By Carol Gifford

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(January 2009) Expect the best and you’ll receive it at the Siena Hotel, a custom property with the warmth and comfort of a Northern Italy villa. Styled to be “a home away from home,” the Siena, 1505 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, is located near UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University and just a 15-minute drive from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

The Siena is an AAA Four Diamond rated hotel with a luxurious, distinctive décor and many amenities. Guests can choose a room they particularly like and request it on a return visit, said General Manager Anthony Carey.

“This is a hotel like no other, designed to represent the warmth of a private residence in Tuscany,” said Carey. “Coming here is like visiting the home of a best friend. You’ll find a relaxed environment; when you enter the lobby, it’s like walking into a living room.”

Its set back location, about a half-mile from the road, gives the Siena some privacy from everyday traffic and much of its noise. During the summer and fall, with full trees and vegetation in its front wooded area, it is barely visible from Franklin Street.

Out front a cobblestone driveway leads to a porte-cochere framing the entrance to the lobby. Canvas awnings offer shaded porch areas with tables and chairs for guests to enjoy the mild weather and beautiful gardens, while admiring a bubbling four-story water fountain that operates year-round. The wooded back area includes a small walking trail.

The “signature” four-level fountain out front helps Chapel Hill residents measure how cold it is outside, and is the area bellwether for how low the temperature drops.

“Neighbors drive by each winter and check out to see if the fountain is frozen yet,” said Carey. “The fountain usually makes an appearance at least once a year in a newspaper photo or other news report!”

The Siena Hotel serves both business and leisure travelers, said Carey, seeing more corporate travelers on weekdays and leisure travelers visit over the weekends. He said the nearby universities bring about 75 percent of its annual business.

Guests check-in at a stately desk with a huge wood-carved seat, affectionately called “the throne,” by Carey, and can then settle in a comfortable leather armchairs to read or listen to live music offered nightly at the lobby bar.

Flanked by majestic columns, the lobby has gleaming marble floors with area rugs and walking areas. Hand-selected European antiques are interspersed with comfortable sofas.

“If you love being pampered, this is the place for you,” said Carey. “Our staff is trained to pick up on both the spoken and unspoken desires of our guests, and save that information in our database to better serve you when you return.”

The staff, said Carey, works hard to build an emotional connection with guests to better anticipate and serve their needs. For example, if a guest asks about a yoga class, the staff would note it in her personal record and be sure to have a yoga mat and water waiting in the room for her next visit. Or, a guest who arrives outside of regular restaurant hours could be served a special meal at a table in the lobby.

With a 65 percent return rate, the privately owned hotel might be the envy of its peers, but Carey says the management’s goal is an even higher 70 to 75 percent of return guests. Its top-notch service is one of the ways the Siena hopes to encourage guests to return.

Carey meets with and gives final approval to all job applicants at the Siena to ensure that they “have a passion for serving guests.”

“I look for creative and heartfelt service,” said Carey. “I hire those who believe they were born to serve.”

Among the regular guests are groups of UNC ticket holders who stay over for home games during the football and basketball seasons. During the fall football season, the stately lobby is used as a family room with fans rearranging sofas and chairs to watch a 52-inch flat plasma TV conveniently hidden until needed that rises out of the wood fireplace mantle.

“We serve the upper echelon of tailgaters,” said Carey, “who reserve half of the hotel rooms for the season and meet their friends here before and after each game.”

The fans watch pregame shows and analyses on television, eat upscale bar food made from scratch, and then return to unwind when the game is over when the bar area fills back up and the restaurant can be turned two and a half times in one evening.

The 79 spacious guest rooms are individually decorated with special artwork from Italy chosen by the owners, hand-carved and upholstered furniture with rich colors and fabrics, marble floors and European bath fixtures. The rooms have different draperies, bedspreads and nightstands. Each room has French doors open to European balconies, inviting in bright sunshine and fresh air.

“Your ‘bedroom’ is set up for you,” said Carey. “If we know there’s something personal you like, like a special bath amenity or type of pillow, that will be in your room when you arrive.”

World-class luxury amenities include a full breakfast at Il Palio, an AAA Four Diamond rated Italian restaurant in the lobby, a nightly turndown service with Belgian chocolates, complimentary wireless high-speed Internet access, complimentary local phone calls and daily newspapers including the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, luxurious bathrobes, business services including fax and copy machines and private meeting and dining facilities.

Additional services include the provision of free transportation around town or to and from the airport in a Mercedes luxury S500 sedan, offered from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily to guests. (Updated January 2008)