The Imperial Hotel, formerly known as the Palazzo Versace, is a luxury hotel on The Spit in Queensland.

The Spit is a narrow strip of land on the northern Gold Coast, just up from Surfers Paradise and Southport. It has a long stretch of oceanfront beach on one side, and a marina on the other side. The Spit has a couple of resort hotels including The Imperial and The Sheraton Grand Mirage as well as Sea World and a marina area with shops, restaurants and cafes.

In case you’re familiar with I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. The Imperial is the hotel where the campmates return to civilization after their stay in the jungle. If you like visiting places that have been used as filming locations have a read of this.

We recently stayed in The Imperial Hotel for 3 nights, and here is my full review.

The Hotel

The Imperial Hotel on The Spit is a 5 star luxury hotel. With an Italian theme running throughout, it has a beautiful lobby area and a resort style pool.

The hotel is extremely impressive when you first pull up, with expensive cars carefully positioned out front and a very grand entrance with mosaic tiles and Romanesque pillars.

The main lobby is also beautiful, with marble floors, deluxe decor and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the pool.

As well as the pool there are other onsite facilities such as a fitness room and spa.

The Pool

The pool area is fantastic, with a large resort style pool. Despite the upmarket nature of the hotel, this pool is actually very child-friendly. There is a little sandy beach area next to the pool where the kids can play in the sand and then walk straight into the shallow pool. Our kids happily played for hours on this little sandy beach, splashing in the shallow pool. A bucket and spade would be a good idea to keep the kids entertained.

The pool area has plenty of sunloungers, tables and umbrellas. Food and drinks can be ordered and delivered straight to your sunbed. There is a separate adults-only area with sunloungers, but no adults-only pool. Free towels are provided, although there was one day when they ran out of towels early in the day. Fresh cold water is also available, which was very welcome on a hot day.

There are also several cabanas lined along the pool, and they look like a wonderful shady place to park your towel for the day, but you do have to pay for these. You can rent them for the day with a package experience starting from a hefty $149 including drinks, light food and sunscreen.

Despite the initial appearance of the pool area, which seems to have lots of smaller pools, there is actually only one swimming pool on the complex. Also missing from the pool complex is a hot tub. There are so many small pools and ponds dotted around the complex that this feels like a real miss.

Note: the pool isn’t heated. We stayed in April when the air temperature was in the high 20s, and the temperature of the pool was freezing. The kids didn’t seem to mind, but there weren’t many adults brave enough to take a dip.

The Rooms

We stayed in a basic double room with no balcony or view. The room was well appointed with two double beds, a TV, wardrobe, and large bathroom.

The bathroom has limited privacy, with frosted glass doors. The beds were also small, and would be a tight squeeze for two adults.

Dining

A full buffet breakfast is available at the onsite Il Barocco restaurant for $52 per adult. Midweek dinner at Il Barocco is a la carte and a little pricey. There is a dinner buffet on weekend evenings for $119 per adult.

All day dining is available in the lobby lounge Le Jardin, where you can have light bites and high tea. Coming soon – my Imperial Hotel high tea review. Subscribe now so you don’t miss it!

Lunch and snacks can also be ordered by the pool, and room service is available.

Given the price of the onsite restaurant we opted to walk 2 minutes next door to the Marina for dinner. There are some beautiful waterfront seafood restaurants here including the excellent Omeros Bros.

You are only a few minutes drive from Main Beach. which has a lovely local high street with excellent restaurants including Xenia Greek restaurant.

What To Do

You could easily just spend your stay at The Imperial relaxing by the pool, ordering cocktails and enjoying the warm Queensland sun.

If you would like to stretch your legs, you can cross the road and join Federation Walk, a beautiful flat 3.5km path overlooking the ocean that takes you all along The Spit beach.

The Spit Beach itself is a classic Queensland beach, with golden sand stretching for miles all the way to Surfers Paradise and beyond. Note this beach isn’t patrolled all the way so isn’t the best for swimming. Since Cyclone Alfred in March 2025 there is also substantial coastal erosion meaning a steep drop down to the beach level.

For something that will definitely keep the kids entertained you can pop next door to Sea World which is only a 15 minute walk or 2 minute drive. Read my full review of Sea World here with all the info you’ll need for a great day out.

There is a wealth of fun and adventure to be had on the Gold Coast. Have a look on Get Your Guide here for some great tour options and combination tickets for attractions.

Imperial Hotel The Spit: Final Review

The Imperial Hotel on The Spit is undoubtedly an upmarket 5 star hotel, with all the service and indulgence that you would expect from a luxury hotel.

However, it needs a little TLC to bring it back up to the standard it was under the Palazzo Versace name.

The hotel could use a little updating, such as sprucing up the bathrooms, putting bigger beds in the rooms, fixing broken gym equipment and replacing the carpet which has worn away on the lower levels. The main lobby area of the hotel is impeccable, but I would like to see that standard carried through to the rest of the hotel especially the rooms.

Overall I would be very happy to stay here again. Large resort style hotels like this are rare in this part of Queensland so it was a welcome change from the smaller apartment hotels which are so prevalent. The pool area is fantastic, and you get a proper holiday resort feel when staying here.

The service is also excellent, and the small touches like daily housekeeping and poolside waiter service are very welcome when you want your holiday to include a bit of pampering.

How Much Does It Cost?

We paid $300 a night for our stay in April 2025. Although The Imperial is an expensive hotel, good deals can be found out of season or midweek. For the best prices have a look here.

Getting To The Imperial Hotel

The Imperial Hotel is located on The Spit in the northern Gold Coast, a quick 1 hour drive from Brisbane if the traffic is clear.