I've heard many good things about it, but I haven't actually played it.

How good is it compared to other DS visual novels (999, Ace Attorney, etc)?

I personally liked it. I can't vouch for exactly why I liked it, because I haven't played it in a few years. :P

But I do remember it having a great story (and let's just say some situations get as complex and interesting as an Ace Attorney case), interesting characters, and a few catchy tunes.

Damn good game.
Great Soundtrack
Great Art Style
Alluring and interesting characters with depth.
A nice overarching mystery.

Get it anytime you can.

I wish I could add something meaningful to this list... but I really can't; this says it all. Get it; it may be slow-going at first, but it's a game that's definitely worth playing.

Well what's the gameplay like?

Hmm it's a little like AA actually, mostly investigating and interrogating people. Though you lack any kind of official authority over them normally so you need to choose your words carefully or you get thrown out of the hotel for being too nosy and suspicious. There's also a few really clever puzzles in there as well.

I played it a while ago and I didn't see the point in the story.
It's worth playing because of the puzzles, the soundtrack and some catchy characters... But I found the ending very disappointing.
(I may be talking crap here... It has been some time since I played this game, so I can't remember very well about EVERYTHING... But I do remember being extremely disappointed about the ending. When the game ended, I was like, "what the hell?")

Well with what I've heard there is a sequel that wasn't released in the US, but I'm not sure if the sequel has much to do with the original.

It has some loose connections, but overall, it has a separate story. Both games are very self-contained. Like two novels that simply star the same protagonist.

In terms of the story and puzzles, I didn't find it as good as the likes of Ace Attorney or Zero Escape. The story seemed to pace far too slow for my liking and the puzzles weren't really difficult.

However, the art style is interesting and it has some interesting quirks to it, but it doesn't really outdo the other top VN games on DS in my eyes.

I should really get around to finishing it sometime, along with The Last Window.

It was designed that way, methinks. It's a lot more realistic and grounded in reality than Ace Attorney/Zero Escape, both of which are very "anime" and over the top. Hotel Dusk and Last Window/SOCW both have their feet placed firmly in the norm, for the most part.

I still prefer Ace Attorney over any of the VN I've played, but Hotel Dusk and Last Window are both very interesting and stylised games. Very unique and I can say this much, the music is fucking sensational.

I concur, you should finish it. Hotel Dusk might not be to everyone's tastes, and has a lot of backtracking/wandering, but once you've played both games starring our bitter and snarky ex-detective, you'll really wish CING didn't go bankrupt

I really loved Hotel Dusk; I think I played it three times. It's unique and not like any other game I've ever played-- and the fact that you play it sideways makes it stand out a little bit more. Not many games are played like that.

The soundtrack was beautiful and the controls really worked for the kind of game it was. The characters were memorable and the story was, while slowly developed, never uninteresting.

I think if people like Ace Attorney, they'd like Hotel Dusk. They've got a lot of differences and like stated above, Hotel Dusk is based in reality, but at the end of the day they're both story-focused and charming in similar ways.

I finished it just minutes ago, and well... I liked it. The pace of it and the mystery unfolding felt relaxed and downbeat (in a good way) yet thrilling when everything started to come together. No real twists but quite a few threads to keep track on, that way it felt more complex than Ace Attorney (being here, I have to compare the two of them), which was cool. It had some special feeling to it and I really liked that. The story, or rather the stories, were nice, well-handled, as was the way everything wasn't excactly handled, if anyone get what I mean. I liked the characters, even the annoying ones were still mostly relatable and I could symphatize with them. As for the gameplay, it worked. I think it was somewhat amusing with the moving stuff and turning keys and hammering and all that jazz. My only complaints are that sometimes, very few actually, but still, the things you had to do to get further felt far-fetched, like, I just did that at random and it ended up triggering a happening and you mean I should've thought that was the next logical step in the story? But that's the risk with this kind of games, I guess. Also, sometimes when you hear a sound or see something in the corridor or something and they don't tell you where you heard/saw it from so you have to wrench/knock on all doors and stuff. And the "Huh?" everytime something unexpected happened got on my nerves quickly. However, great experience, especially since I've wanted to play this game for six or seven years (Back then, I'd never played a visual novel and feared it'd be boring, but now, after playing Ace Attorney, I knew that the genre's got the potential to be anything but, so I decided it was time to try it last).