The Hotel Palace, owned by Georges Marquet, opened its doors on the 1st of September 1910 and counted 400 rooms with individual bathrooms.

In 1911, the Hotel Palace promoted with 500 rooms, fully equipped with bathroom, toilet and telephone with an outside line, as of 7,5 FB per room, « lightening and service charges included »

In the « Belle Epoque », the Hotel Palace was a renowned deluxe hotel. In 1930, in a special jubilee edition of the magazine « La Belgique Hôtelière », the Hotel Palace was referred to as one of the three « Grands Hotels Belges S.A. » (the Hotel Astoria in Brussels, the Château d’Ardenne in Houyet were the other two hotels) and was described as follows: « It is worldwide renowned for the formula: 500 rooms, 500 baths, 500 telephones and unanimously appreciated for its luxury, its fine comfort and impeccable service ».

A promotional brochure of the thirties mentioned: « Same management: the Claridge in Paris, the Palace in Lyon, the Negresco in Nice, the Palace and the Ritz in Madrid, the Alfonso XIII in Sevilla, the Continental in St. Sébastien »; which emphasized the highly prestigious character of the hotel Palace at that time.

The Hotel Palace was the hotel where an important number of celebrities stayed: « stars » like Gina Lologbrigida, Jean Poiret, Rita Hayworth, Brigitte Bardot, Orson Welles, the Highnesses like Prince Philippe of Edinburgh, King Ibn Saud, Princess Grace of Monaco and King Hussein of Jordany; and stars like Fausto Coppi, Ray Sugar Robinson and many others..

The Taverne of the hotel was also very popular at this time; not only because of the ideal location at the Place Rogier, but especially because of the weekly organized entertainment shows with international stars performances.

Till the sixties the Hotel Palace was one of the most successful hotels of Brussels: « In the sixties, the ‘musts’ of the Belgian capital are the Amigo, the Brussels, the Métropole, the Palace, the Plaza, the Westbury.. » (Paris Match, the 13th of November 1987).

First the local authorities considered to simply demolishing the hotel, but finally the building was preserved thanks to the technique often used for the construction of the metro: the freezing of the ground.

A brochure of the famous hotel group ‘Leading Hotels of the World’ only listed one hotel in Brussels in December 1976: The Hotel Palace. The hotel Palace emplois about 400 persons, which meant one person per room, a normal situation for a deluxe hotel.

But in the middle of the 70’s, a lot of deluxe hotels were built in Brussels. The revenue decreased and the badly controlled costs took ‘Les Grands Hôtels Belges S.A. to bankruptcy. The Hotel Palace closed its doors in June 1981.

This time, it looked like the building needed be to make place for modern office buildings. A Dutch company showed interest and the Commune de Saint-Josse-ten-Noode seemed to be ready to change the plans of urbanism (a zone of offices in stead of a zone of habitation).

But on the last minute a buyer ready to invest in the building showed up: the 16th of November 1982, City Hotels bought the Hotel Palace at an auction for the sum of 107,5 million FB(2,7 million EUR).

The prestigious Hotel Palace showed important marks of aging as result of two years of neglecting and of the stay of ‘squatters’. City Hotels hired about 200 workers. A miracle, the original furniture was saved from public sale. During two months two polishers processed all the furniture. After that the problem arose to return them in their original room. As most of the furniture was tailor made and only fitted to one specific room. Thanks to Jean Kirch, the electrician who worked 30 years of his career at the Hotel Palace, the 360 rooms where refurbished in its original state.

Five months later, the 1st of April 1983, the Hotel Palace reopened its doors.

The aim was to offer the client a reasonable comfort an affordable price. The intention was not to make a deluxe hotel of the Hotel Palace. On the contrary: in 1983 an advertisement said: « A great dream…….available for everybody». At that moment, the room rate was 2.300 FB (57 EUR) to 2.800 FB (69 EUR) in stead of 5.000 FB (124 EUR) to 7.000 FB (174 EUR) before the reopening.

In the summer of 2005 the first 110 guest rooms were fully refurbished. The architect, Karin Espinosa Morel, turned to the Art Nouveau lines and curls of Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) for inspiration, echoing Le Palace’s (1908) original turn-of-the-century style.

The first months of 2005 the Restaurant and Bar were taken in hand and re-opened on the 19th of May with an innovative and surprising concept.

Spring 2005 - 208 of the 356 rooms are renovated in ‘Nouveau Style’. The last 148 rooms were renovated during the autumn period.

Winter 2005-2006 extensive renovation works turned the traditional meeting rooms into a very modern conference & meeting complex with a totally new meeting concept and floor (+1) ‘Truly inspirational’, a stimulation of the senses that makes you want to meet!

In the winter of 2006-2007 the last works took place and transformed the old meeting rooms on each separate floor into very luxurious balanced senses suites offering scented rooms bathed in natural colors and soothing source. Also 10 Century rooms echo Le Palace’s original turn-of-the-century style; refurbished with the original tailor made furniture and accessories from bygone times…