Palace Hotel & Spa

AVOID. Not a 5* hotel, maybe a 2 star. We left after 2 days. Everything was broken, even the indoor pool (check the pics of the knob of my room, with 2 holes covered with napkins) I showed this to the manager and he had the face to tell me "why didn't you say it before?" Like if it was my fault that everything was broken! Do your job! You should know! The second day we left and they refunded us. The bathroom was also disgusting, dirt everywhere. Disaster place. The manager is a baby that needs to grow up and the rest of the staff is also awful. If you find someone nice there is because they are expecting you leave a tip.

Our first trip to Albania and we were in no way disappointed and that’s certainly the case with the Palace Hotel and Spa. From check in to check out we were impressed. Wonderful staff front of house and back were all friendly and efficient. Our room on the fourth floor overlooked the pool and beach was spotless and kept so by the maids during our stay. Spacious and bright. The pool was excellent. The bar and breakfast area was well manned by waiters and waitresses. The buffet breakfast was amazing. Spa area was an extension of the excellent experience. We had a meal in the restaurant on two occasions. Prices and quality wonderful. There is, however, no such thing as perfection and the single wee thing that should not happen in any restaurant. The second time we had dinner the main course arrived before we had finished our starter. Just an observation. We thoroughly recommend this hotel, indeed we say that Albania is well worth visiting. Very friendly people.

Fantastic crew, one of the nicest hotel in Durres - daily cleaned, nice breakfasts, pools and SPA. We were very happy with our stay. Jacuzzi can be improved, inside pool is quite cold, but these are small details. Restaurant and drinks are good quality, prices are quite normal. We recommend to visit the view from the ballroom 🩷

This hotel had a simply great breakfast. the room with a balcony was comfortable and well-furnished. The location is good, on the beach. Nice pool and private beach access. Easy to access parking for the car. As with most Albanian hotels and restaurants, the staff are friendly but training could improve especially when it comes to being proactive.

This is not a five star hotel. At all. It might look nice at first glance, but if you look closer, absolutely not. We spent a week in this hotel a couple of weeks ago, and a lot of things were good, but a lot was also not. The good first: Breakfast was very nice, but you’d think they would have some sort of switch up throughout the week. Every day, it was the exact same things. Location was good, close to bus, restaurants and shops. But then the bad: First of all, the beach is absolutely useless. There is a stone wall at the end of it, with steps into the water. Also very dirty. We didn’t go swimming once. And we didn’t see anyone else swimming here either. Then, we booked a room with a balcony, of course assuming this was private. It was not. It was a shared balcony in the view of everyone, which was very uncomfortable. (Room 211) In this room, the WiFi was bad, and didn’t work on our balcony. Also, the door to the bathroom was hard to close, and maintenance didn’t seem to clean my toilet the first six days. There was what looked left over from poop marks on our toilet paper holder the whole time. That’s disgusting. There were cracks in the shower walls, and the shower head was rusty. Maintenance didn’t understand English, so very hard to communicate with. Nice, but impossible to ask for stuff almost. It also said the room had noise cancelling, which it really could not have. I heard everything going on in the hallway and the balcony at all times. Impossible to sleep after 8am. Day six I decided I had had enough, and decided to ask to change rooms to be comfortable the last night and morning with my husband. After all, we paid for a five star hotel. The guys in the reception were very nice about it, but I had to wait til the next day. That’s fine, as they said the hotel was full. The next day we got the new room (904 I think), and we were excited to enjoy our last day and night here. But the room still had so many things wrong with it. Balcony was fine, but WiFi was absolutely useless, didn’t work on the balcony at ALL, and kept disconnecting all the time inside the room. The door to the bathroom could not be closed, and all though we are married, I expect at least the privacy of closing a door behind me in the bathroom. The flusher on the toilet had not been cleaned, so we cleaned it ourselves. Still worn down shower, with the hand shower button not able to push in and use. At this time I didn’t have it in me to complain again, because I had already complained, the hotel was full, and I probably wouldn’t get a new room anyways, and we were leaving the next morning. So we left it, paid, and went to the airport. Not happy, but not feeling up for facing another issue right then and there. So all in all, we did not have the five star experience that we paid for and therefore expected. We left disappointed and annoyed, the absolute opposite of what we should have felt.

Good quality hotel right on the beach with a great pool and bar area. The views from the breakfast room and balcony are wonderful. The food in the evening restaurant was extremely good. There are some potentially nice bars and cafes nearby but the service in these places was awful. You pay quite a bit more in the hotel but it is worth it not to have to wait 45 minutes for a waiter to get you a drink.