Merian Palace

The room itself was spacious and cozy, but the carpet and toilet seat were dirty, there was hair around the bathroom, and the faucet kept dripping. The towels smelled like they’d been stored for a long time, and the sheets were torn. There were three bottles labelled body wash, shampoo and conditioner, but only the shampoo had anything in it. The bathroom bin had no bag. The pool was there, but out of order. Breakfast was awful, with cakes that seemed a week old and cheese and ham that tasted funny and were very poor quality. A guy was walking around serving people in slippers and shorts, with toenails that were black and looked like they hadn’t been cut in a long time. An electrical problem had taken out the coffee machine, lights by the dishes and all the other electrical devices. Completely unprofessional, more like a 2 star hotel.

The furniture was old and dirty, and the towels were stained. There were no individual toiletries in the bathroom, only large shared bottles of soap and shampoo. Each day the maids came to clean around 1:30-2:00 pm, right when I was resting. It’s overpriced for these conditions and definitely not 4 star.

The breakfast was awful: tomatoes and salami that seemed two days old, and everything was cold at 8am. Coffee came in long or short, from a machine like one you’d see on a street corner. The hotel itself was cold, and staff wore hooded jumpers and tracksuits. You have to pay for parking at a place calling itself 4 star, which is a joke. It’s beautifully renovated but so badly run. Just poor, don’t go if you value your money.

Merian Palace was the worst experience of my life, a disaster from start to finish. The rooms were disgusting, outdated and unhygienic. The AC units weren’t working, and for some reason we weren’t allowed to switch on the third one on the wall. It was record hot in the city, and the room reached 40 degrees. Between the unbearable heat and the smell, we barely slept. We also ended up with food poisoning, apparently from old, stale food. We asked about the indoor pool and spa shown in the pictures and advertised, but were warned it was such a disaster that we could break our legs if we tried to use it. I strongly advise people not to waste their hard-earned money here.