Thermae Palace — Hotel in Ostend

We stayed at this Hotel for 3 nights 11th June to the 14th. We booked the Hotel as the website showed its grandeur heritage, booking a twin sea view room. Whilst our stay was sort of ok, and I fully appreciate the costs to maintain such a “Grande Dame” the facility sort of reminds of an aging old aunt or uncle. The Hotel boasts 4 stars. 4 stars it certainly is not. A 4 star provider would have information in the room, along with a room service menu, nothing like that here. it would also have a pool, but that closed a number of years ago? The price of our room whilst cheaper than the Hong Kong shangri la was acceptable, but we did sort of expect some. 4 star facilities!

The positives. With one exception the staff at the Hotel are to be praised. Staff at any service establishment are the engine room, the majority of staff were polite, smiling helpful and had a very pleasant demeanour, the Matre’d in the bar and restaurant deserves special mention on his hard work and professionalism. The one exception is a young female employee in the bar area who was both arrogant and rude to us. Having sat down in the bar for a beer and waiting for over 10 minutes with no table service I approached the bar and had a very polite conversation with a young man requesting two beers. The female staff member approached me like a fully laden square rigger demanding that I sit down immediately where I would be served. When I politely explained that we had indeed been sitting for some time she was barbaric in how things worked in the bar. She was equally rude to a holiday maker who wandered in and could not make herself understood with her request. This single female staff member lets down the many positive young people working the bar. I did not approach reception to make a complaint, I just did the “English” thing and fumed!

Rant over, let’s look at the positives as this Grande old dame does have some!

Positives; Heritage Heritage and more! Built in the 1920’s in art deco era the architecture is impressive. Beach, it’s there right in front of you and it’s got the wow factor lots of walking along the Promenade, but keep a sharp eye for cyclists, Check in very prompt with friendly reception staff. Car park was similarly good. Our room had a sea view and I would advise that you do book a sea view, the balcony was a pleasant place to enjoy a sundowner (bought by ourselves due to lack of information on room service)

Not so positive, and not all the fault of Hotel Therme The building is massive and only a small part is used by the Hotel the majority is sadly dilapidated and seemed to be used by many homeless persons. It would have been great to see some sort of literature in reception showing the buildings past history, and perhaps a short tour?

No residents lounge to sit and read, there are some chairs in reception but not many. The website shows the entrance gallery decked out with comfortable chairs that would have been great as a residents area, but they were not there in the 3 days of our stay.

I would ent wish to add any more non positives as I don’t really wish to upset the Grande dame! My assumption, and I would like to be proved wrong, is that Ostend city council may be part owners, if this is the case they have really missed a trick in not securing funding to refurbish the building, ok I know that funding is hard but the eu helps...

We stayed at this Hotel for 3 nights 11th June to the 14th. We booked the Hotel as the website showed its grandeur heritage, booking a twin sea view room. Whilst our stay was sort of ok, and I fully appreciate the costs to maintain such a “Grande Dame” the facility sort of reminds of an aging old aunt or uncle.|The Hotel boasts 4 stars. 4 stars it certainly is not. A 4 star provider would have information in the room, along with a room service menu, nothing like that here. it would also have a pool, but that closed a number of years ago? The price of our room whilst cheaper than the Hong Kong shangri la was acceptable, but we did sort of expect some. 4 star facilities!||The positives. With one exception the staff at the Hotel are to be praised. Staff at any service establishment are the engine room, the majority of staff were polite, smiling helpful and had a very pleasant demeanour, the Matre’d in the bar and restaurant deserves special mention on his hard work and professionalism. The one exception is a young female employee in the bar area who was both arrogant and rude to us. Having sat down in the bar for a beer and waiting for over 10 minutes with no table service I approached the bar and had a very polite conversation with a young man requesting two beers. The female staff member approached me like a fully laden square rigger demanding that I sit down immediately where I would be served. When I politely explained that we had indeed been sitting for some time she was barbaric in how things worked in the bar. She was equally rude to a holiday maker who wandered in and could not make herself understood with her request. This single female staff member lets down the many positive young people working the bar. I did not approach reception to make a complaint, I just did the “English” thing and fumed!||Rant over, let’s look at the positives as this Grande old dame does have some!| |Positives;| Heritage Heritage and more! Built in the 1920’s in art deco era the architecture is impressive.| Beach, it’s there right in front of you and it’s got the wow factor lots of walking along the Promenade, but keep a sharp eye for cyclists, |Check in very prompt with friendly reception staff. Car park was similarly good.|Our room had a sea view and I would advise that you do book a sea view, the balcony was a pleasant place to enjoy a sundowner (bought by ourselves due to lack of information on room service)||Not so positive, and not all the fault of Hotel Therme|The building is massive and only a small part is used by the Hotel the majority is sadly dilapidated and seemed to be used by many homeless persons. It would have been great to see some sort of literature in reception showing the buildings past history, and perhaps a short tour?||No residents lounge to sit and read, there are some chairs in reception but not many. The website shows the entrance gallery decked out with comfortable chairs that would have been great as a residents area, but they were not there in the 3 days of our stay.||I would ent wish to add any more non positives as I don’t really wish to upset the Grande dame! My assumption, and I would like to be proved wrong, is that Ostend city council may be part owners, if this is the case they have really missed a trick in not securing funding to refurbish the building, ok I know that funding is hard but the...

We spent last week (from Monday to Friday) traveling as a family—father, mother, a 14-year-old son, and a 10-year-old daughter—and we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Ostend. Although the weather was changeable, it didn’t dampen our days by the sea.||The Thermae Palace won us over: a grand hotel in an outstanding location, right on the beach and along the long promenade. The staff were especially wonderful. The breakfast buffet is plentiful, the restaurant highly recommended, and we also loved using the sauna.||Yes, the hotel is a little dated and in places in need of refurbishment. For us, however, that’s part of the special charm of its bygone glory. Everywhere you can feel the effort to preserve that character and to modernize with care and good judgment.||We had an unequivocally good time—even if not every fellow guest shared our children’s joy in flying kites and then, inevitably, coming back into the hotel with...