Grand Hotel Victoria Lake Como, Greg’s turn

A few years ago, Nick visited the Grand Hotel Victoria on Lake Como Italy and he fell in love. He loved Lake Como; he loved Menaggio (the town on Lake Como where the hotel is); and he loved the hotel. He returned a little over a year later, and loved it all even more. Now, it was my turn. To celebrate our 30th anniversary, my wife and I spent 5 nights at the Grand Hotel Victoria. We had an amazing time. I’ll post separately about what we did around Lake Como, but for this post I’ll give my impressions of the hotel…

How I booked the stay

Grand Hotel Victoria Lake Como is a member of SLH (Small Luxury Hotels of the World) and is bookable with (currently) 140,000 Hilton points per night or free night certificates when standard rooms are available. Either way it’s a bargain since room rates are usually $2,000 per night or more. The easiest way to find point or free night availability is via Rooms.Aero (here).

On previous visits to the hotel, Nick used Hyatt points. At that time, SLH partnered with Hyatt, but they’ve since switched to Hilton. You can read Nick’s thorough reviews of the hotel here:

• Amazing: Grand Hotel Victoria Concept & Spa on Lake Como
• A return to the SLH Grand Hotel Victoria, a dream within a dream

On my trip, I used 5 Hilton free night certificates. The first two nights were booked with my own certificates and the next three with my wife’s certificates. We each had earned 2 free nights by signing up for the Hilton Surpass card when the welcome bonus included a free night and then we spent $15,000 on each card to earn a second free night. We also each earned another free night by spending $15,000 on our Hilton Business cards before the free night perk was removed from that card.

Since we were using free nights from two separate Hilton accounts, we couldn’t book a single 5 night stay. Instead, we booked two back-to-back stays. I didn’t realize at the time of booking that we had booked different room types. One reservation was for a “Prestige Park View Room” and another was for a “Deluxe Courtyard View.” So when I emailed the hotel at reservation@grandhotelvictoria.it to request that we keep one room for the stay, the request was denied. That turned out to be a non-issue at check-in, though, as they assigned us a single Deluxe Courtyard View for the whole stay.

How I used my $50 & $60 Hilton credits

Amex Business Platinum cards and Hilton Surpass cards offer $50 back per quarter for spend at Hilton hotels. Similarly the Hilton Business card offers $60 back per quarter at Hilton hotels. Fortunately, these credits also work at SLH hotels that participate in Hilton’s partnership!

We had charged a lot to our room during our stay: bar drinks and snacks, a dinner, and car transportation to and from the hotel. Luckily I had thought ahead and had brought along all of my family’s credit cards that offer Hilton credits. At check-out I asked them to charge 50 Euros to each card. Several days later, we each found statement credits in our accounts:

I charged the remaining balance to my wife’s Hilton Business card. That resulted in a $60 credit and it earned 12x on that spend thanks to the stay counting as a Hilton stay.

It’s worth noting that the Hilton Aspire resort credit is not expected to work at SLH hotels. I don’t currently have the Aspire card, but I would expect it to earn 14x at SLH hotels, so it’s a great choice to use once you’ve used up credits on other cards.

Amazing check-in

We started our trip in rural France to attend a friend’s wedding. To get to the hotel in Lake Como, we took Swiss trains from France to Lugano, Switzerland. From Lugano, we took a private car transfer to the hotel (I had arranged this with the hotel — they charged 180 Euros to our room for this).

When our car pulled up in front of the hotel, two hotel staff members were waiting for us and greeted us by name. One whisked away our bags and brought them directly to our room. The other welcomed us to the hotel and escorted us inside to check in. At the check-in desk we were warmly greeted by the hotel manager who explained that we would be in one room for our stay despite having two separate reservation. Next, they poured glasses of Prosecco for us and showed us around the property, including giving us a full tour of the hotel’s incredible spa (Nick described the spa in detail here). Finally they took us to our room and explained how to use the (very confusing) lights and thermostat.

That was certainly one of the most impressive hotel greetings I’ve ever experienced (the only one I can remember that was as impressive was Brenners Park Hotel in Baden-Baden Germany). It was a little disappointing then, afterwards, when service seemed more like what you’d find at a regular well-run hotel. From then on, staff were always friendly and helpful, but never again remembered our names or did anything that really stood out like that initial greeting.

Welcome Gift

A welcome gift was waiting in our room upon check-in. This included a small plate of fruit (which was partially restocked daily), a few small snacks, a bottle of water, and a bottle of Prosecco.

No Anniversary Gift

I had many back and forth e-mail conversations with the hotel before our stay and I made sure (many times!) to let them know that we were celebrating our 30th anniversary. So, I was surprised that we didn’t receive an anniversary gift during the stay. We didn’t even get a verbal congratulations. I found that weird since we’ve been showered with gifts and congratulations’ at lesser hotels during past anniversaries.

Bedroom

Our room was in the new wing of the hotel with a balcony and partial view of Lake Como. Unfortunately it was also right above the hotel’s loading area and so it was sometimes noisy in the morning (we thought about asking to move rooms but after long days around Lake Como, it always seemed like more trouble than it was worth). Aside from that one issue, though, the room was great. It was large and comfortable and had a nice balcony.

Hotel Exterior

One of the best aspects of the hotel is its beautiful front-yard with a great view of Lake Como and the mountains beyond. Several evenings we enjoyed sitting there and ordering cocktails and snacks.

Hotel Dining

Breakfast each morning was delightful. The full and extensive buffet, along with made-to-order eggs were included with our room. The food, coffee, and juice (fresh squeezed!) were excellent. And we loved the views. We ate dinner at this restaurant one time, and the food was excellent (especially the pasta dish we shared, which was one of my favorite dishes of our entire trip).

Victoria Beach (Beach Club)

The hotel has its own newly renovated beach club within a 5 minute walk from the hotel. It was really nice! We didn’t eat there but it offers both a full service restaurant and a waterside bar. There are also plenty of places to lounge by the water, and you can choose between the adults-only area, the regular area, or the kids zone. You can find details about the beach club on their website, here.

Beach chairs were free for us as hotel guests, but we were told that was only true because we were there in May. Apparently even hotel guests are charged during high season. That seems crazy to me.

Nick was there too!

Nick and his family returned yet again to the Grand Hotel Victoria. This time, just by chance, our stays partially overlapped! It was really fun to catch up with Nick and his family in person.

Final Word

We had a terrific stay at Grand Hotel Victoria. It’s incredible what can be done with points and miles! This hotel is a great example of a place that we would have never considered paying for in cash, but we got to enjoy thanks to Hilton’s partnership with SLH.

Would we return? We loved Lake Como, so a return to the area someday is likely. But there are many, many towns around Lake Como, and we’d be interested in trying others. We loved the hotel, but not enough to make it the destination in itself. Of the places we visited around Lake Como, we were particularly enamored with Varenna, so we’d be likely to look there for lodging next time around. But if we can’t find a good option there, we would not be the least bit upset to “settle” for the wonderful Grand Hotel Victoria.

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