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It's Still 2004 at the Four Seasons Budapest's Gresham Palace

Where: Roosevelt Tér 5-6. 1051, Budapest, Hungary

Four Seasons Gresham Palace in Budapest tops the Conde Nast Traveler readers poll, even if the web site does say "coming soon.

There are seldom any major upsets in the annual Conde Nast Traveler Top 100 Hotels list, out on newstands now. After all, only a random sampling of not-very-busy subscribers gets to vote. Plus who is truly globetrotting enough to evaluate all the hotels in more than one or two cities---much less the entire universe of hotels over a whole continent? So reputation, fame, and good PR usually tip the scales.

Nevertheless, it was a surprise to see two Istanbul hotels take the #4 and #5 spots in Europe and to see Hungary's Four Seasons Gresham Palace rank #1 there. That could not have made the French and Italians too happy, especially considering that the Budapest hotel only opened in 2004.

How do we know when it opened? It's still 2004 on the web site GreshamPalace.com, where you can find this time warp text:

Gresham Palace, Budapest is one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture in the world. Soon it will become a 179 room Four Seasons Hotel boasting unrivaled beauty, location and service.

Click on an "Enter" button and the next page says, "Opening 2004"

The really funny thing is, this is the first site that comes up in Google, not the (newer) Four Seasons page. For this hotel to be ranked so highly next to its peers, and #3 overall in the world, we're assuming the waiters and bellhops move a little faster than the person responsible for taking the old web site down....

Related Stories:
· Four Seasons Gresham Palace reviews [TripAdvisor]