Safir Imperial Palace, Amman

I stayed here whilst on an airline training course. Luckily I wasn't paying for it!

About the hotel:
Apparently it's a four star but I'd personally give it three stars. The website boasts of the luxury and how it's located in a prime part of Jordan. It's actually located at the Fourth Circle and is 30 minutes from the airport. It's a 10-minute drive to the city centre, not walk. The area around the hotel is surrounded by busy roads and broken pavements, the only way to go anyway is to hail a taxi and try not to get run over!

First Impressions:
It seems a bit run down. You walk in past a security check point (after the Amman hotel bombings these were installed in most hotels) you walk into a small foyer with the reception desk to your left. Up a couple of steps is an open plan area filled with small tables and chairs. This is also the atrium, as you look up you can see the balconies of the floors above.

The Room:
Think Holiday Inn circa 1990. Lots of floral and chintz. We had a welcoming fruit basket when we first arrived, which was a nice touch. The mini bar was locked up and we were told it was not working and could not be replaced. There was no kettle. There was a television with lots of ever so fun Arabic channels and BBC World News. The bathroom was small with a slightly mouldy shower curtain. There were no little bottles of shampoo and shower gel, just dispensers on the wall.

The website says: "We have 85 elegant and luxurious Include 40 rooms double bed, and 30 twin, and 10 single, and 5 suites, rooms on the upper floors are marked by extreme attention to detail, conditioning central heating, mini bar, hairdryer, room service 24 hours, international direct dial phones, digital satellite." The air conditioning was fine but there was no hair dryer. It cost my parents £2 per minute to telephone me.

Faulty items in the room:
The window panel broke one evening and was hanging off the window frame. How safe! I rang down to reception but no one answered. It was fixed two days later. One day we came back to find the sink had been taken out! I walked down to reception and 30 minutes later a handy man re-appeared with the sink to re-install it. Our door lock was very stiff and on the last day the key wouldn't work. Again it took ages for someone to actually come and try and fix it.

Amenities:
There is a 'business centre' with three computers. If you feel like paying 5JD, that's £3.60 for half an hour then you are welcome to use it! There is an outdoor swimming pool that is watched over by a disinterested lifeguard. He was quite happy to sit there and watch us struggle to move sun parasols and tables. He also did not stop young children from jumping in the pool, splashing us and generally being noisy. Eventually we complained and a manager came out and put an end to that. There is also a 'Relaxation Club' with a sauna and steam room you have to pay to use.

The Food:
I am sorry to say that everything I ate in the hotel seemed to make me sick. Breakfast was a buffet style meal. You could help yourself to fruit, pancakes, yoghurt and cereal. There was a selection of very strong coffee or weak tea. The fruit juice was very over sugared. Dinner was not much better, it was buffet style again, and was mostly salads and macaroni cheese, chicken and boiled vegetables with sickly sweet desserts. The food was largely bland and soggy.

The website assures me: "The decor and quality of accessories guarantees the comfort expected of Imperial Palace hotel, can enjoy a choice of delicious breakfasts and brunch, Enjoy the hotel's exceptional fine dining at Aida restaurant which offers international cuisine local dish's. Breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner." In the end I resorted to McDonalds. It didn't make me ill so was fine by me! Unlike most 'luxury' hotels in the East, bottled or filtered water is not provided (the tap water is not advisable!) and they charged 1.20 JD or nearly 90 pence for a 1 litre bottle of water. When you are getting through four bottles a day it soon adds up.

Room Service:
On one occasion I felt very hungry. I looked at the room service sheet and found I could basically order any type of fast food I wanted. I decided on a cheeseburger. There was no number on the sheet to dial so I went down to reception. The charming receptionist gave me a withering look and replied the number was in the Guest Services Booklet. I assured her it wasn't so she seemed to pluck a number out of thin air for me to dial.

I went back to the room, dialled the number and was transferred to another number. It took several attempts to explain to the person on the other end what I would like so poor was his English. I was informed in broken English it would be 'a while' before I got my meal. Nearly an hour later a depressed looking waiter bought my tray up. I tucked into my burger with its dry bap, soggy chips and wilted looking salad. Yummy. For the pleasure of this I paid the equivalent of £5.

Who stays here?
Businessmen, travel groups and airline staff.

The staff:
They were not particularly helpful or hospitable and I found some of the male staff to be bordering on rude and arrogant. They even tried to charge me 20JD when I checked out for my internet access which I had paid for before I logged on every time! I refused too and the argued with me but eventually backed down. They were also very slow to do things.

The Key Issue:
As it was an airline training course we were sharing rooms. We were given one key each which was a pain. The staff then got irritated every time we asked them to come up and open our room if my roommate went out. Even leaving they key at
reception seemed to annoy them.

Room rates start at $60 (£30) per night.

http://www.imperialpalace.com.jo/
The website makes it look a lot better than I found it to be!