Hotel Bolivar

San Telmo is a really nice area.

I stayed for a week, and the experience was awful even though the price is cheap. Breakfast is supposed to run from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., but it rarely starts on time, usually not until 8:45 or 9:00. If you arrive after 10:30, most of the food is gone and they don't refill it. The bathrooms were consistently dirty, and housekeeping sometimes seemed not to care much. During my stay, the power went out, but they offered neither a discount nor another room. Residents who stay by the month told me this happens often because of a heating problem. That same week, the hot water stopped working for three days, so in winter weather at 9 degrees Celsius I had to take freezing cold showers. When I raised concerns with the morning reception staff, they responded badly, took it personally, and raised their voices. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone.

I live in the residence and think the price is reasonable. The place is clean, and the bathroom is comfortable, though the kitchen feels too small for eight residents: it has two burners, a family-sized refrigerator, and an electric oven. The roofs also need maintenance. The building is a 19th-century mansion, with a lovely inner courtyard, a breezy terrace, and a marble spiral staircase that everyone admires. The rooms are spacious and airy, the people are warm, the service is very good, and I like the location. Those things, along with the reasonable cost, make me happy living here. They offer hotel, hostel, and residence options, but I can't comment on the hotel or hostel facilities or prices.

The room was awful. Plaster was coming off the walls, the mattress was worn out and the bed really uncomfortable. The bathroom was horrible too, apart from the shower temperature, which was the one good thing. It smelled musty, and breakfast was just bread, butter, and coffee. Don't trust the hotel's photos, they aren't real.