Santa Isabel Boutique

The location was the one thing I liked. At reception, the welcome was poor and our room keys weren’t ready when we arrived. The furniture was old, damaged, and dirty. Two different bartenders tried to sell me cigars and kept insisting after I said I was a hotel guest. We were also told to leave the reception area because they were spraying for insects. I wouldn’t recommend staying here. There are quite a few hotels nearby that look newer.

The location is spot on, with places to eat and drink nearby and plenty to discover on foot around old Havana. The maids were fantastic, as expected. But the hotel has lost its feel for me. Ten years ago the manager was engaged, and reception staff were friendly and spoke to us like guests. Having the right staff really changes the experience. Back in 2008, everything in the apartment worked and it was fantastic. This year the hot water only worked sometimes, and I had to fix the safe myself because maintenance didn’t know how. The property’s lost its vibe.

The staff were very helpful and could arrange tours, and the breakfast was very good. I liked sitting in the sun on the terrace, listening to the city. The hotel’s in the heart of Havana Vieja, but it tends to be quiet in the mornings and evenings. It’s one of Havana’s oldest hotels, and you can feel that history, though the air conditioning is dated and not very good. The WiFi cards they sell seemed the cheapest we found, at CUC$1 for 1 hour.

We were already starving and didn’t want to walk back to Pirat, a great breakfast spot not too far away, so we had little choice when not much else was open. There were five of us, and we all thought the meal was poor for the price and location. The views were nice, but that was about it. The bread came out like hockey pucks, prices were high for the quality, and the service was slow and seemed to take no effort.