Historic Palace Hotel

Location: Centrally located on Main Street, close to shops, restaurants, and attractions like Little Toad Creek Brewery.

With glowing reviews we chose to stay here at the Palace. First off upon arrival there was nobody at the desk. Some others had opened the front door to let me in. I waited in a dark lobby for what seemed forever, actually about 40 minutes or more. I called my wife and said nobody was here and she said to call the phone numbers she sent me. I called and the desk phone rang and rang, then trying the other number I got an automated message. Apparently the second number was a third party reservation service which was of no help. Then Gustavo appeared from upstairs, he apologized profusely and i asked whether there was an elevator to reach the rooms upstairs. He said no elevator but that our room was at ground level. The suite was very large, formerly a store on the corner of the block. It had been renovated in a somewhat non professional manner yet the size was remarkable. Gustavo offered to help me unload my luggage as I could only find a spot on a side street. Well we brought in the luggage and I still was amazed by the space. Later that evening after dinner out, we returned to the hotel. Again the parking was on the street and I had to park almost 4 blocks away. In the room the first thing we noticed was a lack of a central heating system. We used the bathroom heater on full and brought a space heater out to the main room to attempt to warm this large space up. I will interject here that there were no instructions on what to do or how to heat this space. Apparently there was a window AC unit that may have had heating capabilities but we never did find out until we left. Continental Breakfast - is nomenclature for coffee and bread and a little cereal. We found that we had to leave our room, go two doors down and then upstairs for a sparse breakfast. After a cup of coffee we left for Denny's to have a real breakfast. Bottom line this was a mostly poorly constructed renovated store, into an enormous space. Little in terms of adequate outlets and heating options. A thorough explanation would have gone a long ways to at least being comfortable temperature wise. Instead with the challenges of parking loading and heating this space I have to give this two thumbs down. Maybe the Murray Hotel would have been more promising, though we do not know.

Our rooms were clean and comfortable. I've stayed here many times over the years, as I volunteer at the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and I stay in town on occasion. A very central location within the Historic District. Not real fancy, but one can imagine historic figures of the Old South West strolling these halls. You must be able to climb stairs to the rooms on the second floor. We were on an outing to the City of Rocks park and an astronomy show and didn't want to drive the long hall on Hwy 15 back to the Monument after the event.