Hotel Nixe Palace — Hotel in Palma

When booking a five-star hotel, one is accustomed to a certain-level of service and fit-for-purpose accommodations. Yes, the view is nice. Yes, the restaurant may be their only saving grace. However, the rest of the hotel, including their staff are an utter disappointment.

First, to start off with the accommodations. The hotel looks decent from the outside but could definitely do with a makeover. The interior of the hotel is quite dated and seems to be trapped in the 1990's. For a beachfront hotel, the lighting and interior decoration is very dark. The hallways are poorly lit and the rooms have very heavy wood panelling and furniture (very chipped and run-down looking). There is a musty smell in the air and we overall did not enjoy being in our rooms. Furthermore, our first evening, there was a really whiny sound in our room for which we had to call the engineer. The engineer then proceeded to bang on our air conditioner vent until the whining noise went away... A very bizarre and disconcerting incident. Our coffee machine was also broken and there was no provision of any water beyond the first day. Basic things that one expects were completely lost in this disappointing accommodation.

Second, the service. The service was probably one of the worst forms of hospitality that I have received whilst staying at an 'alleged' five star hotel. The staff are quite snobbish and condescending. There is zero drive to ever go above and beyond, if anything, the staff act as though your enquiry or request is such a great disturbance in their day. For instance, we wanted to reserve some time at the spa. We asked the front desk if we could reserve a time and they told us that they were unable to help and we had to go downstairs to the spa to speak to someone. We navigated down to the spa to find that there was no one present at the desk. After waiting for about 10 minutes, we filled out a form with our enquiry for a reservation, including our phone number / room number for confirmation. Over the remaining course of our stay, we heard nothing back. In general, any type of question or feedback to the staff was received with derision. If you read some of the more negative reviews of this hotel, you will note the nasty replies by the hotel and their inability to admit any fault or wrongdoing. I'm sure I will get a snarky reply to this review by the hotel as well. They claim that excellent service is forefront, but we found this to be quite an untrue statement.

The final nail in the coffin for us was one evening when the hotel was celebrating their 25th anniversary. The hotel decided to close off the pool bar and the restaurant for the day (which we can understand). However, loud music and fireworks blared past midnight when we had an early flight to catch the next day. The lack of consideration for their guests (as if we were second tier citizens compared to their party attendees) was palpable and severely disappointing.

I think if I had to really sum-up the core of my discontent. It is the fact that there was a loss of any care for their guests or any level of anticipation of needs. Everything is just a little more difficult. Toiletries are missing (and you are required to call the front desk for provision of anything outside of soap / shampoo). The service in the restaurant is extremely slow (we had to flag our waiter multiple times for the menu, refills, ordering, the bill, etc.). The front desk staff should not be in the hospitality industry if they despise their guests so much. Overall, the communication was quite poor across the board.

This trip was supposed to be a wonderful occasion. What was expected to be a wonderful and pleasant stay turned into us counting down the days to escape this terrible hotel and its equally horrible staff. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone who expects a basic level of service. If Nixe is celebrating their 25th anniversary, I would advise them question whether they have anything worth...

This is by far the harshest review I have ever written of any hotel I have stayed at. However, after thinking about if for a week, I have come to the conclusion that it is a fair reflection of my experience. Reading something like this would have made me think twice before booking a stay there, so I am going to share my experience with my fellow holidaymakers out there in order to help them make an informed decision when they book their next stay in Mallorca.

My buddy and I checked in at one of the seafront rooms of the Nixe Palace on Thursday August 16th, and the first couple of nights were beautiful. The hotel was super quiet and we could not hear anything from adjacent rooms. We even remarked on the quiet the following day, as we were having breakfast in the terrace overlooking the beach and the pool, which was in itself a beautiful experience.

Everything went to hell on the third night, Saturday August 18th.

The hotel had rented out the pool, which is itself on a terrace overlooking the sea, to host a wedding. We had gone out to dinner in town and came back to our room at around 11pm. The sliding doors that gave access to our room’s terrace provided no sound isolation at all, and we might as well have been in the thick of the wedding dinner ourselves. I called the front desk, and they said that the party would move to the soundproof ballroom by 11:30. By 1am the party by the pool was going strong and I had given up on going to sleep; I snuck out of the room to go to the front desk and they offered me another room to finish spending the night. That was just marginally better, as it was also a seafront view so the noise from the party was still noticeable. My travel partner, who I though was fast asleep, had a terrible night sleep and he told me the noise didn’t end until at least 2am.

The following day the hotel manager sent us a bottle of cava and a fruit basket to apologise, and they comp’ed us the breakfasts for our stay, which had not been included in our reservation. I did appreciate the gesture and I must say the staff did what they could to make it up to us under the circumstances.

However, it is crystal clear to me that when it came to deciding between maximising profits and their guests’ comfort, the general management made their preference very clear when they chose to rent out the pool for a wedding party in the middle of summer. There is no way that the wedding party was going to stay indoors in a warm summer when they could be having fun on the poolside and I don’t blame them! After all, it is not up to them to watch out for the comfort of the hotel guests; that is the job of the general management of the hotel.

Let me say that again: watching out for the comfort of their guests is THE job of a 5* hotel management. Had the party being held at any of the other properties around the cove, I would have been annoyed but not angry, as life happens. However, having the hotel that I am paying top dollar to provide me not just with comfort but luxury brazenly sacrifice my comfort in order to maximise their profits… That still makes me furious.

Is it a nice hotel? Yes, it is. Breakfast on that terrace is an experience. The rooms and hallways are in dire need of a facelift and the shower in our room was moldy, but the beds are still comfy. The hotel staff is lovely, well trained and will bend over backwards to make you comfortable. However, the bottom line remains: the owners of this hotel will not think twice to ruin a whole night of your sleep in order to make an extra buck. Think about that...

Read this if you’re trying to choose a room type! This hotel’s website is misleading regarding the “5 star” status as well as the “Superior Sea View” rooms. I booked this hotel for our anniversary and explicitly paid extra for “Superior Sea View” room. Apparently to them all that means is a large terrace. We were given room 105 on the first floor with a terrible view. All I could see was the flood of people on the beach. The room itself is a far cry from “spacious”. When we ordered room service it was so cramped we had to sit on the edge of our bed just to fit everything. When I contacted the front desk to express my displeasure for the room they told me I’d have to wait until the next morning to find out if they could move us. So I spent the entire night upset and anxious for not having an answer. I woke up early and made my way UP the 5 flights to the lobby and thankfully they were able to move us to the 6th floor, room 607. The difference in the rooms was significant! The new room felt twice large, less dingy and dark, and and the view was so much better. Unfortunately I feel like I was completely ripped off the first night because the hotel misrepresenting their room types online. Paying over $500 a night for the lowest floor room next to the elevator is quite upsetting. If you want my recommendation- just book a premium sea view as you’ll have a much better chance at getting a good view for less cost and still have a patio to sit on. The floor of the “superior terrace” gets so hot in the sun it’s uncomfortable to walk on without shoes. Regarding the “5 star” claim, this is a 3.5 star at best. To consider them on the same level as the St. Regis is honestly laughable. Here are some reasons: the gym equipment is so old and outdated it’s difficult to use the service is not to standard- I called to ask how to use the coffee machine, they said they would send someone to help but never came Room service food was not good and the A Popa was ok. I could only eat 1 bite of the margarita pizza because it was just a cheese pizza with way more cheese than bread. Definitely not like any margarita pizza I’ve ever had. My husband’s burger made him fear he might get food poisoning because it was undercooked. He did not. When we asked to dine at A Popa at 7pm we were first told we would have to wait until 9. As we sat in the lobby to eat there, we were then told it’s ok, they can fit us in. There was literally only 1 other table in the restaurant the entire time we were there. Why wouldn’t they accommodate their hotel guests without hassle when the restaurant is empty? the bathroom shower drained extremely slow in both rooms cannot do refunds for foreign currencies (all other 5 star hotels I’ve been to can) (I wanted to change from USD to Euros because they converted incorrectly and it added $200 more to our final total. I do understand I am the one who initially chose USD, so I didn’t push the issue but a 5-star hotel would’ve been able to do it no problem. the pool is much smaller than it seems online towels at the pool are not available after a certain time and the “body dryer” didn’t work so we had to walk back to our rooms dripping wet.

It was an average stay. Would I stay again, no. Do I feel ripped off, yes. Is it a pretty view if you’re in a high floor, yes. Is it a good location, yes. Overall, 3...