Hotel Palace — Hotel in City of Belgrade

This hotel has received very mixed reviews and with accuracy. I, too, am limited by experience to providing an average/mixed review. I will separate this review into positives and negatives, for easy understanding.||Positives:||1) Location can't be beat. This hotel is in the heartbeat of Belgrade, a 5 minute walk to the main square with restaurants, shops and cafes a plenty, and approximately a 10-15 minute perimeter from the major sightseeing attractions including the fortress, waterfront, cathedrals/churches etc. The hotel is also very nearby the central transport hubs - train and bus stations. Belgrade itself, at least the areas for sightseeing, is quite small. You can cover most of Belgrade on foot, or by local transport should you choose, making the hotel's location ideal.||2) The included breakfast buffet was excellent! There were many options and there was an excess of food to go around. The buffet breakfast included: scrambled eggs, hot boiled eggs, 3 different types of hot sausages, potato pancakes, many different types of yogurts, a large selection of cold cut meats and cheeses, lettuce, cold mixed salads, fresh cut vegetables, fresh cut fruits, whole fruits for takeaway (apples, bananas, nectarines, pears), muesli and other cold cereals, cold milk, juices, dried fruits and nuts, and other garnishes and accompaniments such as olives, pickles, etc. The hotel had an automatic coffee machine which made coffee according to your preferences - cappuccino, black coffee, espresso, hot chocolate etc. There was a large selection of tea available for you non-coffee consumers! There were many staff (I counted about 10 staff) ensuring the breakfast buffet was fully stocked/replenished at all times, guests' plates were cleared and seating was opened for new guests. The breakfast buffet runs from 7:00am to 10:00am, for early risers like me. The breakfast buffet, together with the location were the bright spots of this hotel, absolutely.||3) Staff were superb. Professional, courteous, and helpful with your every need. The hotel offered tourist maps of the city and staff were there to answer any questions you might have about your stay in Belgrade. Staffing was always in surplus, ensuring a smooth operation at the hotel.||4) Wifi was secure and signal was strong in the room and throughout the hotel. There was a flatscreen television in the room which also worked well (at least in my room) and offered a large selection of channels, but only a handful in English. I was able to find some international news channels and for me that was enough.||5) There was a little fridge in the room which I appreciated!||Negatives:||1) The hotel is 100 + years old, and therefore is quite dated, including the interior, the rooms and all hotel amenities. While some might find this "unique" or "boutique," I found the hotel to be in severe need of an upgrade or complete overhaul. Carpeting throughout the hotel felt dingy, dirty and old with multiple stains dating back to the 1980s or prior. The rooms, including all of the furniture felt old and in need of renovation. The bedding sheets had holes and stains and the bedding cover (blanket?) felt like it hadn't been washed in decades. In fact, I slept only with the sheets out of fears the bedding cover wasn't cleaned. The bed was comfortable enough, but it was nothing to write home about. The room didn't feel clean, and I didn't want to put my personal stuff or clothing down anywhere in the room. In fact, I refused to sleep in my pyjamas opting to sleep naked so my clothing didn't take on the smell of the room to the next hotel.||2) Bathrooms were dank. Just terrible. The bathrooms would be my foremost complaint about the hotel. The entire bathroom was old, in severe need of renovation and the plumbing smelled awful. There was a lot of mould throughout the bathroom, many small black hairs on the floor, inside the bathtub and around the sink. I have blonde hair, and so these clearly belonged to previous guests. The bathroom felt very very unclean and I struggled to feel comfortable in that space. There were many towels provided (3 hand towels, a bath mat and 2 large bath towels), but these took on the terrible smell of the bathroom - must, damp, mould, almost rotten smelling. The smells made my stomach churn and it was not limited to the bathroom. The smell of the bathroom radiated strongly throughout the room. The plumbing is clearly inadequate, the water pressure in the shower and tap sink were basically non-existent (but the water was hot, what little trickled from the shower and tap), and the toilet had an overhead string-pull flush mechanism dating back decades.||3) Air conditioning worked somewhat well in my room, but many guests were complaining it wasn't working at all in their rooms. Not surprising, since the air conditioning units were ancient. Other guests complained that the remote controls were absent for their air conditioning units, rendering it unusable.||4) The hotel could have provided a small kettle, instant coffee or tea in the room. This would have been a perk, but it certainly wasn't expected.||5) In all honesty, I don't believe the hotel to be of good value. The benefits of the hotel truly are limited to location and breakfast buffet. For the price being charged, I would have preferred to have stayed a bit further out of the central district in favour of a clean, modern hotel room. Previous guests have commented about bug infestations, and while I didn't see any insects myself, I would believe there to be big infestations in the hotel considering how dated, dingy and unclean it is in the interior. Ironic they call themselves "Palace Hotel"! In any event, I only stayed at this hotel for one night, so I tolerated the conditions, however in future, I would opt to stay elsewhere. The location and breakfast buffet are simply not enough to bring me back a second time! ||Excuse me, while I go and sanitize myself from...

Horrific Experience – A Complete Disaster

My recent stay at Hotel Palace was nothing short of a nightmare. I travel frequently for both business and leisure, and I can confidently say that this was the worst hotel experience I have ever encountered.

The hotel was in a deplorable state. Upon entering my room, I was immediately struck by the overpowering stench of mold and dampness. The carpets were stained and filthy, with visible dirt and debris scattered throughout. The bed linens were equally appalling, covered in stains and looking as if they hadn’t been changed in weeks.

The most alarming aspect of my stay was the sheer lack of hygiene. I found bugs crawling not only in my room but also in the dining area. Seeing insects on the food served was absolutely unacceptable and raised serious concerns about the hotel’s sanitation standards. The bathrooms were disgusting, with mold and grime covering the tiles, and the fixtures were rusted and barely functional.

The food quality was abysmal. The dining area itself was unclean, with tables sticky and floors littered with crumbs. The food offered was stale and tasteless, and seeing bugs in the vicinity of the food made it impossible to eat with any peace of mind. The hotel’s lack of adherence to basic food safety protocols was deeply troubling.

The service was equally disappointing. The staff were unresponsive and appeared indifferent to the numerous complaints raised by myself and other guests. When I reported the presence of bugs and the overall dirtiness, I was met with a lack of urgency and a dismissive attitude. It was clear that the staff were either poorly trained or simply didn’t care about the guests’ comfort and well-being.

Overall Experience:

My stay at Hotel Palace was a disaster from start to finish. The hotel’s deplorable condition, lack of cleanliness, poor food quality, and indifferent service made for an utterly miserable experience. I would strongly advise anyone considering staying at this hotel to look elsewhere. The management’s apparent disregard for basic hygiene and guest satisfaction is both shocking and unacceptable.

I hope that this review serves as a warning to potential guests and prompts the hotel management to take immediate and serious action to address these critical issues. Until significant improvements are made, I cannot recommend this hotel to...

Let’s take this in a positive way! The hotel located right in town and close to everywhere and we loved it in the first place! However the room we checked in was out of order and ac wasn’t working. We realized after we came back around midnite.. they changed our room and and the one was ok and seems like working but still it was scoring it inside and we were tired. There’s a musty smell in the room, like carpet or wet towel or mold we couldn’t figure out. The rooms were from 70’s or 80’s… hotel needs a serious update! Then we realized the shower had no door, not even a panel like we had at the other room. All water from shower goes to the floor and makes it slippery and dangerous for guests. Especially after a few drinks, there could be a serious incident. Let’s make 1 thing clear, This is a hotel, not a soup kitchen and the staff is not working free inside! Hotel staff seemed working and upset, annoyed and disturbed, and no one speaks proper English so that makes communication super difficult. Hotel staff ignored eye contact and doesn’t greet or talk to guests because of language barrier I believe or maybe they just didn’t wanna work there or doesn’t like guests may be?? Breakfast was adequate and enough to start the day and again the dining staff was running around like headless chicken and sweating and ignoring guests when they want to talk.. we don’t care food or drink much, when hospitality, friendliness and warm welcoming environment is gone on a vacation, there’s nothing to grab positive during stay! Also it shows the respect level, how much a hotel care their guests, see them just a business customer. These are all positive comments and there are lots of room to be improved when it comes to hospitality, the importance of working at a hotel, and understanding guest expectations. If you’re not sure what your guest simply expects from you then you should close the hotel and do something else for business!

I will definitely come back again to Belgrade, we loved it and we loved the location but we would like to see some serious actions taken before we and my friends reconsider staying...