I stayed at Elite for 3 nights from 22-24 Sept 2009 in room 505 as a solo traveller and paid EUR55 per night via Booking.com.
I found this accomm via Booking.com so no "real" photos to go by and nothing much on TA - it was somewhat of a pot-luck choice. The hotel is on level 4 & 5 of an old apartment block, there are several other B&B's within the building. The building has a small arcade with an excellent hairdresser that I used, a business service/tour booking centre and a kidswear shop. It is in a very handy location just off Via Roma, the main street that runs from the central train station through the city. It is approx 1.5km walk from train station to hotel - flat easy walk - the heat in summer is what will get to you. If you can cope with that, you can walk it easily if you have good wheels on your luggage. (The main bus station is just around the corner from the central train station, so only another 150m to add to your walk - You can identify Via Roma very easily by the big white wrought-iron style archway marking the entry to Via Roma).
Elite has beautiful frescos in each room and in public areas. The hallways are painted with flowers. Very cosy. Lovely lounge/sitting room area on L5 to sit and read. Breakfast room is attached to Reception on L5 and very cosy. Furnishings are very dated ie old bedspreads and dark wooden furniture but in good repair and all very clean. Bathroom is modern and completely refurbed. Housekeeping is efficient with replacing soap, fluffy towels etc. Air-con in room is GREAT and powerful. View was over rooftops only with hills in the distance. The lifts are slow and shabby. Breakfast was coffee made to order, lovely crunchy rolls, ham cheese, croissants, pastries, juice, yoghurt - simple but rolls were so nice I just had them with butter. Breakfast starts a bit late - at 8am - most travellers need to be on the road before that so 7am start would be better I think.
All in all, good accomm for dollars paid. Overall, Palermo is A LOT LESS EXPENSIVE than Taormina or other Italian cities. Great for clothes, shoes, handbag shopping - prices are well down. There are some great bargains to be had - especially in mens suits - I noticed they are very high quality for low $$ if you need some for work. Ladies shoes are very reasonably priced.
Critical 3 things for me (1) wakeup calls - you can program your own. YES! (2) SKY and Fox costs you EUR9 - no CNN or BBC so I was disappointed with that as a solo traveller I like background chatter. TV was hard to operate and kept dropping out . (3) Hairdryer is next to useless - the box style on the wall with a vacuum cleaner hose.
Yes, I would stay again if I was on the same tight budget.
Make sure you DEFINITELY go to Cefalu, approx 1 hour by train from Palermo. Fantastic jewel in Sicilian crown. You will love it.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC