I travelled with two best friends to celebrate a birthday. We chose to stay @ Hotel Plaza based on it's location, discount price and the aesthetic appeal of the pictures on-line.
I must admit that there has been some changes that come with age, but I definetely was not disappointed by the overall appeal of this beautiful grand hotel and the warm, friendly
and wonderful service we received on arrival.

To speak of the lobby, the architecture is absolutely breathtaking. The beautiful tiles in the lobby area are the original coloured tiles from the hotel's inception. Light filters in from beautiful stained glass skylights in the bar area. The actual rooms are not as spectacular; a bit basic in detail, but very clean and substantial. I must comment on our maid service-it was top class. Our maids (our invsible caretakers) put a personal touch on our room by penning small handwritten welcoming notes that they left on our beds, and they also wished us a safe trip home on our departure-a very wam and touching gesture.

I would personally recommend this hotel to anyone. Good for a short stay and an enjoyable and fun-filled adventure into magical Old Havana.

KP

Hotel La Plaza was our first hotel in Cuba, and, although it is considered to be "top end", thinking about it, it was the worst room we ever stayed in.
There was no daylight in the room, curtains were permanently closed and when I put them back, I knew why... The wooden window frame was rotten away and the broken windows (towards the street) certainly had not been cleaned in this calendar year!
In the bathroom, many of the tiles were cracked, the toilet and taps were dirty and the walls had mould. The hotel offers daily Salsa instructions - we were there two consecutive days and not only one instruction took place although we asked at reception beforehand in the morning... After we waisted a total of two hours some cleaner told us the lessons would not take place in May at all. The receptionists (except for one lady) were absolutely bored, sometimes unfriendly and on two out of four calls they tried to fool us. The only half positive thing was the breakfast on the terrace, but it could not make up the overall experience with this dreadfull hotel. Never ever again!

I stayed here twice as part of an Explore tour. Whilst the lobby is very impressive, the bar is expensive and the food nothing to write home about. However, the hotel is in a great location, well situated for Havana Vieja, the Museum of the Revolution, the rum museum, the art galleries etc etc...

Both the rooms I stayed in were clean but extremely noisy. Maybe because I had a single room I was always put round the back with the air con units, or maybe all the rooms are like this - I don't know! They were perfectly fine for a couple of nights but I wouldn't want to stay for much longer. I can imagine a lot of people would have problems with the decor - but to me the unintentional 'shabby chic' was part of the hotel's limited charm.

Be sure to check out the views from the breakfast room/top floor bar - and be aware you can almost walk around the whole of the roof if you go out back!

i concur with most of the reviews of this hotel - great location but it's in dire need of some TLC and is quite basic despite its 3-4star rating.
We booked a triple share which was around the 230CUC* mark from memory. It was peak season so it's not this expensive all year round.

The bathroom was very ordinary and service wasn't great although this is cuba and there is no incentive really to work harder or provide great service.

The balcony is great and there are salsa lessons on the roof every afternoon for 2CUC - although the salsa instructor had been on an all night bender the night before so had to excuse himself a few times...

The buffet breakfast is terrible; make sure you get there early since there does not seem to be lot of refilling once a platter is empty. The coffee machine broke several times. Again, the food in cuba is not great so your expectations should be low in this area.

The lobby staff are nice and helpful and this hotel definitely has the best and fastest PCs for internet of anywhere I visited in cuba.

*1CUC = 1USD