My husband and I stayed at the Palace Hotel in Copenhagen over Memorial Day weekend (3 days). Here is our impression of the hotel. Our visit was a personal trip (non-business), and so the review is written from a tourist’s point of view.

Background:
The hotel is currently going through the second phase of a major renovation. It is to be upgraded from 4-start to 5-star hotel under the Le Meridien chain of the Starwood hotel group. The hotel has 4 wings (Night, Evening, Day and Morning) surrounding a courtyard. The Night wing was completed and they are currently working on the Evening wing. Per the hotel, the more attractive wings, Morning and Day, will be completed by late 2008.

Highs:
The room we stayed in had a beautiful, sleek well designed minimalist-style bathroom in a renovated Night Wing room. The hotel is conveniently located.

Lows:
Only few rooms are renovated. Most of the rooms and public areas are waiting to be renovated and are completely worn-out. The hotel is across the street from the City Hall’s clock tower. The clock’s bells ring every 15 minutes from 8 am to midnight. It can be very annoying, especially if you are jet-lagged.

Location:
It is located in front City Hall and its expansive plaza. The hotel is also situated at one end of Stroget, a major pedestrian shopping street. There a several major tourist attractions, such as Tivoli Garden, National Museum, etc., only a few block away. This is also major hub for all of the local bus routes as well as the train station.

While it is centrally located, it can be considered as a downscale part of a major artery. Next to the hotel are KFC, Burger King and 7 Eleven. The area tends to become litter strewn in the evenings. Further more, some of the hotel's building is rented out to Ripley’s Believe it or not museum. - it gives it a somewhat seedy feel.

Building:
The hotel is a grand old building with great bones. The hotel probably was not renovated for several decades and is completely worn-out. For the size of this hotel, the public space, such as the lobby is incredibly small due to much of the ground floor space being occupied by others such as Ripley's.

Room:
We were fortunate to get a renovated deluxe room in the Night Wing. As the name may imply, Night Wing is the least attractive wing and faces either a back alley or courtyard. In spite of the obvious disadvantages of the room’s location and its small size, the hotel managed to make the room attractive. It is decorated in a minimalist theme with stylish furniture and Danish designer’s silk screen over the bed. One thing we found odd was exposed TV wireing....

What is notable is its bathroom. This, too, is done with minimalist theme, using high-end bathroom hardware such as Dornbracht. The bathroom is fitted with a deep tub, and two showers. One is a hand shower and the other is an overhead rain shower. The bathroom is executed flawlessly - we were impressed not only with the design aspect of the bathroom, but also with the impeccable workmanship of the bathroom construction.

Our section of the room's floor was raised, thus had an approx 8 ft ceiling. But other parts of the first floor (2nd FL in the US) have over a 12 ft ceiling. We think the rooms with balconies in the front wing facing the clock tower will be stunningly beautiful when renovated.

Service:
What compensates for the condition of the building is the hotel's service level. The staff was very professional and friendly. The concierge was helpful and eager to make suggestions for good places to eat. Everyone in the front office spoke perfect English. Housekeeping was fine, though they may be a little on the skimpy side for providing bathroom amenities. For our 3-day stay, housekeeping did not replenish shampoo, conditioner or bath gel. Another point one should be aware of is that as of now, the hotel does not provide a turndown service.

We did not encounter any disruptions due to on going renovations.

Food:
We only ate breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. Food quality was adequate, but nothing memorable. As it was buffet style, it was a self-service. Breakfast was included in our room rate.

Guests:
For some reason a high number of Chinese people are staying there when we were there. It was rather odd to see them eating cup-a-noodle at the lobby entrance in the morning. The hotel may be catering to tour groups? Others were Europeans. Only few guests were Americans.

Acid Test:
Would we come back to this hotel? It is hard to say as the hotel is in a transition. We can say that considering the quality of the Night Wing's renovation and the building's great bone structure, it has great potential to become a premier hotel in Copenhagen. But the bell tower is a real concern.

Note:
If you are seeking luxury, you need to wait for the hotel to complete the renovation. We thought we were fully aware of the current hotel’s condition. But we were still taken a back by the sight of outdated and tired-looking lobby and carpet with large swatches of patch work.