Know Before You Go: Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern
After a streak of excellent stays at several Mandarin Oriental properties around the world, our anticipation for the Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern was high. Unfortunately, this experience fell short of expectations. Aside from breakfast, the service and dining did not meet the brand standards we have come to associate with Mandarin Oriental. Additionally, we found that the overall value was lacking when compared to other luxury hotels we visited during our month in Switzerland. Given that the hotel was relatively new, we hope it can improve in the future, but we will be staying elsewhere on future trips to Switzerland.
OVERALL RATING
💛💛
Susbtandard
Overview
At-a-Glance
Date of stay: August 2024
Length of stay: 3 nights / 4 days
Trip type: Couples stay during a month-long tour of Switzerland
Property type: Family-friendly city hotel
Tailor-made for: Couples, business travelers, but also family-friendly
Highlights
Serene lakefront location
Strolling the lakefront promenade
Sipping Aperol spritzes at the Quai 10 terrace while watching people and dogs strolling along the lake
Lovely Belle Epoque building with painstaking restoration — though the hallways to the rooms had a somewhat unsettling cruise ship vibe with sliding glass doors leading to the stairs and elevators
Children’s menus were available in the restaurants
Sightseeing in Luzern old town — the wooden Chapel Bridge, bustling market day, the Lion Monument
Day trip to Basel with riverside lunch at Hotel Les Trois Rois, watching people floating down the river, and visit to Kunstmuseum Basel — we would have loved to spend more time exploring this city
Day trip to Zurich for lunch at The Restaurant (Michelin 2-star) at the Dolder Grand
Good to Know
With the exception of breakfast, the service here was spotty and impersonal; not up to the level we experienced staying at other MO properties
Base rooms are expensive but quite small — our Superior Lake View Room was an uncomfortably tight 323 square feet, but the hotel was sold out during our stay so we were unable to upgrade
The hotel does not have a pool but hotel guests have access to the nearby Seebad (lake bath)
Most of the other hotel guests we encountered during our stay here were American
Luzern was lovely and certainly worth a visit, but if we were to do this over, we would stay elsewhere (Basel, Zurich) and visit Luzern as a day trip
The hotel’s dining options were limited in August due to the gastronomic restaurant seasonal closure; there was only a single menu available for lunch and dinner across the remaining dining venues — had we known this, we would have arranged more offsite dinners
Rating Detail
OVERALL RATING 💛💛
LOCATION & SETTING 💛💛💛💛
ROOM 💛💛
SERVICE 💛💛+
DINING 💛💛
ACTIVITIES 💛💛
FAMILY SERVICES & AMENITIES 💛💛💛
WELLNESS 💛💛💛
WOW FACTOR 💛💛
VALUE 💛💛
Rating Legend*
💛💛💛💛💛 Exceptional
💛💛💛💛 Notable
💛💛💛 Standard
💛💛 Substandard
💛 Unsatisfactory
*All ratings are relative to similar-class properties
