Hotel Spa Casa Real

We can't wait to leave this cold place. The lobby and restaurant look beautiful when you walk in, but the room is dark and narrow, the bathroom is tiny and has mold, and the bed blankets don't feel hygienic at all.

We booked this place expecting to spend some time at the spa, but there wasn't one, so I felt a bit scammed. It's beside a busy road and gets somewhat noisy early in the morning. Breakfast was all right, and there's lots of parking.

I picked Casa Real for three reasons: I only needed somewhere to sleep, wanted to be away from the city center with easy roads toward the nearby mountains, and hoped to have a supermarket close by in case I needed anything at the last minute. It's on a large road near Mall Paseo Shopping, a medium-sized mall with local restaurants. There's also a well-known restaurant nearby that isn't very good, and not much else around. Casa Real is a small, very good hosteria with a restaurant and parking. The spa was still under construction. There are pleasant little halls on the first and second floors, and the hotel was built five years ago. We specifically requested a quiet room at the back because the hotel faces the road. Instead we got room 205, looking onto the internal corridors. It had two beds and was warm and comfortable, with basic things like a TV, phone, desk, and two small complimentary water bottles. I didn't check whether there was a safe. Other rooms are larger and brighter. The bathroom was small, with a tilting window and a shower with good pressure. Basic amenities included shampoo and conditioner, but there were no shower caps. The towels looked old and gray on the first day, then white and clean the second day. There's a nice little restaurant for breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was included, with cereal, yogurt, coffee, bread, fresh fruit and juice, and eggs. The dinner menu had salads, beef, pork, chicken, fish, some pasta, and two or three vegetarian choices. Dessert options were very limited on both nights we ate there. I only tried Ecuadorian beer, not other alcoholic drinks. Dinner for two came to about USD 30. I can't speak for the rooms facing the street. My first night was quiet, but the second night a baby cried from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., then again from 4 a.m. So it may just depend on luck. Since my window faced the corridor, I could hear footsteps, laughter, and conversations. I asked to change rooms, but it seemed they gave priority to guests arriving on tours booked through travel agencies. If you're booking, I'd ask clearly for a back room, otherwise you might end up facing the road or with an internal window onto the corridor. The reception and restaurant staff, both men and women, were very kind and did what they could to help. Whether it's worth staying depends on what you need. If you plan to spend the whole day resting at a hotel, I'd look for a closer, more expensive option. If you just need a place for the night, this could work well.

It's a modern-looking building, and the service and staff were good. The downside is the traffic noise from the busy street right beside it. The Wi-Fi was also very unreliable.