Crossword Genius

Appreciate timeless hotel inside Pune’s walls (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

prize

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'appreciate' is the definition.
(I know that appreciate can be written as prize)

'timeless hotel inside pune's walls' is the wordplay.
'timeless hotel' becomes 'riz' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'inside' indicates putting letters inside.
'walls' means to remove the middle letters (the walls are the letters on each edge).
'pune' with its centre taken out is 'pe'.
'riz' put into 'pe' is 'PRIZE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for prize that I've seen before include "Reward for win" , "See 24 Down" , "Trophy" , "Reward for having won a contest" , "Award; value highly" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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