Hotel des Palmes

When we booked Hotel des Palmes as part of a New Year’s getaway, we looked forward to staying somewhere with history. In its day, this hotel was THE place to hold meetings and rendezvous with the high-profile folk of Palermo. When we arrived, the hotel lobby spoke of better times and felt a bit messy, with a noticeboard of events and fixtures that wouldn’t have seemed out of place at Butlin’s, but looked very wrong here. The front desk staff were helpful, but not particularly happy folk, and the porter/concierge desk was never once manned.
Upstairs, our room was lovely, but the corridors we followed to reach it were depressingly pre-refurbishment. The positive thing is that the refurbed areas have been done beautifully, and when we returned at the end of our Sicilian holiday, we stayed in an even lovelier room than the first.
However, the air con was impossible to regulate and very noisy, so that kept us awake at night, and the parking system was equally frustrating as the parking building was a good 10 min walk away and if you wanted your car, you had to ask reception who would phone the parking attendant who would drive the car to the hotel but for some reason this process always had us waiting 30-40mins.
Positives - the breakfast room manager was warm and welcoming, the hot chocolate is to die for and the hotel’s location is unbeatable. You could do a lot worse than stay at the Hotel des Palmes if ever you find yourself in Palermo.