The Petra Palace Hotel

We stayed at this hotel during a rather quiet time in Jordan. We stayed in the renovated section of the hotel. The room met all our requirements. A big plus for this hotel is its location, within walking distance of Petra.

If I could give zero stars, I would. This was sold to me as a “Turkish bath and massage” but it was nothing of the sort. The whole “experience” was 10 minutes in a hot tub, 10 minutes in a steam room (which ran out, leaving us sitting awkwardly in a cold room for 20 minutes), followed by what I can only describe as a painful and unhygienic scrub-down. The “bath” itself took place in a huge bare room with concrete slabs. My head was put on a dirty towel and the woman just started scrubbing away. She asked “hard or soft” — I said a bit of both, but it was neither therapeutic nor relaxing. It was sore, clumsy, and felt like a child could have done it. At one point she lifted my legs up to “stretch” them but went to lock my knees — incredibly dangerous given that I have bad knees. I had to stop her mid-way before she caused damage. She even scrubbed my face with what looked like a dirty cloth — and now my skin has broken out in spots. I’ve had authentic Turkish baths in Turkey, as well as many professional massages (both sports and relaxation), and this was nothing like any of them. It wasn’t a Turkish bath, it wasn’t a massage — just random rubbing that left me feeling sore, dirty, and honestly horrified. There’s no chance this woman has any proper training in massage or spa therapy. The whole thing felt unprofessional, unsafe, and unsanitary. And to top it off, it cost £24 — a complete waste of money. Save yourself the disappointment (and the skin breakout) and avoid this place at all costs.

Nice hotel within walking distance of the Petra attraction. Good rooms and common areas, but boring breakfast and dinner.

The hotel claims to be a 3-star. After visiting, it shouldn't even have 1 star. Stayed one night mid-July and we were the only guests in the hotel. We had booked a room with breakfast and supper. On the day we arrived, we dropped our bags off and headed off to Petra for the day, returning for supper. When we arrive to the restaurant, we are surprised that we are not given any options and that we are forced to eat whatever the chef's prepared, food that we were not all good with. When we get to the room, we find hair and dirt on our bed sheets and when we ask the front desk to change them, the housekeeping manager claims that the sheets are clean and after 5 minutes of back and forth, the sheets are eventually changed. While that happens, we find brown spots on all our pillows (pictures below). When confronted with the pictures and pillows themselves, housekeeping manager says "Guests don't usually remove their pillow covers so it's that big of a deal". Next morning for breakfast, we are brought to two dirty tables and breakfast is yet again a limited menu. All in all, this hotel is a must-skip. Unless, you don't mind dirty beds, horrible service and being forced to eat whatever they feel like making, then go for it. Only redeeming quality we found was that the hotel is walking distance to Petra (~5-7 minutes).

Mediocre hotel to avoid Lunch from the night before Cold and very dirty pool Room not clean