Royal Palace Hotel Baku

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.

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