Of the four hotels I stayed in in Havana, this is the only one I wouldn't return to.

From a positive perspective, the hotel is very attractive and well maintained. It's in a nice location with proximity to the harbour and the Old City. My room was attractive and my balcony was beautiful.

From a negative perspective, the front desk staff were arrogant and deceitful. I phoned in advance to inquire as to being able to use my credit card. Given the assurance that I could, I was angry to find out that they were experiencing "difficulties" when I arrived. They requested I walk to a bank around the corner to withdraw cash on my credit card! When I asked why I should be inconvenienced after they had promised I could use my credit card, the staff member informed me that I should have been more prepared! As it was late afternoon, I asked if the bank I was being directed to was still open. Assured that it was, I walked the four blocks to find out that it wasn't.

When I threatened to take my business to another hotel, another staff member indicated she could phone her General Manager to gain permisssion to use the card. When I asked why this option hadn't been pursued initially, the gist of her response indicated that it was too difficult.

At this point I indicated I wished to eat on the hotel's rooftop restaurant and that the credit card receipt needed to reflect that (I speak Spanish so there was no language mixup.). This was not done, so I ate outside the hotel in a local restaurant where credit card facilities existed. The enitre process took over an hour!

The lift/elevator was out of service so the porter assisted me with my luggage. During the short trip to my room, he offered me both women and drugs.

Succinctly stated, avoid this hotel. There far better options at and below their prices.

Lovely building, nice clean rooms and excellent breakfast. Get a room with a balcony and you'll really enjoy the location, right on the main strip. Better than other hotels we checked out and is a classy hotel overall. We were sent there by the Raquel who mixed up our booking. Overall, pricey in high season....

We stayed in this hotel at the end of a 2 week holiday in Cuba. We had stayed in the Nacional when we arrived in Havana (which we loved) but we wanted to stay somewhere a bit different and we chose this place because it was very central (in Plaza de los Armas in Old Havana), we got a good rate (116 euro) and because a taxi driver had told us that Sting had stayed there!!

I couldn't fault this hotel. The staff were very friendly and there was a comment on another review that they were all jineteros - ok we did get a bit of "you looking for cigars? My friend sells very good quality cigars" from the man who showed us the room but you get that everywhere in Cuba and he didn't pressurise us when we said we already had bought cigars.

We had a huge balcony that looked out on the square and was separated from other balconies by a line of hedges. When the walking/heat/hawkers in Old Havana got too much for us we just sat on the balcony with a bottle of rum and some cigars, watching the world go by on the square below (and trying to shade from the sun by sitting under the hedges!)

We were offered welcome drink on arrival (which I don't think we took up in the end) and our rate included breakfast which was ok. I had seen in other hotels in Cuba when the maids arrange your towels into the shapes of swans or fans but in this hotel they really outdid themselves - I came back to see a little towel-man sititng on my bed wearing the sunglasses and beads that I had left beside the bed! The cynical might say this is a ploy so you'll leave them better tips, but anyway, it brought a smile to my face :)

I have been to Havana many times and I know most of the hotels thought for foreigners. Santa Isabel always caught my attention when I walked through Havana Vieja, because I thought it was an extremely nice hotel at a perfect location. Hence, I booked it in spring 2006. But what a disappointment! The quality of the room was poor; it certainly did not reach 5star-quality by any means. And this at exorbitant rates. Also, the waiters and concierges were jineteros trying to sell fake cigars in the hotel. Breakfast outside was acceptable, but nothing special. Since 2006 I preferred Parque Central or Saratoga, or, eben better, nice casas particulares in Miramar.