Baku Palace Hotel

Nice hotel in good location close to Fountain Square and pedestrian area with lots of restaurants. But the airport pick-up didn't work out. No driver met us and we had to take a taxi for more than double the price. When we arrived, the clerk gave us a free upgrade to a 2-room suite which is spacious and pretty nice, but no reading lamps and only a small amount of toilet paper provided. Suite has fridge and functioning AC, plus large bathroom.

I stayed at Royal Palace Hotel for seven nights from 17-24 June 2022. The hotel is at an ideal location in the city center, the old city and Seaview Boulevard are within walking distance. I walked to the Fountain square, Maiden Tower, Shirvanshah palace, miniature books museum, National Art Museum of Azerbaijan, Highland park, Martyr's lane, Baku eye, little Venice, and Carpet Museum. ||||There is a lot of hassle and bustle in this area. Just a few steps away is a grocery store, which is a blessing. On my last night at the hotel, I felt hungry late at night, and I was able to get some snacks from there. Many restaurants are also within walking distance including KFC and Mcdonald's. There is a famous Azerbaijani food restaurant something like Shirvanshah at a distance of two kilometers from the hotel (two blocks down the lane).||||The rooms are on the first and second floors. In the basement and on the ground floor is Moss Art Hotel. The breakfast for a group of four hotels including Royal Palace is served in the dining area of Moss Art Hotel. It's a small cozy place, the menu is simple and delicious. The lady looking after the kitchen was so caring, she always ensured that the food was served as per the guests' requirements. ||||The hotel has thirteen rooms consisting of different sizes. Almost all rooms have balconies. The hotel has a royal touch attached to it. It was built around 1860. The rooms are decorated with beautiful paintings and the washroom tiles have drawings as well. ||||The staff of the hotel is cooperative, especially the ones in the reception Khan, Rajaf, and Rasul. Most of my interaction was with Rajaf, he helped me with everything from booking a tour to calling a cab. He got me through a lady working for Tes Tour, she booked me a Baku city tour for 50 Manat and Gabala tour for 70 Manat. The tour guides were thoroughly professional. I must say Rajaf was of great help, can't thank him enough. ||||One thing that I didn't like about the hotel was that their bed sheets and pillow covers were not as clean as they should be. When everything else was so perfect this could be ignored. Still, I would request the management to ensure daily cleaning of the rooms.

The room literally is rotten and old CHECK THE PICTURES ATTACHED. The hotel pictures are too old and do not match the reality. I booked based on the previous review and the hotel is mentioned in Lonely Travel guide but there is no quality. I have booked deluxe room and when I arrived they will give me the family room because the hotel is full in return to pay cash. I didn’t have cash and I told them that I booked by card. After long negotiation they gave me the room and GUESS WHAT!!. They asked me to move to another room after 2 days and I refused and I told them that I am going to call the police and booking. I have more pictures but the app allows me only to post 4.

Baku Palace Hotel.||It is a hostel really, but they do provide free tea and coffee in the shared kitchen. Other good aspects are the location and the price. I also liked the ‘old fashioned’ or historic aspect of the place. Others may just think it is run down. Our room was big with a high ceiling, a balcony and a fridge. The bathroom was small but functional. Because of the size of the room, the air con struggled and the temperature never got below 24 degrees. It was a triple room right next to reception. That meant only one flight of stairs to get up, but also meant we could hear noise from reception until late. One of the beds was rock hard but the other two were ok. We ‘booked’ a tour through reception since they had a brochure that said pickup from hotel. On the phone to the tour company they said we needed to get to a different location to join the tour. We did this and they never turned up!||We booked our own tours after that direct with TESTOUR, who were excellent. I would still recommend staying at this hostel for the price and location.

For reasons explained below, I stayed first in room 105 and then in room 203. All the photos I have supplied are from room 203. Room 105 looks like the photo already on trip advisor but I had a double not a twin bed. Room 105 was slightly rough around the edges e.g. part of the shower stall door was missing but I have to say that that bed was like a bed of roses -- I slept like a baby on it. The room was warm unlike other properties in Baku where I froze my you-know-what off. Indeed, the room was too hot and I shifted the space heater to the bathroom, which was cold, because of the draft coming through the window; but steam from the shower or, when not using the shower, the space heater warmed the bathroom up adequately just that it would bleep annoyingly at 27 degrees centigrade. The aircon is the room itself functioned as a highly effective and quiet heater. There were few guests in the hotel when I was there so there was no real noise (other than when someone attempted to play the piano at 830am one morning) notwithstanding the fact that reception was close to my door. Room 105 has a balcony; not of much use to me because I do not smoke and it was cold out there.||I really wanted to switch to a bigger, more well-appointed room for more money and I had, through booking, attempted to reserve such a room but the reservation was bungled by booking -- nothing to do with this hotel. They promised to move me after the first three days (my first) reservation but indeed for the whole second reservation (another three days I was still in room 105; only during the evening of the first day of the third reservation was I able to move to room 203.||I never did get the room with a fireplace and there are apparently only three such rooms in the hotel but I was nonetheless satisfied with room 203 except in one regard; it was not possible to turn on the lights in the bathroom without having the ventilator run and the ventilator would rumble like a turboprop engine. There were two electrical switches but the electrical switches were not connected properly to the fixtures; had I resided a full month in this room I would have hired a local electrician to remedy that problem. Instead I put a table with a lamp in that bathroom and refrained from turning on the ceiling lights. For that reason, I would rate my stay more accurately at 4 1/2 stars. (Happily, room 105 did not exhibit the noisy ventilator problem; that ventilator could be shut off, moreover, without needing to turn off the bathroom lights.)||Personnel at the hotel are friendly and helpful. I think you would be better understood if you speak Russian rather than English but you could get by just with English. The hotel registered me with the police as that is a requirement for all non-Azeri and non-Kazakh passport holders in Azerbaijan who are staying more than 15 days. A taxi was also arranged for me to get to Baku airport at a cost of just 20 manat. Two hotel personnel helped me with my bags as there is no lift and there are two staircases to go down. (I was travelling back home with nearly 60 kg of gear.)||I have a gripe but it is with booking dot com -- not with the hotel. I wanted to upgrade my room through the booking website but booking showed me an error message so, after multiple attempts, I decided to book a more expensive room and delete this cheaper one. I did so but when I arrived at the hotel they only had the cheaper booking and the more expensive one not. I had multiple bookings with this hotel and they promised me they would move me on the second booking but there was a question of which room I would get so we needed a picture of the room from the booking site but, in January 2023, the booking site suspended many three star hotels in Baku and thus I could not get a picture of the room; bookings suspends hotels without notice and apparently arbitrarily due to untimely commission payments. In the pdf of the reservation for the room, booking only provided one picture for the whole hotel -- that of Reception, not of the room so it was of no help. ||Anyway, in the course of my subsequent stay at the whole (multiple bookings covering 16 days) I was moved to room 203 upstairs, on the third floor of the building; room 203 was fine for me for a long stay although, in the end, I did not get the room with the fireplace but the kind hotel manager gave me a reasonable discount to the price of the stay. This fully satisfied me.||I found Royal Palace Hotel to be good value for money at least in the winter off-season. I usually stay at Hazz Hotel but Hazz was getting greedy this winter and I think that, for the money involved, Royal Palace was the superior choice for me. ||One penultimate note is that Royal Palace is located at 15 Islam Safarli Street – not 21 Islam Safarli street. Tripadvisor is repeating the mistake of booking dot com. This address error caused me some exasperation with the taxi driver. Royal Palace signage is not prominent but a tip is that it is located on the second floor (American) [first floor British] above the Moss Art Boutique hotel, which is located on the first floor (American) [ground floor British]. The signage for Moss Art is prominent at night – green and white sign.||Final tips. Going to the hotel from the Baku Airport [GYD] avoid the red taxis – they will set you back 55 manat. The Baku taxi reservation booth inside the Airport can arrange a taxi for 40 manat but the guy running the booth is not rarely absent so you might find yourself waiting a long time to save 15 manat. I would try to arrange a taxi through the hotel or online next time before you fly -- it seems to me that paying 30 manat would be reasonable. For in-city travel, bolt will take you (once you register with the service for which you need to scan your passport) for lengthy distances with fares being dirt cheap. [I also used 189 taxi (more expensive) one time for going from an apartment I rented in December to airport for 20 manat again using the relevant app (189). However, don’t attempt to reserve a taxi online through the 189 website.] Register your phone with the Azerbaijan gov through the post office so that you don’t have to be concerned about your phone being blocked if you intend on being in Azerbaijan for a long stay or if you intend to return. I did so in December 2019. Go for an Azercell subscription which you can buy at the Airport.||

In terms of its location: I would rate it as 5 stars. The hotel is 3 minutes walk from all touristic places. Cleanliness: The hotel is very clean but you need to take into consideration that you have to ask them every day to clean the room. Otherwise, they will not clean it. One of the rooms we booked, was a but smelly. Make sure you take tissue box, shampoo, soap and toothbrush with you as they do not provide them. No water or coffee available in the hotel and not even around the hotel especially if you wake up too early. The nearest cafe is just one min walk but they open really late like 9:00 am. So ensure stocking enough coffee with you. The staff are very friendly and easy to deal with. As for the value for money: I would also give it 5 stars. Worth booking in this hotel when in Baku for few days.

A very good little hotel on a good location in the city, close to both the old city and the modern city center. |The rooms are big and the beds were more comfortable then I first thought. It's clean and the staff really wants to help you. Some of them aren' t that good att English, which may be a problem.|Book your transfer from airport through the hotel! It's much cheaper and the taxi will find the hotel. Our taxi hade some problem with that in the middle of the night. Of you need a taxi, just ask the guy in the reception, he'll fix it and to a very good Price. Especially if Davud is there! |The breakfast is included in the price and I found everything I needed. Bread, eggs in different shapes, sausage, cheese, jam, coffe, tea, juice, fruits and a cake. Water bottles are free and you can take as many as you think you need every day.|In this hotel you get a lot for the money!

Unclean hotel. The reception is very bad. At first, he laughs with you, and after you live, their problems begin. Unclean towels. Everywhere we find hair. If you ask for something simple, they starts getting bored and annoyed (I just asked for a towel) I paid a larger amount than it was supposed to because there was no change and they did not accept to return it to me I advise everyone not to stay in this hotel. There are many excellent hotels at the same price and the best treatment with guests