We stayed in the Deauville for a week and after reading all the reviews we were not expecting too much.

Yes, as they all say, the breakfast is the worst I have ever encountered in a hotel but I was not too concerned with this although I can appreciate others might be! Was quite funny seeing cauliflower, beans and carrotts for breakfast!!!

The benefits of this hotel are: its great location, fantastic views, having the benefit of a roof terrace pool (in Havana!!!), hot water (gets hotter later in the day as its solar powered) and daily room clean/towel change (we thought that our cleaner was excellent!).

The room facilities were quite basic although there was a decent sized walk in wardrobe, powerful shower and tv (with lots of English speaking channels for any rainy days- we did not find this in any other hotel we stayed at in Cuba!!)

Many of the staff do not speak English and yes, the ones that do are not the friendliest but we found that they all helped us as much as they could. Also having the benefit of a bank in the hotel is great because you don't have to worry about looking for a bank to change your money. The travel desk is pretty good too, with lots of ideas for travelling further afield.

Yes, it is a bit rough around the edges and if you go looking for things wrong with the hotel you will certainly find lots that will not meet your expectations however I would say that the pro's definitely outweigh the cons at the Deauville.

There are, of course, much better hotels in Havana, which are more expensive and have a higher standard of service but for what we paid, and the experience we had, I would stay there again, most definitely.

Well, I have booked a room here, turned up, but never stayed!!

They had clearly overbooked but did not choose to accept that, but lied to us about refurb and got found out!

The service was disgraceful, surly disinterested and rude.

The tour company had described the hotel as basic so I wasn't expecting much! Yes the hotel was rather shabby but the rooms were clean, shower was hot and the view from the room was fantastic!

The location of the hotel was great you were right in the thick of it! However this was not so good on a night. As we arrived into Havana we went down a back street the tour guide said 'do not go down this street it's not safe... welcome to the hotel Deauville!'

Check in is slow if you are the last off the bus as there is only one on reception. After travelling for 12 hours we just wanted to get to the room luckly we were seen second!

As we walked into the room the curtains were shut. After opening them it didn't matter that the room was basic the view was amazing over havana and the Malecon.

All in all I had the best time in Havana and would stay at this hotel again if only for the fantastic view.

Also for the giggle at breakfast. What shall I have bread or green beans? Mmm I think it has to be the bread...again!

Just one more thing don't worry if you get stuck in the lift it happens to everyone

Thanks to Tripadvisor our expectations of this hotel were not high! we booked it a while back as part of a twin centre with a hotel in Varadero. Interestingly enough we booked this holiday with Airtours and I see that the hotel is no longer featured in the summer 2007 brochures hmmm.........

To be honest its not too bad. My boyfriend and I are both well travelled backpackers who've stayed in a lot worse. The reception and downstairs area is fine. Rooms are a bit grubby but our room was massive and had a great view. Bathroom was spotless though! What really lets the hotel down is the shabby corridors, Pool area and poor breakfast. Our first morning we arrived for much needed food to find about 10 pieces of fruit on the buffet people were fighting over! Eventually managed to wangle some toast from one of the waiters. Our rep couldn't apologise enough at our welcome meeting that morning and said reasons for it being so poor was they hotel had miscalculated the number of people needing fed (or something similar!) the next 3 days of our stay, the food was fine, not great but certainly edible.
Best thing about the hotel is the wee cat that lives around the pool area - double of our cat at home (if skinnier!) very cute, make sure you feed it!

Overall as long as you know what to expect you should be fine. The thing that really galled us about the experience was that we had originally been booked into the hotel Sevilla as part of a thompsons package. They pulled the hotel for health and safety reasons (god knows why) and so we ended up in the Deauville. When we saw the Sevilla we were gutted! its really lovely, go there for lunch and a mojito!

Cannot fault Havana and Cuba in general though. We had a wicke time and I would say that our experience in the Deauville didn't attract from it at all. Have fun!!!