Hotel Grand Fifty Suites

My friend and I were given a first-floor room with a balcony that wouldn’t lock. We just wanted basic safety, but the older man yelled at us to leave and check out if we didn’t like the room. Their operating license is suspended, yet they keep selling rooms.

Thank you to Rafael and housekeeping. The rest of my stay was a mess, and I wouldn’t stay here again or buy here. Construction was happening in the area six days a week, and the owners in room 403 were cruel, mean, and nasty about me smoking on the balcony, even though the 20 rules say smoking there is allowed. They spoke French, apparently assuming I didn’t understand them. Check-in was a hassle, with more than 20 rules, and I waited until 2:45 because tall Alex was busy doing nothing and trying to feel important. Short Alex took me to my room, but it took another hour for it to cool down. Netflix wouldn’t load, the Wi-Fi was spotty, and the coffee maker had no filter. I asked six times for filters and got a different answer each time. The TV was replaced the next day, but the connection was still unreliable. I eventually got a working coffee pot, but the one they brought to my first room had to be moved to my second room because that room also had no filter. A party two doors down played loud music from 6 pm to 2 am, peaking around 11:30. There’s no phone in the room and no WhatsApp communication. When I called the front desk, they hung up; I called back, was told it wasn’t their fault, and they hung up again. Tall Alex also wouldn’t let Uber bring my food to the door because he was too lazy to escort the driver upstairs, even though I was on the first floor and could look over the railing and talk to the desk. He was on his phone again. Don’t ask the front desk for a taxi, they get kickbacks. Late checkout costs 100 pesos per hour for the first three hours, though none of that is in the rules. They moved me to the fourth floor and said Netflix and Wi-Fi worked there. That wasn’t true, though things were a bit better, especially for my phone. The room layout also meant the air conditioning didn’t work right in the bedroom, and I kept having to adjust the temperature because the remote didn’t work there.

The staff were nice, the location was away from the noise, and the rooftop pool was good. We liked the rooms and the kitchenette was handy for making our own food. The hard beds and pillows were the one thing we didn’t like.

The two young women working during the day were pleasant and easy to deal with, but I won’t stay at Grande 50 suites again. The evening desk man ignored my family member when she asked a question, then answered only after she’d walked away. Later, after we came back with our friends’ small family, he followed my family member and one friend to our room, pushed the door open, and told the friend to leave. We weren’t trying to have anyone stay with us, and I can only assume that’s what he thought. We booked three to four weeks ahead, but the online photos were somewhat deceiving. The lobby was beautiful and well kept. We got a first-floor, apparently wheelchair-accessible two-bedroom, one-bath room with a kitchenette, which wasn’t the room type we’d specifically booked. There was no view, just a concrete wall, and the front windows looked into the lobby, so we had to keep the curtains closed. Food was splattered on the kitchen blackout curtains. The old tile and flooring had ground-in dirt in the grout, the appliances were dated, and there were very few dishes and very old pans. The setup wasn’t good for two couples: you have to walk through the main bedroom to reach the bathroom. The shower door was broken or had never been replaced, and with only one door, water got all over the floor. The air conditioning only worked with a key card in a wall thermostat, so taking the card when we went out meant coming back to a hot, muggy room. They wouldn’t give us a second card. The unit was in the first bedroom, leaving the second much warmer. The rooftop pool was a nice feature, but there were only six chairs. The large covered seating area would be nice for shade, and there seemed to be a bar, though we never saw hotel staff there.