SH Valencia Palace — Hotel in Valencia

My job requires a lot of travel, so I’ve got a lot of experience in hotels of all tiers. Here are my take aways from my stay at the SH Palace Valencia Hotel:

The pros: A centrally located hotel, directly across from the Palau de la Musica BIGGEST PRO: the bed is legit comfortable! I had read that in another review, and was delighted to find that this was the case. The mattress is some sort of memory foam/coils hybrid, and the pillows are more American than European (i.e. they’re not the typical square, feather filled pillows that deflate to nothing the moment you’ve touched them). I travel with my own pillow, and I haven’t used it since getting here. Well done, SH. The rooms are soundproof… I’ve been here nearly a week, and haven’t heard a thing on my hallway. The air conditioning in the room is impressive by European standards. For a 5 star property, the price is quite nice.

The cons: The mini fridge in the room is lukewarm (which might not be an issue for most, but as someone who travels with meds that require refrigeration, I feel that’s worth noting.) Breakfast: so, lots to note here. First of all, I really suggest that travelers not opt to pay for breakfast up front, even if you would plan on being up for breakfast daily. It’s simply not worth the price. (If you do want to have breakfast in the hotel, drop by the front desk to tell them that you want to have breakfast when you’re on your way down… you’ll save several euros by doing that, rather than going directly to breakfast. Not sure why they require that work around, but fine.) I have issues with a 5 star hotel who charges €20+ for a buffet breakfast that is of such poor quality. If you’re there only for the coffee/pastries/cold bar experience, you’ll be fine… those things are mostly innocuous. But if you want anything from the hot bar, you’ll be disappointed. The scrambled eggs are… not eggs. They’re clearly from powder, and they were cold. The baked beans were also cold, and weren’t cooked… it’s like they opened the cans of beans, dumped them into a pan, and put a serving ladle in it. Cold, and almost crunchy at times. The orange juice is fantastic, as it’s freshly squeezed right there, but the pineapple juice was basically pineapple flavored water. Perhaps it needed to have been stirred, but they provide nothing to be able to stir the pitcher it is poured from if that’s the case. For a breakfast buffet that really does have the potential to be impressive, these details just made me glad that I hadn’t prepaid for the daily breakfast experience. While the hotel lobby and hallways look quite chic, the room doesn’t really have a 5 star feel in the design. (I could care less about the aesthetic to be honest, but I think that might be a big turn off for some.) For me, the issues really come into play with the functionality of some aspects. Examples include the bottles of bath products, whose pumps don’t work particularly well, making it difficult to get hand soap and the like out of the bottles, and the fact that the sliding glass door to the toilet room doesn’t open all the way, and I’ve absolutely ended up hip checking myself in the middle of the night when I’ve gotten up to use the restroom. Also, just as a reminder (or a heads up for European traveler newbies), no matter what tier hotel you stay in, European hotels do not provide wash clothes. Always bring your own!

The staff have been nothing but incredibly kind and accommodating, and my stay here has been comfortable in the way I need and want a hotel stay to be comfortable: a quiet room where the bed is comfortable, and I’m not waking up because it’s too hot. If travelers expect American 5 star hotel standards here, they will likely be a bit disappointed. But, if you are looking for a reasonably priced, comfortable place to sleep, I think you will be very satisfied here. Just plan on getting breakfast...

I am giving a review from someone who has worked in 5 star luxury hotels for 10 years+, as a guest for this hotel, I am quite disappointed in this hotel’s quality of service, I will address the good/bad parts of my experience.|Good - pleasant check in experience, our rooms were not ready upon arrival which was fine as we arrived early. Our bedrooms were splendid, and I have to say Housekeeping team did an excellent job maintaining the cleanliness to our rooms (they are so valuable and really lovely). I would also like to thank Rafael from front desk for his recommendations on where to check out in Valencia! Breakfast was excellent, got to try the variety of juice selections! |Bad - Pool is small, barely any space to sit, messy and lots of people, so probably not the place you want to go, might as well go to the beach. On our 2nd day, we decided to use the pool. To us finding out we cannot order any food by the pool which is fine, we respect and want to follow the rules. But the pool attendant at the time then told us he could potentially get us breadsticks or crisps which we were a bit confused about as we thought we cannot eat there. Then he said we could order food via him for the lounge area on the ground floor, and then pop to the lounge after 15 mins to eat which we did, til us finding out we were not allowed to order food unless we order directly with the lounge waitress in person… so we went from 6th floor to the ground floor with clothes covered ourselves to order. When we arrived, we stood around the bar for awhile but sadly there was no one serving us at the lounge, the porter had to come and check if someone was there. Then the waitress came out from the back of the bar and asked us to take a seat at the table if we wanted to order food. Then my friend mentioned we were told to come downstairs from the pool to make our order, and immediately the waitress switched her attitude and told us she cannot take our order until we put a T-shirt on… so we had to go back to our rooms, put a T-shirt on and went back down, that’s when she was happy to take our order.. we went to reception later in the evening to flag this up as a lot of time was wasted going up and down when it was supposed to be a relaxing trip, then the receptionist at the time was super lovely and patient, told us he will pass on our message back to the manager the next morning to review. Upon check out, no one even mentioned anything to us until we flagged up the inconvenience again, but it seems no one has even communicated this issue to the managers at all so we were made to repeat ourselves on our experience.. only one person’s breakfast was taking off our bill will zero apologies of inconvenience from the manager, TERRIBLE Experience! The whole point of us booking a 5 star hotel was so we could relax, this really did cause a spoiled spot...

I am giving a review from someone who has worked in 5 star luxury hotels for 10 years+, as a guest for this hotel, I am quite disappointed in this hotel’s quality of service, I will address the good/bad parts of my experience.|Good - pleasant check in experience, our rooms were not ready upon arrival which was fine as we arrived early. Our bedrooms were splendid, and I have to say Housekeeping team did an excellent job maintaining the cleanliness to our rooms (they are so valuable and really lovely). I would also like to thank Rafael from front desk for his recommendations on where to check out in Valencia! Breakfast was excellent, got to try the variety of juice selections! |Bad - Pool is small, barely any space to sit, messy and lots of people, so probably not the place you want to go, might as well go to the beach. On our 2nd day, we decided to use the pool. To us finding out we cannot order any food by the pool which is fine, we respect and want to follow the rules. But the pool attendant at the time then told us he could potentially get us breadsticks or crisps which we were a bit confused about as we thought we cannot eat there. Then he said we could order food via him for the lounge area on the ground floor, and then pop to the lounge after 15 mins to eat which we did, til us finding out we were not allowed to order food unless we order directly with the lounge waitress in person… so we went from 6th floor to the ground floor with clothes covered ourselves to order. When we arrived, we stood around the bar for awhile but sadly there was no one serving us at the lounge, the porter had to come and check if someone was there. Then the waitress came out from the back of the bar and asked us to take a seat at the table if we wanted to order food. Then my friend mentioned we were told to come downstairs from the pool to make our order, and immediately the waitress switched her attitude and told us she cannot take our order until we put a T-shirt on… so we had to go back to our rooms, put a T-shirt on and went back down, that’s when she was happy to take our order.. we went to reception later in the evening to flag this up as a lot of time was wasted going up and down when it was supposed to be a relaxing trip, then the receptionist at the time was super lovely and patient, told us he will pass on our message back to the manager the next morning to review. Upon check out, no one even mentioned anything to us until we flagged up the inconvenience again, but it seems no one has even communicated this issue to the managers at all so we were made to repeat ourselves on our experience.. only one person’s breakfast was taking off our bill will zero apologies of inconvenience from the manager, TERRIBLE Experience! The whole point of us booking a 5 star hotel was so we could relax, this really did cause a spoiled spot...