When we visited Jerusalem in February 2008, we went to take a look at the Dan Boutique - where we had booked a room for our trip in May.

We had booked on line and the photos of the rooms were fantastic.

However when we visited, it was an artist's impression. The hotel said it would be open in two weeks - the builders said - at least 4 weeks. In the end they opened in April - obviously in great haste.

The hotel is NOT up ot the usual Dan standard. The initial impression was good. And the view from our room - towards the Old City Walls - was brilliant. But that's about all.

The bedroom did not have enough draw space and the cupboard was practically full with a fridge, safe, extra pillows and blankets. There was nowhere to put the luggage out of the way.
There was no hairdryer, no kettle with tea and coffee tray , no bottled water in the room - so no way of making a drink,.

I asked reception to arrange for a hairdryer to be put oin my room - for use when I returned from my day out and was told to collect it myself.

There were no hooks in the bathroom to hang up the towelling robes and no shaving mirror. The paint work was shoddy in both the bedroom and the bathroom - the bathroom door frame has one thin coat of paint - showing the wood through and the paint also covered some of the tiles around the door frame. There was a chip out of the wall in the bedroom.

And please remember - this is a brand new hotel -just 4 weeks old.

The breakfast room - felt like a kibbutz dining room - no style as one would expect of a Dan.
The breakfasts were OKish. Uninteresting salads - "fruit juice" that was squash. The staff did not check when the food needed replenishing - so, for example we had to ask for jam - and all they had was little pots of orange jam. No choice.

And so it goes on. We spoke to the manager who admitted he was having problems.

In comparison - we stayed at the Melody Hotel (another Boutique hotel) in Tel Aviv and thought it was wonderful. Met "Lebatt" there who introduced us to Trip Advisor. It's because of him that I decided to write this entry to ensure that visitors are aware of the shortcomings of the Dan Boutique in Jerusalem.

View great - good walking distance from the Old City - the rest mediocre.

I stayed in the Dan Boutique over the Passover holiday excluding Seder night. I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel and staff.
Here's my ratings:

Staff - Even though I live in Israel and am used to absolutely no customer service, Dan Boutique provided tons of excellent service. Staff were actually helpful and even polite (an oxymoron in Israel). Even my family from the States didn't complain! 5/5

Decor - A bit too trendy, but nice try. Flat screen tvs everywhere and mod colors. 3/5

Rooms - We stayed in a studio room. It was a nice size for the money. Beds were extremely comfortable (hard mattresses) and the bathrooms were nicely done. View was lousy so we just kept the curtains pulled. 4/5

Prices - Very reasonable for Jerusalem. 4/5

Rooftop - Area was magnificent - great view. It was adjacent to the small workout room. 5/5

Food - Weakest point, but maybe because it was over Passover. The food had no taste and the selection was not the greatest. It's not what you would expect for a typical Israeli breakfast. 2/5

Location - Not the greatest, even though it's a 25 minute walk to the old city and 10 minutes to the Inbal hotel. If you want to go to Ben Yehuda area, you'll need to drive or take a taxi. 3/5

Would I go there again? You bet, but I'll bring some of my own bagels next time.

Was excited to hear that Dan had gone out to create a boutique trendy hotel in the heart of Jerusalem, so we didnt hesitate to try it out. The reception of the hotel is probably as good as it gets: from then on you can see Dan's objective: do up an old hotel with a splash of paint, throw in a few flat screen tv's and show off some rather cheasy installation works and then up the rates! In truth, the hotel rooms were small (the best thing of ours was the view-directly onto the old city), the bathrooms old and the decor very heavy and dated in its attempt to be trendy. But the bathroom was the worst. No effort had apparently been made to re-do it and it clearly had not been cleaned properly, with a distinct fetid urine smell permeating the toilet area. The breakfast area was by no means trendy, with a half-hearted attempt to kit it out with dated furniture.

On the plus side, the breakfast was good and it sure beat some of the other notoriously bad hotels in the city (namely the Park Hotel which was beyond belief in its absence of maintenance and extortionate pricing). But the moral of the story is either do a trendy hotel or dont: slapping layers of paint will not change what this hotel really is; way below par for the Dan Group and by no means trendy: wont be staying here again!

The lobby has a slightly strange W-hotel-wanna-be aesthetic, which seems out of place. And black carpet is a terrible idea for dusty Israel. But overall the place is really cute, the rooms are sleek and new. It's located about a 10-minute walk from Zion & Jaffa Gates, so access to everything is good.

Only downside: they hadn't quite figured out the quirks with the internet terminals in the lobby, which was frustrating.

Overall: great place, nice breakfast spread, good value.