I was a bit nervous about my stay after reading recent reports the last of which was about the mugging in front of the hotel just before I left. However, there was nothing to be nervous about and the hotel was as I expected it would be.
The location of the hotel was excellent. It is in central Havana, but right on edge of Havana Vieja. It is on a side street off the Paseo del Prado which is a long wide avenue with a walkway down the middle which goes through Parque Central down to the Malecon at the sea. It was good because it was easy to find the hotel off the Paseo. It is within walking distance of a lot of places which I wanted to see so we didn’t have to rely much on taxis. It is a less than 5 minutes walk from the hotel to where the Parque Central hotel, Inglaterra hotels and a lot of the other hotels are. It is perfectly safe to walk around this area we found and never did I feel intimidated or unsafe. There is always security outside the hotel.
We walked another day from it along the Malecon to Hotel Nacionale. This is a lovely hotel, full of character, well in the public areas anyway which I saw. It is further out from the centre, but it has great views from the outside bar across the sea. Also returned there one night for the Parisien show. It is nice hotel for a visit.
Back to Seville. The hotel itself is full of history and you really do feel like you are part of old world Havana and can imagine it back years ago. That’s why I chose it and that is why I liked it compared to more modern hotels near to it. The hotel lobby is full of character also and a very nice area to chill out in. Normally live music on in it.
Check in was smooth and efficient. I had booked the hotel through a Cuban travel agency website and had no problems with the booking or payment. The room was on the third floor near to the lift so it was a bit noisy but didn’t bother us too much. It may bother lighter sleepers. The air conditioning was not working really – we were told this was because of hurricane though – more on that later. The room had no view though – just out to an inside very small courtyard so I was a bit disappointed with this. The room was big, with three very large beds - which were sized bigger than a single but not quite as big as a double! We slept in one of them anyway! The room had nice desks and large tv and dressing table, a walk in wardrobe which housed the safe also. The bathroom was large enough and clean ish. The bath and sink etc were clean, but the door and some of the surrounds were filthy with some very strange looking stains on them which were never cleaned during our entire stay. The rooms were quite traditional in style as is the whole hotel. The maid service could have done better is my only real negative. The room was clean but I was there 2 days while they were there and they only really gave it a very very basic go over. The bed was not changed every day and I had to ask for items like toilet paper which was not replaced. It explained why the stains and dirt on the doors and the bathroom was there as I didn’t get the impression that they did a very thorough job of cleaning and I certainly didn’t consider the service to be any way worthy of a tip. We arrived at the hotel the day before hurricane Ike was due to hit so our stay was effected by this slightly as we were confined to the hotel for about a day and a half and obviously as staffing, service and supplies were effected slightly during this time I assume. The air conditioning, food supplies, staff, electricity, facilities like internet and rooftop restaurants etc were all obviously effected during this time so my review has to be read with this in mind as I’m sure I didn’t see the hotel at its best but to me it did seem to cope very well with the hurricane overall.
We ate in the lobby bar many times due to not being able to go out because of the hurricane. They had small menu of sandwiches and tapas. It was nice except as the hurricane went on and they were obviously running out! The hotel did cope quite well with the hurricane and they made it a very pleasant stay given that we were confined to it more than we had expected to be. There was a buffet dinner on offer also if you wanted it in the downstairs restaurant. The prices in the hotel was very reasonable to me, but I realised you can get food and drink for very very cheap if you go outside the tourist hotels. Cuba was good value for money against the Euro.
The service is the lobby bar was good, but a bit slow, and friendly. The service at reception though was very mixed. I normally don’t really even comment but at times I was losing patience and I really did notice. However it was not all reception staff. There was an especially nice man who put my fears about the impending hurricane to rest.
The breakfast service was not great. Hit and miss as to whether you would get any.They had a good variety, probably the best breakfast variety I have seen on holiday in a long time and I certainly wasn’t expecting that in Cuba. However, as we are not early risers and were down for breakfast towards the end of the service, there was always cutlery not there for us – no bowls for cereal, having to find spoons etc for cereal or drinks, lack of coffee cups. It didnt bother us that much but may be an issue for some. I couldn’t understand it as the hotel wasn’t that busy at all.The first night we arrived before the hurricane, we visited the rooftop bar and had a mojito overlooking the city. We had planned to eat up there as it had a very nice ambiance, but the next night the hurricane was well on its way and I take it that due to winds and all the glass windows up the top in the restaurant that it was closed, and it stayed closed for the rest of our stay so we didn’t get to try it which was disappointing.
The main reason for booking this hotel, apart from the fact that I wanted a traditional colonial style hotel given that I was in Cuba, was that it offered a pool in the middle of the city which a lot of other hotels do not. Although we didn’t get to take advantage much due to hurricane, we did spend two brief times out by pool and it would have been nice had the weather been good for our whole stay. Large clean pool and plenty of room and sunbeds.
To sum it up, it is a good hotel for Havana and I had no real complaints. It is a very good location, overall had ok service and has very good facilities. It is not as expensive as some other hotels in the area and with more old world charm. But it could improve and it is probably not for the impatient or less tolerant visitor. It met my expectations as I hadn’t expected it to be perfect given I was in Cuba. If I return to Havana I would probably stay here again and I know from speaking with other travellers in different hotels that you could do a lot lot worse.