023, according to a report by Luxury Travel Intelligence. A Bulgari hotel opened with a star-studded party in June last year, while 13 more are on the way before 2026. They include a Four Seasons hotel, a brand partly owned by Bill Gates, which will be accommodated in a Renaissance-era building close to the Vatican, and the Robert De Niro-backed Nobu Hotel Roma on Via Veneto.

After a period of negative press, mostly due to its waste management woes, the city’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, said the influx of luxury hotels proved that Rome “has become attractive again”.

Maurizio Veloccia, Rome’s urban planning councillor, said that not since the 1960s and 70s when Via Veneto was at the centre of the dolce vita had there been such a high interest in the city from the luxury sector. “Rome has always been a city to see at least once in a lifetime, but until recently, compared to Paris and London, it was not attracting the hotels or visitors of a certain, shall we say, class,” he said.

In Rome 2023 was a record year for tourism, with visitor numbers eclipsing 2019. A person working for a luxury hotel said there was a renewed sense among its guests of “wanting to live life to the full” after the Covid-19 crisis. Big events such as last September’s Ryder Cup and sell-out concerts have been a major draw.

“Rome is experiencing an incredible period of rebirth, and especially in high-end tourism,” said Tommaso Tanzilli, the director general of the Rome and Lazio unit of the Federalberghi hotels association. “But not only are we closing the gap in luxury hotels but hotels at all levels are doing well.”

However, the heavy focus on luxury isn’t welcomed by everyone. Vanna Mannucci, an adviser at the Rome unit of the a heritage group Italia Nostra, said it might push even more residents and small to mid-range businesses away from the centre. “Without residents, the city dies,” she said. “It will also squeeze out smaller hotels offering rooms to those who can’t afford to pay €500 a night.”

Her Italia Nostra colleague, Riccardo D’Aquino, expressed concern about alterations being made to the city’s historic buildings in order to accommodate high-end tastes, citing the Six Senses, where Roman-style baths were built on the first floor. “The economic needs are understandable, we can’t live without tourism,” he said. “What worries me is that this change is not being well managed.”

The luxury arrivals have also triggered the wrath of owners of small and medium-sized hotels, who argue that international investors are being given preferential treatment, such as being granted permits more swiftly. “Whereas I’ve been trying to update our licence for years,” said Steve Brenner, of the Beehive hostel, close to Termini station. “It kind of pisses us all off as we feel that small hotels are the city’s bread and butter. We collect the tourist taxes for them, but yet we are treated differently.”

Brenner said the city was not equipped to offer the kind of service a five-star guest wants. “We don’t have enough taxis, we don’t have the infrastructure, even down to the water and electricity.”

Sergio Franci, the owner of Antica Stamperia Trevi, a printing shop that has been on Via dell’Umiltà since 1780, welcomed the top hotels but said not enough was being done to conserve Rome’s historic businesses. Mass tourism has taken its toll on the city, and although the rubbish crisis has slightly eased in the historic centre in recent years, it remains an issue for the neighbourhoods beyond.

“Rome doesn’t have the dignity that a capital city deserves,” said Franci. “Rome needs more than five-star hotels – it needs a long-term vision.”