Bedrooms are large and spacious, and whilst there are two styles of room the difference seems to be limited other than the colour of the wood used in the joinery. The hotel is comfortable and well specified, working effectively for both the tourist and the business visitor to Bratislava. However it lacks excitement – nothing to do with style tendencies, but rather a sense of everything being just a little below par. So while the bedrooms are spacious, and space is at a premium in most hotels, the furnishings fall just short of being luxurious. Fittings for example are similar to those used by the group in its four star hotels and fail to add the extra touch of quality to be expected in a five star. Maybe after delight of Vienna's new Meridien, this hotels design seemed to me to be more pedestrian than it really was. Maybe it was the feeling that having such a good location, such a prominent building deserved more inspirational interiors than were delivered here. From the corridor carpets to the archtiraves, from the doors to the window treatments the details were OK. But this building deserved more than just OK.

The restoration created a massive statement architecturally, but the interior design whimpered, not wowed. The hotel is trading with an average 68% occupancy level (figures up to end of December 2003) with monthly occupancy rates growing as they are elsewhere in Europe. Slovakia is becoming a major car making area in Europe, manufacturing more cars per head than anywhere else including such as Porsche Cayennes (they go to Germany to have the badge added and be polished, to get their made in Germany stickers). Wages and expectations are already beginning to rise creating a local market for hotels of this kind. The hotel also attacts Opera devotees from Vienna for musical weekends with the Opera House across the road. Its future seems set fair then, so it is a pity that the hotel fails to come up to the high standards of interior design that Rezidor SAS has created for itself elsewhere.

Maraia Therese and Franz Joseph ran the Austro-Hungarian Empire with some style from Bratislava. The city suffered from a lack of style under the socialists. It now has a younger generation with style and as a new nation deserves a stylish landmark hotel. Perhaps one of the semi-derelict Secessionist-style buildings in the city will inspire a new boutique to take on the challenge. The throne is still vacant.