Four Seasons Hotel Lion Palace St. Petersburg

The problem with Four Lions’ service despite it’s over promise. Shocking and alarming “customer service” Very bad staff attitude, pompous and undignified.Reported duly in a daily basis with no improvement so we cut our long stay and went to a better hotel. The hotel manager, Signor Livio Faverio, an Italian with whom I exchanged numerous WhatsApp messages. Livio Faverio is very adept at over promise; the problem is he under delivered despite his “promises” . I am confident you reading this review know what I’m alluding to. The question is do you want a 5 star customer service? We did not receive it. In our example Faverio would act genuinely interested to learn from customer dissatisfaction ; yet he never fixed the problem which he took personal responsibility for. Examples : 1. The swimming pool and sauna was closed for 4 weeks. Four Lions expected customers to use “W” hotel swimming pool and sauna which is 5 minutes away from Four Lions. The state of swimming pool was very dirty, unhygienic with bacterial mould clearly evident. No hot water in our en-suite shower. Faverio joked that we were making this up. I did not find his humour appealing. We had to use cold water for 4 nights before We were asked to change rooms after a disruptive midnight reception phone call. We were asleep; the hotel disrupted our busy business time schedule for the next day. If Faverio had investigated the cold water problem from my first alert this would have been professional. Can you imagine cold ice shower each day? This was troubling especially because the gym showers were closed and not for use. The toilet roll is very inferior quality in the en-suite thin and paper feel. Problem : The hotel has no bidets. Bidets are important for hygiene. In Four Seasons the toilet plumbing is weak and old. There is no air ventilation in the en-suite toilet. Can you imagine the unpleasant smell after toilet use? Faverio blamed his low budget on bathroom and room improvements. In the hotel there are no bidets in any rest room. This is so different to other 5 star hotel in Saint Petersburg whom all have bidets. Can you imagine no water to cleanse yourself properly after toilet visit o. Four Seasons? Customer Service: The waitresses are constantly annoying in their unfriendly approach. For breakfast I was late for business meeting because it took over 16 minutes to serve me a boiled egg.Faverio blamed the waitress for not communicating the order to the head chef. My question. ; do you need a head chef to boil an egg? More Complications : I’m trying to do business on my phone especially during breakfast and waitresses every 5 minutes would keep me waiting for 10 - 15 minute for a hot coffee. We also found this hotel has very poor breakfast policy which means we were going to be over charged for certain foods despite the hotel promise “ breakfast package inclusion” in our price. I had told Livio on several occasions his staff were very problematic. To my face he told me they are all Russian ( he was being extremely condescending in my humble opinion). He said the staff have no understanding of hospitality unlike rest of Europe. I told him this was an unoble remark especially because my wife is Russian. What do you think would you tolerate this kind of remark despite your ethnicity? ( I imagine Faverio believes Italians are superior in hospitality). We reported Livio to Four Season CEO office worldwide via email;Four Seasons’ reply is that Four Lions Saint Petersburg as Four Seasons is not part of their business. We did get the impression Head Office and the majority of his staff find Livio troublesome. For example, there are no managers on duty during the night and reception is un trained in important matters at hand. Flowers and bouquet wilted because the water was not changed Again Livio made excuses; he blamed Russian house keeping poor level. He blames Russians for everything unsatisfactory in the hotel it would appear. More Problems: The business guest centre in Four Lions has very little space and the water supply for coffee tea was not functiona during our long stay. I lost many precious business deals due to the ineptitude of Four Lions and Livio was offering to keep us guests for much longer so we would spend more money. He genuinely does not care about anything it seems but profit. The gym is very small and there is no natural light; it’s a very dark space with a chandelier. I prefer chandeliers in a bedroom not a gym. Be aware; good luck. There are better hotels in Saint Petersburg which are just as luxurious. This post is to help those who are considering Four Lions Saint Petersburg.