Is this the epitome of Claridge style luxury? No. Is this a beautiful art-deco style hotel with an impressive lobby, large guest rooms and excellent location for a weekend visit? Yes. Ok, the rooms are maybe a tiny bit worn, but this is an old building and I personally adore 1920's / 30's decor. The room was easily large enough for 3, as was the bathroom, and although it was lacking chrome taps and al L'Occitane bath products, I thought it was perfectly acceptable and of a very good 4* standard. The hotel made the perfect base for a busy weekend sightseeing tour of Milan being right next to the Train Station and the pastries served at breakfast were worth the room rate by themselves. I can't comment on customer services or staff as we didn't use them - we saw them at check-in, check-out and breakfast and that was it. Is it a five star? Apart from breakfast, and the impressive lobby probably not. But then if you check out the price you're paying in comparison to some of the "real" five-stars in Milan, you're not paying for one either! For us, it suited our needs perfectly, and we had a more than comfortable stay.

The location of the hotel is quite good as it is very close to the central station. The historic facade is very beautiful and promises a true luxury hotel. The hotel lobby increases this promise even more.
My room, however, was not acceptable at all for a hotel in the ***** class. It was very old-fashioned with dirty stains on the carpet, non-functing bathroom fittings and a TV of an age and quality I have last seen in my grandma's living room some 10 years ago.

Breakfast was okay, but no English newspapers were available (anymore?), although promised the day before by the concierge.
Staff was friendly, but could not help me with simple requests, e.g. when asking for a flat iron. Again, a hotel in this category should be able to fulfill this simple request or offer an ironing service instead. Asking for replacement batteries for my remote control, I did not immediately get new ones at the reception, but had to wait almost an hour until they were brought to my room.

Pros:
+ Location (if you like the lively atmosphere around the central station)
+ Good access to public transportation
+ Decent breakfast
+ Nice looks (from outside, in lobby and breakfast room)
+ Friendly staff

Cons:
- Room very old-fashioned
- Simple requests could not be fulfilled (flat iron, batteries)
- No English (or international) newspaper
- Ridiculously high mini bar prices

Conclusion:
Don't get baffled by the pretentious facade and lobby and the ***** category. My room was old-fashioned and dirty. Overall, it was a disappointing stay and and I cannot recommend this hotel.

Don't get me wrong this was a nice hotel with an amazing staff and the location next to the train station cannot be beat. We were upgraded to a huge corner suite because of our SPG gold status and was given a nice gift by the manager - at the price we paid we felt like we won the lottery. The room was huge with a separate dining and sitting area and the bathroom had a huge tub with stained galss windows and a towel warmer but there was peeling plaster in the bathroom which they tried to hide with a chair. It is clear that this hotel was once grand but it definitely needs some renovation. The staff is great though so I still do highly recommend but I also want to give people the heads up about what to expect.

It's very clear that this hotel had it's beautiful days, but no longer.
Rooms are very old, though quite spacious.
Location is good for the train station (including the Metro) and airport station, but otherwise, not too fantastic.
Breakfast is good, but very expensive (27 Euros), as are all other services in that hotel - internet, laundry etc.
Staff are efficient, but nothing to brag about. Even getting into the hotel with stairs and a tiny revolving door isn't easy with even small luggage, and they don't seem to be too responsive to arriving guests.
I would recommend this hotel only to people who really want to stay at the immediate vicinity of the train station, though I'm sure other hotels with better price-value ratio can be easily found in that area too.