I stayed here twice during my trip to Cuba - when I arrived in the country for two nights, and for two nights before I left. The hotel has a wonderful atmosphere of 30's Cuba and has been immaculately restored to preserve this ambience.

Rooms are clean, reasonably sized, and comfortable. As outlined by other users, the lifts are still not working, so everyone must use the service lifts. This may sound trivial, but when the restaurant is on the top floor, and it is a nine floor hotel it leads to some long waiting times.

One of the few hotels in Havana with an outdoor swimming pool and despite it being in the city centre not overly noisy. The hotel is perfectly located in Old Havana for all of the superb sight seeing in this part of the city. It's not well located for night life, and tourist taxi's are sometimes difficult to come by - but when you do it's only 3 to 5 pesos for a taxi to the night life. Try the restaurant La Dominica, 5 mins walk from the hotel - superb food, service, and salsa music in a beautiful location.

The Roof Garden restaurant in the hotel has superb views, but way over-priced and so I didn't eat dinner there. By booking direct with Sofitel on their website you will eat your breakfast in the Roof Garden, whereas everyone else eats in the lobby restaurant.

Just back from staying 3 nights at the Sevilla, had no complaints. Hotel is lovely but needs a bit of TLC in places. The best thing about it is the location as it is ideal for both the old town and the main attractions in Centro Habana as well.

Havana is an incredible place, such a mixture of beautiful architecture and squalid living conditions. The old town is beautiful around the Placa de Armas but a lot less manicured towards the Placa de la Catedral. Quite a few interesting bars and restaurants but they are comparatively expensive in the touristy spots. We recommend a restaurant called Los Nardos, is in on the Prado just past the Capitolio on the left. If you haven't been told it is good you would probably hesitate to go in there as it is up a staircase in a derelict-looking building, but once you get upstairs it is a magnificent room, the food is good and the portions are enormous. You have to wait at peak times when people queue on the street to get in - if you see a queue in Havana, join it!

The bedroom was the best part of the hotel experience. Former glory tries to shine through but dismally fails. Proud portraits of former guests - Al Capone, Lucky Luciano etc., smile from their black and white photos, so something must have been good once! Sevice is not a concept that the staff have readily grasped and smiling is not a familiar experience. Breakfast is erratic in contenct and poor in facilities - a push button hot beverage machine that serves one at a time in a space that holds over 100 people! for example. There is a passable pool overlooked by decrepit buildings inhabited by the poor people of Havana that provides an experience which cannot be enjoyed by either party. At least it had HBO on the TV - a feature not enjoyed by hotels in the Varadero resorts. Poor Havana!

We stayed at the Sevilla for 4 nights in Jan 2006 and would recommend it to others.
The maids were really good, they left the towels in a different animal shape everyday and cute notes wishing us a happy new year!
As mentioned in the other reviews there are problems with the lifts but they weren't THAT bad - sure they stop at strange floors and take a while to come but it didn't ruin the stay for us.
We dined at the restaurant on the top floor and it is a nice area, view etc - the food was average (as it is everywhere in Cuba, so no better or worse really).
The hotel staff did not speak as much english as I expected which at times was a struggle but generally they all speak some english.
The breakfast buffet was great if you got there early but later in the morning all the good things went. There was always heaps of freshly baked bread and pastries, and all the usual eggs, bacon, fruit etc etc. We even started making a sandwich at breakfast and taking it with us for later which worked really well! I don't know if we had a twin or a double or whatever but there were three of us staying and we had a room with two beds and another with one (but it was only one room, just divided in two). It was a really good size.
We didn't have any problem ordering food from the lobby bar and it is a nice area to sit.
Didn't try the pool but it looked really nice and a good size with lots of beach chairs around it.
Overall, I'd recommend the Sevilla!