Which are best, Four Seasons or Bulgari hotels? While the choice between these two hotel brands varies between individual hotels, Four Seasons hotels are generally more service-oriented, have more facilities like larger grounds and pools, are usually larger, and tend to embrace the character of each destination more. Bulgari or BVLGARI hotels are often smaller, with fewer facilities and their own very unique Bulgari style and amenities. We love both brands, so we have broken the comparison down into the different parts of the hotel.
1. Loyalty
There is no Four Seasons loyalty program although you can get free benefits from your very first Four Seasons or Bulgari stay by booking with our luxury travel concierge team. You also get Marriott Bonvoy loyalty points on Bulgari stays.
Bulgari or BVLGARI (they are both the same hotels but, rather confusingly, are spelled differently) is a high-end brand under the Marriott umbrella. It shares this elite spot with Ritz-Carlton, EDITION, St. Regis and The Luxury Collection. These brands occupy a 5-star luxury category, with room quality and size, service, restaurants, and the hotel as a whole offering an ultra-luxurious setting. This means that Bulgari Hotels are part of the Marriott brand loyalty program.
2. Style
Four Seasons offers a variety of styles across their hotels according to the destination and the property itself. Their hotels are stunning, welcoming but also formal and palatial. Four Seasons Grand Hotel Du Cap Ferrat is a historic property, so takes its style accents from its classic and historic french architecture. If there’s a more beautiful hotel than this, I’ve yet to find it.
Another example of a beautiful Four Seasons hotel that embraces traditional architecture and mixes this with classic modern furnishings is The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort in the Bahamas, which has a colonial feel. Others, such as the best Four Seasons resorts in Hawaii offer a more modern architecture.
Four Seasons Milan is another brilliant example of a completely unique Four Seasons hotel. This Milan property is housed in a former 15th-century convent that is situated up a tiny side street in the heart of Milan. You’ll find a most unusual and warm pool here in the convent’s former cellar. This pool is reached via steps between thick pillars, and you swim in its warm waters under 19th-century vaulted ceilings. The soon-to-open Four Seasons Venice is also dripping in history and will be stunning.
By contrast, “Oh mai god daaling” Bulgari hotels are just so fun and stylish. The Bulgari Milan is dripping with cool. From the moment you step through the glass doors, you feel like you’ve stepped into an edition of Vogue. Black marble from Zimbabwe coats the floors and walls and gives way to cozy corners with comfy sofas and an impressive fireplace. The walls of the lobby lounge also host glorious prints of beautiful women sporting ostentatiously large Bulgari jewels.
I don’t believe any hotel aches with more style than the Bulgari Milan. A highlight here is the most wonderful decked patio set in their 4,000 m² private garden, where you can enjoy drinks and dining under the stars (and under electric heater lamps early and late in the season). The garden is a natural extension of the nearby Botanical Garden and provides a restorative oasis dating as far back as 1305. Even though the area is steeped in history, it feels so “now” in this bar.
In the evening, funky music plays with dimmed lighting. Palms are dotted between relaxing sofas, and blobby lanterns hang from the trees like glowing melons. Stylish guests mix with sophisticated locals to create the top bar in Milan. Somehow, this bar area gets everything right. Candles glow from every table, and cigar smoke and laughter waft through the air. Great staff, remember your order from the previous night. Magical lighting creates a light, but not too bright, setting. Great music plays, and the warmth from the heater lamps means that guests can relax in the latest designer clothing without getting cold.
Which is best, palatial elegance so beautiful it almost brings you to tears or a setting so chic and trendy that you feel you have time-warped back into the George Michael supermodel “Freedom” music video? I simply can’t choose.
3. Location
There are Bulgari hotels in Milan, London, Dubai, Bali, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, Tokyo and Rome. They will soon open Bulgari hotels in Miami Beach (2025), Ranfushi (2025), and Los Angeles (2026). Four Seasons currently has 124 hotels and resorts in 47 countries, so there are more destinations with Four Seasons hotels than Bulgari hotels.
Bulgari and Four Seasons hotels are both brilliantly located. In Milan, both hotels are a short walk from each other. In Paris, they are across the road from each other. In London, there’s a Bulgari in Knightsbridge just up the road from Harrods and all the designer stores. 5 minutes walk away towards Picadilly, you will find Four Seasons Park Lane, so again, both hotels are around the corner from each other.
In Dubai, Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach has the edge over the other Four Seasons or the Bulgari, as the Jumeirah Beach Hotel is the only one located on the beach.
4. Size
Although this is not always the case, Bulgari hotels generally tend to be smaller than Four Seasons hotels. They feel more boutique.
5. Grounds
In Milan, the Four Seasons offers a glorious verdant green courtyard, and the main restaurant spills out onto this enclosed and secret garden. The Bulgari has an equally fantastic terrace that edges a tree-framed lawn. I actually prefer the terrace at the Bulgari as it’s so achingly cool, although both grounds are comparative. As a general rule, Four Seasons hotels tend to offer larger, more extensive grounds than Bulgari as they tend to be larger hotels.
6. Beach, Pool & Spa
There are only two Bulgari hotels which are set on the beach. The soon-to-open Bulgari Hotel Miami Beach will be located at 100 21st Street in Miami Beach and will be the first-ever Bulgari Hotel in the United States. Located on the waterfront with access to Miami’s beautiful beaches, the Hotel will offer stunning ocean views just a few steps from the exciting Miami Art Deco district.
The Bulgari Resort Bali is the other Bulgari on a beach. This hotel is located in one of the most exclusive destinations in the world, a veritable emblem of the tropical exoticism of the Orient, combining the breathtaking beauty of the unspoiled nature of Bali beach resorts with a sophisticated contemporary design born from the encounter between traditional Balinese forms and high Italian style. The views of the Indian Ocean offered by its magnificent position 150 meters over the sea are mind-blowing.
Bulgari resorts also feature excellent spas. I don’t think spa pools get more sparkly than the spa pool at Bulgari Hotel Milan. The tiles on the stairs of the pool are made of pure gold, and the mosaic tiling in the rest of the pool also sparkles like jewels. This is a serene and luxurious place to relax on a comfy lounger. This spa is typical of Bulgari hotels and also offers private treatment rooms and a decent-sized gym in this wellness area.
Four Seasons also has brilliant beach hotels, including the best hotels in Hawaii. There are many more Four Seasons beach hotels than Bulgari beach hotels. The best beachfront room, in our opinion, is the beachfront plunge pool room at Four Seasons Los Cabos where you can roll off your bed and step straight out onto the sand. So, for the best beach hotel, Four Seasons beats Bulgari.
7. Rooms
Both hotels offer luxurious rooms. As a general rule, I find the rooms at the Four Seasons to be larger in size, but again, this is very property-specific. The Four Seasons rooms embrace the local area, so the rooms at Four Seasons Paris feel Parisien. At Four Seasons Hampshire, they feel like an old English manor house.
Bulgari hotels do not embrace the local area. They embrace Italian style wherever the location. Plush atmospheric corridors lead to stylish rooms with a coffee palate. The room has lots of dark wood, and in the bathroom, stand-alone baths perch by windows to a backdrop of black marble tiling and worktops. Toiletries are, of course, Bvlgari, one of my favorite fragrance brands.
8. Ski
Some of the best ski hotels in the world are Four Seasons. Bulgari has no ski hotels.
9. Food
Both brands offer excellent restaurants. You will need to review the specific property to determine whether a particular property has an award-winning restaurant. For example, it is hard to beat the incredible Michelin-starred Italian restaurant at Four Seasons in Florence.
10. Family Facilities
Both brands are family-friendly, but Four Seasons has a particularly amazing kids program with gifts and special touches in the rooms. I would say Four Seasons is the best child-friendly hotel brand in the world. Bulgari is skewed towards adult fun with its chic bars and eateries.
11. Conclusion
Both of these hotel brands offer magnificent hotels. Four Seasons is best for elegance, room size, pool, grounds, facilities, and beauty, but Bulgari wins for vogueish fun times.
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