Opening Late 2026

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental, Rome

Name: Mandarin Oriental, Rome
Address: Rome, Italy

ten restored villas in the Gardens of Sallust

Rome, Italy

Get notified when it opens

The day it opens + our first honest verdict. No paid placements. Joins the Fat Voyage list — leave any time.

First look

This is Mandarin Oriental's first hotel in Rome, and the brand isn't doing it with a single tower. The property spreads 108 rooms across ten restored nineteenth-century villas in the Villini Sallustiani, the quiet pocket between Via Piemonte and Via Sallustiana that sits above the ancient Gardens of Sallust. It's an unusual footprint for a city hotel, and the kind of building stock that's hard to get right.

On paper the team is serious. Gilles & Boissier are handling the interiors, DimoreStudio the six restaurants and bars, and Parc Nouveau the gardens that thread between the villas. There's a rooftop Mandarin Bar and a spa with six treatment rooms and indoor and outdoor pools.

Not yet scored. We publish a Fat Score only once a hotel is open and real guests have stayed and written about it — this is a first look, not a verdict.

What we'll be watching

We haven't stayed yet — here's what will decide whether it lands when we do.

Whether ten villas feel like one hotel. The 108 rooms are split across ten separate nineteenth-century buildings — that can read as an intimate compound or as ten disconnected houses sharing a name. How you arrive and move between them is the thing to watch.
Whether the restoration keeps the period character. This building stock is hard to get right; Gilles & Boissier could honour the bones or sand them flat into contemporary-luxury. The detail and materials are the tell.
Whether the dining is a destination. DimoreStudio is designing six restaurants and bars plus a rooftop Mandarin Bar — in a city that doesn't lack for tables, we'll be watching whether these pull Romans in or just feed guests.
Whether the quiet address is an asset or an isolation. The pocket above the Gardens of Sallust is calm for central Rome, but it's a walk to the headline sights — worth knowing if you want to step out of the door into the city.

First look · gallery

Renderings & press imagery, courtesy of the hotel — details may change before opening.

Sofie, who runs the Fat Voyage booking desk with Nicolas

Want us to get you in when it opens?

Nothing to book yet — rates usually load a few months out. We're Sofie and Nicolas; tell us roughly what you're after and we'll come back the moment Mandarin Oriental, Rome is bookable, with rates, what the rooms are actually like, and whether we'd go in the first season.

You'll be dealing with the two of us the whole way through, which is why we only take on a handful of trips at a time — if we're full, we'll say so. We reply by email, usually within one working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.

Before it opens

When does Mandarin Oriental, Rome open?

It's slated to open in late 2026, with trade press citing the second half of the year. As with any restoration of this scale, treat the window as expected rather than fixed.

Where is Mandarin Oriental, Rome located?

In the Villini Sallustiani, the quiet pocket between Via Piemonte and Via Sallustiana that sits above the ancient Gardens of Sallust — central Rome, but a calmer corner of it than the area around the headline sights.

Is this Mandarin Oriental's first hotel in Rome?

Yes. It's the brand's first property in the city, spread across ten restored nineteenth-century villas rather than a single building.

How many rooms will it have?

108 rooms and suites, distributed across the ten villas.

What restaurants and facilities will it have?

Six restaurants and bars designed by DimoreStudio, a rooftop Mandarin Bar, gardens by Parc Nouveau threading between the villas, and a spa with six treatment rooms plus indoor and outdoor pools. Interiors are by Gilles & Boissier.

Will Fat Voyage score Mandarin Oriental, Rome?

We publish a Fat Score only once a hotel is open and real guests have stayed and written about it — drawn from luxury travel communities, editorial publications, and verified guests, never paid placements. This is a first look, not a verdict; we'll score it once there's enough independent signal to be fair.

Open now

What you can book today

Mandarin Oriental, Rome is still under wraps. Here's what's already open and scored in our collection — more from Mandarin Oriental, and nearby in Italy.

Fat Favorite

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental, Lake Como

Lake Como, Italy

The reason to book is the villa and that pool, and both hold up. Guests who've stayed on multiple lakes call the floating pool the best they've experienced anywhere, and it's the kind of thing you can't get elsewhere on Como: it sways when boats pass, and it sits right on the water in front of a 19th-century building with gardens people are still talking about years later. The upgrades and small gestures come up constantly too: a phone charger cord wrapped in velcro, a birthday treat waiting in the room, a golden retriever treated like a guest in its own right. The staff culture is the other real reason to go — Alicia at the spa desk and Isabella in guest relations get thanked by name, and the tone across most stays is warm rather than stiff or performative. Where the money doesn't stretch as far: check-in has run past an hour more than once this year, sometimes worse at night, and small requests (a hard pillow, a toothbrush, extra water) have been fumbled or taken two hours to show up. That points to being understaffed rather than uncaring, but it's still not what you expect at this rate. The food is the clearest letdown — breakfast draws repeated complaints about being thin for a five-star property, and L'Aria gets flagged for confusing portions and 30-euro cocktails that leave you hungry. The recommended transfers also run well above what a taxi or Uber costs locally, which is worth knowing before you book one rather than after. Book this for the villa, the gardens, and that pool, with a staff that genuinely seems to enjoy the work. Treat the restaurants as optional and use the Como town shuttle for dinner when you want more choice, which plenty of guests already do.

Fat Legend

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand

Almost everyone who writes about the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok lands on the same thing: the staff remember you. One guest found a bookmark placed exactly where she'd left off in her book. Another was recognized by a therapist she hadn't seen in a decade. A butler named Maria found extra boxes to protect a couple's souvenirs at packing time, after four nights of what they called the most attentive service they'd had anywhere. One regular says new staff greeted her by name on a return visit, purely from training, since none of them had met her before. That's the reason people keep coming back instead of trying Capella or the newer Aman down the river. The catch is space, and it's a fair one. A Deluxe Premier Room in the River Wing runs around $500 a night in low season for about 42 square meters, comfortable but noticeably tighter than what Four Seasons or Capella gives you at similar money, and several guests have said so without any bitterness about it. The rooms show the building's age in the standard categories, even with the 150th-anniversary refresh and the new gym (ice plunge, sauna, genuinely well liked) landing well. Breakfast and the common areas can turn chaotic during a wedding or a corporate event, and the riverside setting that makes the evening views so good also means real traffic time if Sukhumvit is where you actually need to be. Book it for the service and for a hotel that's been doing this for nearly 150 years and still means it, not for square footage. If a bigger, more modern standard room matters more to you than history, Four Seasons is the name people keep raising. If you want to feel looked after in a way that seems to run deeper than a training manual, this is still the one.

Fat Approved

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental Bodrum

Bodrum, Turkey

Mandarin Oriental Bodrum earns its keep on the hillside, not just the brochure line about it. Rooms cascade down toward Paradise Bay, several with their own pools, and the grounds are genuinely green rather than landscaped for a photo. The spa is the other reason people come back: one guest's contact lens emergency got solved by a therapist who tracked down a lens case and saline mid-treatment, and the hammam gets called out on its own terms often enough that it's clearly not a fluke. Families do well here too, with a kids' club that parents actually praise rather than tolerate, and an ambassador system that handles the small stuff: one guest's lost phone got traced through a taxi driver and returned before checkout. The gap opens at the waterline. Beach and pool service lags well behind the rest of the property, particularly by September, when one guest gave up after asking three times for a beer that never came. Food and drink pricing is a real sore point too: a chicken wrap near €50, cocktails around €28, and quality that regularly doesn't back it up, including a flat night at the on-site Ferdi Baba. Visit in October and you'll find restaurants and shops closing early for the season, which thins out what the rate is meant to cover once August ends. Book it from May through September for the setting, the spa team, and a beach scene that still has energy, and go in knowing the beach bars are where the wheels come off. Outside peak summer, or on the outer beach service specifically, price your expectations down accordingly. For the hillside, the hammam, and the way the team on the ground treats you, it's worth booking.

Fat Approved

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental, London (Hyde Park)

London, United Kingdom

Door attendants Joaquin and Graham, receptionists Hugo, Ruby and Georgi, breakfast servers Mark and Sherif, bartender Claire: these names show up because people keep singling them out, not because we're padding a list. One couple's card got declined at check-in and a receptionist talked them through it so smoothly the awkwardness never landed. The people running this hotel are the reason to book it, ahead of the building or the rate. Room quality swings hard depending on where you land. This is a converted, listed Victorian building, and the turret rooms and park-facing Deluxes read as genuinely special, but some guests end up in interior rooms with no real window and thin connecting doors. One guest paying around £1,000 a night got moved after a noisy night into a smaller room with no view, and was offered a drink at the bar as the fix. Another was told at 1am that a couple next door were audible through the connecting wall. Push for a Hyde Park-facing Deluxe and stay away from anything near a connecting door or a lift — the gap between a good room and a bad one here is wider than the rate should allow. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (two Michelin stars, built on old English dishes rather than anything experimental) and The Rosebery's park-view breakfast and afternoon tea both come up as the standout meals of a London trip, and guests doing the old-world comparison keep landing here over Claridge's or the Lanesborough. Those chasing round-the-clock anticipation from day one tend to end up at the Connaught instead. Book this one for the staff, the view and the food, go in ready to fight for room category, and it earns the stay.

Get notified

Be first when Mandarin Oriental, Rome opens

We'll email you the day it opens — and our first honest verdict once guests have actually stayed. No paid placements, ever.

Joins the Fat Voyage list — leave any time.

More anticipated openings

All openings

Mandarin Oriental

Europe

Mandarin Oriental Punta Negra, Mallorca

— Mandarin Oriental's first in Mallorca

Costa d'en Blanes, Calvià, Spain

The brand's Balearic debut, on a wooded peninsula between two coves near Puerto Portals — 131 rooms and suites across five buildings, with Matsuhisa and Leña by Dani García among the restaurants.

Opened

June 2026

First look →

Four Seasons

Europe

Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel

— the legendary Danieli reborn

Venice, Italy

Four Seasons has the keys to the Danieli, Venice's storied palazzo on the lagoon by the Doge's Palace — open with 120 rooms, rising to 176 in 2027.

Opened

July 2026

First look →

Rosewood

Europe

Rosewood Blue Palace

— Rosewood's Greece debut

Elounda, Crete, Greece

The brand's first Greek address, reimagining the cliffside Blue Palace above the Gulf of Mirabello with 154 rooms looking across to Spinalonga.

Expected

2027

First look →