Four Star Hotels can have problems.

Traveling off season often allow me to insert a luxury hotel into my 30+ day trips to Italy.   4 start hotel in the winter can be the same price as the 3 star hotels I use during spring or fall.

I expect the amenities to be different in the  rating of each level but I did not expect to find a corresponding ‘difference’ in treatment.
Perhaps at check in the reservation is coded to indicate which guests have paid a discounted on line price………….that might explain the times I am often invisible when I try to check in.  

Odd hotel observations
The number of towels is controlled by the number of stars:  two towels (only one larger than a face cloth) for a 3 star hotel
Why is the reception desk so tall?    If you cant see the employee eye to eye there is a level of initiation. 
                    short employees will not have to look ‘up’
Uniforms:  a Rome  4 star requires the desk staff to wear pin stripes
                     they had bellman and they wore a uniform
Rooms are larger.   And single rooms can be the size of a closet.   I stayed in the smallest room ever at the Hotel Opera.  I could not even open two suitcases yet they
                    offered a makeup mirror in the bath.  A feature not available in most hotels.
Hotel rooms in converted office buildings:   hotel booking web sites and hotel web sites SHOULD indicate on their sites that the hotel rooms are NOT connected with the reception areas.   Four of the reservations from my 22 days in Italy never indicated that the rooms were NOT part of the hotel.   In Sorrento I had to wear a coat to travel to the reception area for breakfast!    In Rome at two locations the rooms were several stories above and in a secure section of the office building.    As long as you don’t need hotel services there is no inconvenience  but there IS a sense of isolation.
There is also nothing pleasant about being told you are in an annex and then taken or sent to a location that is NOT the hotel you booked.

When  I summarize the total cost for this adventure it should all average the daily per diem goal I set for long term travel.   Splurges can be afforded.