The Ritz Village Hotel

The place is quiet and quaint, and just a five-minute walk from the center of the capital and everything it offers. But the name gave me the wrong idea about the level of luxury. The shower and sink had only one temperature: hot. Other people also had complaints.

After four nights of the music going past the advertised 10 p.m. quiet hours, I was offered a room change, but only if we checked out at noon and waited to check into another room. That would have wasted a day of our vacation, and by then we didn't feel welcome. We were assigned D4 in the deluxe apartment section, one of the supposed upper-tier rooms. Check-in was easy and the room was fine, except the mattress was two inches of foam on plywood. The bigger problem was that D4 sits right over the pool and bar. The music was supposed to stop at 10, but on the first night it went until about 11:30 and the second until about 10:30. I asked security to handle it; when nothing happened, I went back at 11. The two guards didn't want to speak to the bar staff, and we had to push them to do so. When we went over ourselves, the bar staff argued that paying, tipping customers mattered more than guests trying to sleep. On the third night, it again went to around 10:30. I then spoke to the manager of the complex, who brushed off the concern by saying the people buying drinks were important, though she promised it wouldn't happen again. The fourth night it stopped around 10:30, as it did on the remaining nights. After we complained, the parking space we'd been using was suddenly taken by a staff member who seemed unhappy that I'd raised the issue and affected his tips.

The hotel has two sections: one is newly built with modern amenities, while the other is a renovated historic building that used to be a packaging factory. Choose whichever side suits you. It's a quiet, peaceful place with two pools. One pool area has a bar and restaurant, with bar, table, and poolside seating. Staff are friendly and helpful without being intrusive. The location is convenient for Punda and Otrabanda, and it works well for either a work trip or a holiday. Highly recommend.

I liked the historic feel of the place, which was built on the site of an old ice factory, and the clean pool and artificial beach were nice too. We stayed in Deluxe Room D1 for a week. The room was spacious, comfortable, clean, and pleasant, and I appreciated the care from the cleaning lady. The bar service was slow, though. There's never any change, you have to wait, and the women bartenders didn't seem in a good mood. Loud music played after 23:00. When I complained to security at 00:30, they said it was karaoke night and they couldn't do anything about it. If you need quiet, this isn't the place for you.