Hotel Perla Central

For a short stay, it works really well for the price. The hotel is a little dated and has a few small issues, and breakfast isn’t very varied, though the croissants are delicious. The staff are attentive and very friendly.

The location is good, two blocks from the beach in a residential area, but things close early. For nightlife, you’d need to go to downtown Mar del Plata. The owners were hospitable, though during the last two days the owner treated us however she wanted, and it felt very hypocritical. The place feels stuck in the 70s, with a depressing atmosphere. It was awful, and I wouldn’t recommend it for children. The damp and grime smell was horrible, the carpets covered every floor and stuck to our shoes, and the building was badly maintained. The stair railings wobbled, and the steps were uneven. The room doors were so swollen that they were hard to open with the key and needed a lot of force. We found ants on the room walls, nightstand, floor, and bathroom walls. The owner said guests couldn’t bring food into rooms because of pests, instead of dealing with the ants and insects. The bathroom was tiny, and opening its door hit the toilet. The toilet was loose and rocked around. Water was full of limescale and tasted sweet. We left a clean glass with a little water in it, and the next day a light powdery residue covered the bottom. I didn’t plan to review the place, so I forgot to take a photo. It seemed clear the water tank wasn’t cleaned. Housekeeping barely came. They changed the sheets once in a week and didn’t enter our room for the first two days. The bathroom cleaning was so bad that we bought white CIF cleaner, rubber gloves, and a sponge because we didn’t dare shower there. We got only two bars of soap, and when they saw we’d bought our own, they said they wouldn’t give us any more because we already had it. The bathroom door was broken and patched with metal. A sharp edge cut my leg, so I put masking tape over it. They left it there and said nothing. At 3 a.m., a metal plate came off as I entered the dark bathroom and could easily have cut my foot. I put the lock on the floor, and it stayed there for two days without anyone moving it. There was no professional staff, just a family-run business. I’d have preferred more professional service, even just for cleaning. You get what you pay for. If you’re only staying two or three nights to sleep and shower, it might be fine. Any longer feels like torture. I didn’t even want to get up for breakfast and just wanted to be anywhere else. I’ve never been so glad to get home after a vacation. Don’t skimp on the hotel if you’re staying somewhere more than three days. The discomfort and unpleasantness aren’t worth it. Nothing more to say.

What should have been a pleasant mini-vacation turned into a nightmare. My family and I had paid in advance, but when we got into the room, the bathroom door wouldn’t shut, there was a nauseating damp smell, and the mattress was so thin we could feel the slats in our backs. Bugs jumped around on the carpet, with ants all over the window facing the street. The blankets were dirty and stained, and the sheets were pilled. We asked the owner to move us because of the odor, mattress, bedding, and ants. He said there wasn’t another room. We went out for a walk, decided to change hotels, and told him we were leaving. He neither refunded what we’d paid nor apologized. That was our absolutely terrible experience. It’s a shame Mar del Plata has a hotel like this, if it can even be called a hotel. Thanks!

I’m giving one star only because that’s what lets me post a review. The service was the sole good thing. The room and its bench were tiny, the sheets were dirty, and the whole place felt frozen in time and smelled like a nursing home. Breakfast was very poor, just two croissants and tea or coffee with milk. The croissants were the one good part. Everything else was awful, and far too expensive for this kind of hotel.