Historic hotel, recently been renovated to look sophisticated but remaining with its Greek-esq charm. Lovely bar outside (watch the million bats fly over at dusk; it is an amazing sight). Also right next to a casino with 2 poker tables (against other players; not the house): Texas hold 'em & Omaha are both played. Sometimes the first table gets a bit wild ($2000 pots on a $2/$4 blind) but then the 2nd table is a bit more mellow. Play tight poker at the Palm and you should win!

Otherwise, nice staff - will attend to your personal requests (a bowl of olives or a macchiato) and the price is way lower than it should be for that quality in Dar Es Salaam. It is also very close to the Gym Khana golf club.

We only had one night in Dar, on our way home from Zanzibar, and we booked this place based on the review in the Lonely Planet guide (by the way, that guide book gets things wrong way too many times!).

The hotel is clean, newly renovated to seem more like a Marriott (with a bit more style), and it is fine for a night. The evening staff weren't falling over themselves to be helpful.

It is a taxi ride away from the downtown action; a taxi will cost about $5-10.

My Father, Wife and I shared a triple for a couple of nights and a few weeks later my wife and I came back to Dar and spent another 3 nights in this hotel.

On our first stay we were disapointed with the triple rooms functuality and decor and we where not sure if we would return, but luckuly we did, because the double room was very nice and comfy.

On our first stay we were disapointed, because the rooms did not hace mosquito nets! In addition on the first night we did not notice that the window had been left open, so we were conserned of mosquito bites. The TV in the triple room didn't have any channels on it and the room was just not worth paying 150 US/night.The lack of nets was actually the main issue we considered staying somewhere else on our next visit to Dar.

Referring to older reviews etc... On both times the rooms were very clean and spacious. The AC has functioned. The showers have had hot water and the hotel has a good generator in case of the frequent power cuts.

On our second visit the double room was nicely decorated and had the feel of a 4-5 star hotel room. The TV had a lot of channels even HBO. In the evenings the staff sprayed mosquite repellent into the room, so no net was required. It was luxury after having to use nets in all of the other hotels and it actually works! We did not notice to have had any mosquitos in our room during our stay here.

Front office staff were always polite and ready to assist us. The check in/out process went very smoothly.

The hotel has a restaurant that seems to be quite popular. We ate dinner there once and the food was ok. They also have some live music on the weekends.

The breakfast is above average on local standards and it was inluded in our room price 120 USD/night. There is a buffet with the usual yogurts, cereal, pastries, sweets, white and wholemeal toast, a sortment of jams and marmelades, some fruits, 2-3 different fresh juice, coffee and milk. The warm station includes:bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage etc. There is also a cook from whom one can order omelets, pankaces or eggs. The breakfast service in general was good. The only somewhat annoying thing was that the glasses and juice was finished constantly and we needed to wait almost everytime we wanted to drink something cold.

The location was perfect for our needs. We like to spend time at the Msasani Peninsula area, so the hotel is located around half way between the city centre and the peninsula area. To town it is just easy to take a dalla dalla right in front of the hotel. Almost all of the dallas go to Posta from here and it will only cost 200Ts. From the centre we walked back to the hotel on many ocasions, because it was faster on peak hours and it was perfectly safe during the late afternoon when the sun was still up. (There is also a dalla dalla to Masaki which would have taken us to the Peninsula, but we did not have the time to check it out.)

There is also a small Casino in connection to the hotel, but it is behind soundproof glass doors and hardly noticable to the hotel guests. It looked ok.

Having reviewed the Palm Beach Hotel early last year I feel to mention a few, mostly positive, changes which have taken place since. The first thing that has changed are the room rates. With an increase in operating costs and what seem to be contious good occupancy rates one cant really blame the management for that decision.
The booking was done through the e-mail listed on their website and it was responded to within 5 minutes - excellent service, rarely seen in hotels across the region.
The rooms seem to have undergone the first sort of renovation/upgrade since the overall renovation of the hotel some few years ago. The rooms now feature plants, local handicraft and other decorations. The biggest improvement in my view is that the curtains have now been changed and are much thicker and actualy help in keeping the early morning light out of the room. On the downside the air-con system didnt really seem to work, like a previous reviewer already noted, the temperature indicating on the remote does not seem to corespond with the temperature the air-con manages to achieve. While I didnt make it for breakfast, it seems they have put in some serious effort to upgrade the catering side of the hotel, the restaurant and beergarden had a much more organised and modern feel to it, the quality of the food, service and choice of menu is remarkable. The Palm Beach continues to offer value for money in a town where this is quite hard to find.