Stayed there for 10 nights. Clean well appointed rooms with a great view of the Malecon. The food (included with our package) was plain & simple but ok. Service was good and the hotel's location in Vedado was excellent.

Stayed at the libre for one week in February 2005 the bed was made every day but, the room floor and corridor was not hoovered all week and, no dusting was done. The bath had been painted white on the INSIDE and, was all peeling off.
The waiters are always trying to rip you off ( I dont think they can help themselves as, they all do it and it is now the norm)
I had a meal at the restuarant, and, sent the bill back three times so by the time I had finished it went from 47cus down to 28.5 cus . quite a difference to be ripped off !!
The taxis are another I was charged 19 cus to go to a conference centre but, only 8 to come back by another driver.
The place is crawling with old men with young girls on their arm . Seems like a perverts paradise , as most of the old men are either Canadian, German or Brits on a lone holiday. Occasionally they are stopped by the police which, are on every street corner.
If you suffer from any breathing disorder, do not go to Havana as you will choke with the pollution from the old bangers and badly maintained other vehicles.
Remember you are a tourist visiting a foreign land, and seen as easy game for some of the locals who will try to befriend you.
It does not seem a dangerous place to be but, I wonder if the Police presence was removed , would it be so!!!!

This hotel has a lot of nerve to advertise itself as a 5-star. If misleading advertising were a crime....

Good Points:

- amazing view of the city from the top floors
- staff can be helpful - note: they respond best when you are nice and tip them
- rooms are large

Bad Points:

- we were booked into here on an overnight tour of Havana from Varadero. Our assigned room on the 20th floor had water damage which had not been rectified - the room smelled both musty and dusty
- the room's drapes and chairs were probably over 25 years old and it showed - big brown stains on the drapes
- while my wife was taking a bath, the shower curtain rod came loose and fell on her, striking her in the head. Needless to say, we changed our room after that incident
- there are so many mechanical and structural problems with this hotel that they have actually developed a printed card to mark and submit to the front desk
- the food is crummy and bland (this is the case for most of Cuba) and the staff are dressed way too pretentiously to serve it - they should be wearing army fatigues - it would be more appropriate
- there is no water pressure
- "air conditioning" is a hole in the wall with controls that gave up the ghost years ago
- the sliding door on the balcony was so substandard you could hear the wind whistling through it
- the hotel does not have a backup power generator so when the power goes out (as it frequently does in Cuba), you're in the dark 25 floors up
- the front entrance is guarded by hotel security and police so that only tourists are allowed in
- our fellow tour mates (about 12 of them) had equally horrible stories to tell

I can't believe that anyone would pay the posted rate of $100 US for this pile of crap. If there ever was a case for foreign investment in Cuba, the Habana Libre is it.

After a week at this hotel, I would give it *, no more.

First, the pros. The rooms are big with high ceilings and the view is great (ask for a sea view). It is well located in Vedado, not far from the National Hotel. It will cost you $5 to go to the old town by taxi.

Now the cons. It is surprisingly dirty, corridors were dusty if not filthy. In the room, chairs/sofa were stained, curtains where torn and almost impossible to open (I go to the gym three times a week...), the furniture and the ceramic floor were chipped, we could even find long hair lying about (me and my partner are both almost bald !! )

The food at breakfast was what you would get in a bad cafeteria.

Despite the large number of employees the service in general was ineffective and not friendly at all. Very little English was spoken at front desk despite the signs (same for Italian or French). One day no towels were left in the room and it took four phone calls and two trips to front desk in order to get some after an hour and a half. A few days later, no cleaning at all was done in our room by 8 pm!!! That time we were lucky, it took us 15 minutes to get some fresh towels and toilet paper!!
Then the next day we asked for compensation in the form of a late check out, it took them 24 hours to reply positively and yet our keys had stopped working by the time we got back at 1 pm to pack up and leave.

You can tell that this was somehow a nice hotel, but it is now squatted by uncaring staff and managers! That type of service and level of cleanliness are simply unacceptable in a ***** hotel.