Starhotels Du Parc

This four-star hotel sits next to the Ducal Park in Parma along a busy segment of the Parma ring-road. The neighborhood is commercial (There's a supermarket across the street.) and has no "tourist" interest, so there are no "views" looking north and many have interior exposure to the central court. To the south the view into the park is also largely blocked by the presence of a large theater at the edge of the park immediately behind the hotel. The hotel has a small bridge connecting it directly to the Ducal Park, and from there, it's a short -- ten minute -- walk to central Parma where the historic and pedestrian parts of the city lie. However, where the bridge crosses the park wall at the edge of the theater is frankly scruffy with weeds and graffiti and ought to be cleaned up. It's probably not a matter within the hotel's immediate control, but they should talk to the park department at city hall to see if they can get the city fathers to improve the site. The hotel itself has generous and well-appointed lobby and sitting areas, a large bar/lounge, and a separate meeting facility. The rooms are nicely furnished and certainly meet four-star standards -- good beds and lighting, marble bath, quiet. Breakfast is a lavish buffet. Staff were very helpful and accomodating. I think all the rooms are supposed to be non-smoking, but someone had clearly violated the policy in the first room we were given and it smelled of obvious smoke. It was immediately changed. We also requested a brief extension of our checkout time for a couple of hours which the front desk agreed to without hesitation. It probably helped that the hotel appeared very lightly occupied while we were there (no active meetings). It also didn't hurt that we benefited from a substantial discount on the rack rate for the hotel.

very satisfactory