THE PALACE, a new five-star hotel in Hight Street, Sliema, next to The Victoria, is expected to open towards the end of June. Construction works have just been completed and workmen were busy working on site last week to meet their deadline.
"Its inspiration is the result of the success of The Victoria", general manager Claire Xuereb told The Sunday Times on Wednesday during a tour of the nine-storey hotel.
The Lm6 million project, which took four years to complete, has been built and designed with thought and a specific direction - that of having its own five-star individuality but also working together with the four-star Victoria hotel.
The 161-room urban city hotel "will offer a multitude of services and an internal synergy with both the four-star Victoria hotel and the historical Palazzo Capua".
"With The Palace we hope to synergise internally with our other projects, offering clients a wider price range," Ms Xuereb explained.
"We are targeting the same guest profile. Since ours is a particular product which attracts travellers during off-peak periods, our clients come to us not for the sun and sea, but for services and standards."
Being a boutique hotel, The Palace, just like The Victoria and Palazzo Capua, will offer a great experience of hospitality and refined style.
"In fact, with The Palace we feel we've improved the foundations that we have already built. We believe in our product, that is why we have invested so much in this hotel. We strive for quality and our strategy highlights the individuality and boutique aspect of both hotels."
The Palace will focus mainly on service and location. "Our corporate clients are looking for a home away from home. They look for service and are after quality, not quantity. However, we can now cater for large groups which is a new area of business.".
The Palace, although a city hotel, will have a classic touch mixed with a little bit of modern. "This gives it the desired dramatic effect".
The hotel features single/twin comfort rooms, which cover a standard area of 33 m2. Then there are the de luxe rooms, superior rooms, junior suites, six 53 m2 designer suites featuring various themes, and two 63 m2 executive suites.
Most rooms enjoy balconies or very spacious terraces, ranging from 10m2 to 40 m2 and all floors enjoy natural daylight.
Conveniently located on the first floor, close to the fully-fledged business centre, where full secretarial services are available, The Palace's executive lounge offers clients staying in any of the suites the perfect meeting area for one-to-one meetings.
Here, one can also order continental breakfast, non-alcoholic drinks and snacks during the day, afternoon tea and pre-dinner drinks. This lounge offers natural daylight and overlooks the hotel's courtyard.
The whole experience starts before entering the hotel's hugely impressive and grand lobby, which is partitioned into various sectors. A concierge - more of a PR person - will welcome guests and talk to them about the hotel and what it offers.
"We wanted The Palace to be just like city hotels abroad - their biggest asset is people, and we are going to display it right outside, on the doorstep," Ms Xuereb explained.
In the lobby is a versatile café, serving also as the lobby bar - Talk of Town - next to the beautifully restored 18th century Palazzo Capua. The café has a huge skylight extending till the very front of the hotel, by the street. "This gives an element of activity".
The Tabloid, the hotel's main restaurant, is an elegant venue, offering Mediterranean cuisine in a stylish setting.
On the seventh, eighth and ninth floors is the hotel's spa and well being centre. The TemptAsian lounge, offering a fusion of Asian food in a contemporary setting, is found on the ninth floor.
On the ninth floor are also two exclusive executive suites which can also be sold as one. This floor will feature elaborate furniture and will be extremely upmarket. "This entire floor is the cherry on the cake and a unique selling point."
The six designer suites, "unique in Malta", were inspired by the five senses - View (Room 846), Light (847) Flavours (747), Fragrance (748), Texture (849) and Music (750). These beautifully decorated rooms are "high-cost, high-maintenance products", which add to the hotel's distinctiveness and value.
Special features in the View suite include digital frames placed above desks showing changing views from around the world, articulated automotive mirrors which offer additional reflection, a window detail in the bed's headboard, framed mirrors echoing window frames, thus reflecting views from the window, views of Malta and Gozo on walls and a telescope placed by the window.
The Fragrance suite in ivory and white with a few touches of colour, has bottles of traditional and exotic scents, such as wild fig, cassis, rosemary and mint, ceramic plates with florals on the walls, flowers framed in gold and silver, simple graphic motifs, such as sylised florals on silk pillows, and jasmine, lavender and narcissus in pots on the balcony.
The Light suite has light underneath the skirting all around the room, lighting under the bed and sofas, special lighting for photographs which makes them appear as though they are flowing when all other lights are switched off, mirrored walls which reflect outside light, floating side tables lit from underneath, and a poster of Senglea from the Grand Harbour.
The hotel will feature a private contemporary art collection on its first floor. Each guest room will also have original works of art on display, inspired primarily by the old and beautiful Palazzo Capua. Various works of art will also spread across the entire level.
"With The Victoria currently enjoying a 73 per cent occupancy every year, we are confident that The Palace can retain these high occupancy levels. However, it is important to point out that while services and standards will reflect the five-star category, the original concept of a boutique hotel will surely be maintained."