Reception on arrival great but porter at the door was not helpful with the luggage.
Room super very happy. Breakfast in the morning poor service and poor choice.
Had some sparkling wine two nights condiments only served on first night.
On departure Saturday morning at 9am no porter available to assist with luggage.
Concierge arranged for some tickets for us to see ballet performance. She mede on call and we had to collect the tickets and for the call the charges where R 350 per person.
Housekeeping comes at 10pm to turn down bed. This might be too late for some visitors

My wife and I stayed 7 nights. Used points and our Marriott gold card for upgrade to a suite on the 8th floor. We were provided free breakfast for 7 days (due to gold card) but had to request adding my wife to the voucher which they did - they also provided 7 days of vouchers for a glass of wine and soft drink.

Contacted the concierges (Olga, Maria & Natalia - a great team that rotates between the Courtyard and the Renaissance St Petersburg and does a fine job of hand offs to complete requests - [--]) We contacted them several weeks ahead to asked them to arrange rooms on the 8th floor facing the city if possible - Room 804 has best view but was taken so they put us in 801 which also had a great view of St Issaics Cathedral - We had the concierge arrange for a hotel car at the airport for 1800 rubles and they met us with a rep with a sign with our name when we cleared customs - well worth the price

We also had the concierge reserve theater tickets to "Swan Lake" - expect a 700r service charge for getting the tickets delivered direct to the hotel but well worth the cost - located seating chart on line and asked for a range of specific seats - they obtained tickets within the range which were perfect

After we arrived we arranged three private English speaking tours - 3 hr city tour (with tour guide Olga - great guide - expensive but highly recommend) 8100r; 3 hr private Hermitage tour (skipped the car and walked with our guide to keep the cost down to 2700r (tour guide Olga - highly recommended - especially good with building architecture); and a 4hr private tour of St Catherine's that we do not recommend -- very expensive and not worth the price -- better to just figure out how to use public transportation to get there and get the self guided audio guide or join an English speaking group as you walk through

We took an English speaking audio guided canal trip which we picked up about 600 yards after crossing the second canal bridge going over Nevsky Prospect (main shopping street) - it was very good and reasonable -500r each

We also took the "green" outer harbor tour picked up at the base of Nevsky Prospect street wharf - (they have English in the afternoon) but we took the 730 pm sunset trip in Russian - it was well worth the price - gives you a better perspective on the city - food on board is better than similar experiences in other cities in the world but beer and soft drinks were only available although the menu said otherwise - they have English menus - just ask for them

Restaurants - loved Bogarts located on the left off Nevsky Prospect street across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan - very reasonable and good food / service; also ate at "Idiots" near the hotel - more expensive and food not as good; ate at Tsars at #12 Sadovaya across from the Nevsky Prospect shopping center which had outstanding food but more expensive - look out for the water charge not listed on the menu 650r a bottle - ask for the water charge before getting it - they must have something less expensive!

Souvenirs - the Hermitage museum shops have some reasonable prices on books and pictures; the Nevsky Souvenir Shop at 3 Nevsky Prospect street www.nevskysouvenir.com at the base of Nevsky Prospect street provides a 10% discount to Renaissance Hotel guests and the Renaissance Hotel Shop in the Hotel (but not associated with the Renaissance) we found to have the best prices after comparing prices around the city. Some souvenir shops located off Nevsky Prospect have some better selective pricing but you have to compare.

The Hermitage - entrance if you have a Renaissance Hotel room key is in the back of the Museum facing the square on the right side through a door marked "group tours" - enter and show your hotel key and they will help you get in - much better than entering through the huge line in the front of the museum - note that not marked very well are rooms 142-146 that houses the impressionist art that was stolen during WW2 and now on display separate from the impressionist paintings on the 3rd floor

A note on departure - we again used the hotel arranged car charged to our room at 5am in the morning - it only took 20 minutes for a normal 45 minute airport trip so you can leave a little later if you have an early flight - the LED airport is similar to what you can expect a mid sized regional airport to be in the US so 1 1/2 hours is all you need to be there in advance except during peak times. Our hotel provided wake up calls and made sure the car and driver were there - they even provided a "box breakfast" for us since we could not use our breakfast voucher that day - at no added cost which was appreciated.

Overall the hotel and staff were all great with extras not expected - including a bar and outside seating on the 6th floor overlooking the Cathedral, free wifi or free 5 min every 4 hours or so to check email, great concierge service, efficient and pleasant hotel restaurant, business center and front desk staff, cute reasonable gift shop - also an adjacent 24 hour small grocery store out the left of the hotel 50 feet - this is a well managed and run full service hotel property

Stayed at this hotel for 3 nights. As Gold Elite members, we were upgraded to a small suite on the 7th floor. Instead of a suite, I would call it a room with a sitting room. It was very nice, comfortable, clean, with a big bathroom (what's the deal with the shower curtain? That's a big NO NO according to my standards). Everything worked perfectly. It was good to be back in our room after a long day enjoying St Petersburg. The room service is fine: we had a club sandwhich which was relatively tasty.
The breakfast was ok. The choice was fairly limited if you were given a breakfast voucher on the basis of your marriott membership.
What is really nice about this hotel is the location. Close to the main sights (St Isaac's Catherdrale, the Hermitage etc.). You can walk (and we did walk quite a bit).
The staff is friendly. A request for a late check-out was agreed until 2pm (which is not great, but ok).
We paid RUB 3,000 for the transportation from the airport to the hotel which we thought was a bit too much. However, to be fair, the airport is quite far from the city.
The room rate (8,500 RUB + taxes) was ok. For 3 nights, we ended up paying about 780 EUROS (with just one in-room dinner and no other expenses).
All in all, we had a very enjoyable stay. We cannot wait to visit St Petersburg again. What a wonderful city.

I stayed here in July just for one night after spending a few days in Kempinski Moika 22. So, I am trying to compare the two.

Renaissance is right across St Isaac. The location is great, but I think the location of Kempinski is better (right in front of a river!).

Rooms: The room is Kempiniski is better decorated, but is smaller than Renaissance. Renaissance has bigger rooms. Renaissance also have some rooms facing inner courtyard, and you won't be able to see outside. So, I think, it is a tie with Kempinski.

For service and value for money, I think Renaissance is better. The receptionists and concierge, at least, are more knowledgeable and know what they are talking about! I think Renaissance is trying less hard to get money out from its guests...haha....except that it charged us for registration of our passports, which I think is reasonable despite the low fee involved.

I booked the room on the net, and it is much cheaper than Kempinski for the same period.