Hotel Pakal 58 Centro

The Wi-Fi was down and unusable, and the management felt very chaotic. They first put me in a room that hadn’t been cleaned. The second one hadn’t been cleaned either. At least I was only staying one night.

The central location was great, and the front desk staff were friendly, helpful, and responsive. But I regretted booking this place. It may be fairly new and not yet show up on street view, but I don’t think it deserves four stars. It’s missing things I’ve seen even in three-star hotels, and reception couldn’t speak English at all. There was only a table and four chairs on the ground floor despite plenty of room for more. A glass wall or door, air conditioning, and sofas would have made that space more useful for guests. The room had USB and USB-C outlets, and modern switches for the do not disturb, do not clean, and occupied signs. They seemed to work only at night or now and then, though. The signs were usually off when I walked past, and housekeeping cleaned even when I hadn’t asked and had do not disturb on. On my last night they replaced all the soap bars for no reason. Some of my things had been moved during cleaning, which I expected, but a pouch I’d left unzipped was zipped up and an item inside had been flipped, suggesting it had been taken out and put back. Noise was a big problem. There was loud music all Saturday night, possibly from a nearby bar, and on other days I heard motorcycles, street noise, and doors opening and closing. There was no sound dampening. The slippers were paper thin, outlets were in odd places in the middle of the wall and below the TV console, and the TV was mounted very high with nothing on it, not even cable. I couldn’t sign into Netflix, so I signed up for Prime just to have something to watch. The room had no closet, safe, fridge, suitcase stand, desk, chair, cups, or glasses. There was no phone to call reception, just a WhatsApp QR code, and you had to go downstairs to get anything you asked for. Bagworms were on the ceiling and walls. The bathroom also had a lot of problems. There was nowhere to put things in the shower except a ledge that seemed to be for decoration, and nowhere to hang a towel inside it. The only toiletries shelf was below the sink, and the hand towel had to go on the wall away from the sink. There was no lotion or body wash, cobwebs on the ceiling, and no hot water in the shower. The toilet seat was wet when I lifted it, with a hair and some dirt in the bowl, and the flush was very weak. The faucet felt plastic, was loose and rotated, had very low pressure, and sat so low it was hard to wash my hands.

It’s a brand-new hotel with comfortable, lovely rooms and a very nice pool area. The staff were kind and accommodating.

I booked a double but was given a single room about the size of a shoebox. The air conditioning didn’t work, and it felt around 40C in there. The photos were completely misleading. I checked out as soon as I arrived. Sorry, but this is nowhere near four stars, two at best. Utterly disappointing.