Palm Beach Hotel

Liked · - Hotel arranged a free pickup from the airport, well planned & on-time. A free drop later as well. - Hotel is about 10-15 minutes from the airport. Location is not all that great, though close to a beach (5-min walk) which is not at all clean. The CBD is about 15-20 minutes away by car. - Checkin was smooth & fast. Checkout was pretty quick as well. Both done in less than 10 minutes. USD cash & Visa credit cards are accepted. - Staff are friendly but not very knowledgeable except the FO Manager. - Best part was the room which was huge & well furnished & maintained very well. We got a 2-bedroom apartment on the GF which did not have much of a view but was close to reception & the pool. A fully functional kitchen with microwave oven, big fridge, gas burner & cutlery. 2 attached toilets for both the rooms, a dining table with chairs and a sofa to watch TV. Toilets were clean as well. Beds, linen, lights were all good. ACs & fans in both the rooms & the living area were convenient. Power points were great, right next to the beds and had USB ports for charging. This was very helpful & highly appreciated. We did not need any adapters for any of our electronic items like phones, laptops & power banks. Even the working table had USB points & an international plug point. This is so easy to do & yet many upscale hotels do not do this! - Room also had a washing machine. - There's a small swimming pool which looked inviting but we did not have the time to use it. - Breakfast options were limited especially for vegetarians but seemed adequate for us since we eat eggs. - Taxi is called by the hotel when we want which arrives in about 10-15 minutes usually. To be paid by us separately. - The restaurant has a tie-up with a restaurant nearby who delivers to the rooms and they even have a menu of them in the rooms but we could not use them since they were closed during our stay. - Seemed like one of the better stay options in Dili and we were not disappointed by the room & hotel. Disliked · - Can't get into the dirty beach there.. sewage was being let into the beach right in front of our eyes. Can't blame this on the hotel though. - Not many restaurants around & the nearest ones would be about 15-minutes away by walk. - No public transport (not the hotel's problem again). - No restaurant on-site. Only breakfast is provided by the hotel in the morning. - No much tourist information since they focus on business/long-term travelers. - No activities except the pool. - Price was expensive for our liking.. close to $200 a night. But was lesser than other highly-rated properties. Difficult to say value-for-money but not many other good options at this price point. - Wifi Internet connectivity was just acceptable. It works in the room & reception only. Our phone network let us down & we were totally dependent on the hotel wifi. But can't complain much here since the whole of Timor is known to have very poor networks.