We booked the Hotel Sevilla for 4 nights in June and all I can say is it is the most incompetent place I’ve ever stayed. When we arrived we were told that they were over booked and they sent us to the National (great hotel).

After 2 nights the National told us that we were to check out and go back the Sevilla – the Sevilla did not inform us themselves so we had to take a taxi over there to check (10 CUC round trip). They then sent a taxi for our bags later that day. It was an inconvenience.

The room was OK, basic (and musty) but clean except for some remaining hairs around the room (yuck!). Breakfast was terrible compared to the National – loads of flies in the room, grubby tables, the coffee machine was broken and nothing tasted good.

It was very hot in Havana so we decided to use the pool. We walked outside and it was empty! We just had to laugh, this place really is a joke! They offered to get us taxis back and forth to the National but instead we opted to go to the Parque Central (Great Hotel also).

The following day the pool was up and running and quiet nice it has to be said.

The rooms are fine, the pool is good when it’s open but don’t go near the food.

The best thing about the hotel is the location; we saved loads in taxi fares compared to staying at the National (around 20/25 CUC per day).

My wife and I travelled here with The Travel Collection so also see the reviews for Villa Soroa and Cayo Levisa Hotel. This hotel is very impressive when you arrive giving the air of a top class European hotel. However this is Cuba and it was very different to Europe. The rooms are small but clean and tidy. The hot water in our room and some of our fellow travellers rooms was intermittent but in others it was scalding hot. When you got hot water you had to leave the tap running as it would leak out of the closed plughole as quickly as it was going in. The wall between you and your neighbour’s bathroom is very thin and you can hear everything going on in their bathroom. Including one of our neighbours having diarrhoea all night. Most of the rooms are around four sides of a quadrangle which is topped off with a sky light, try not to get a room there as it is very noisy as you can hear people walking on the marble floors and talking on all eight floors until quite late at night.
Only one lift works and judging by the state of the door on the out of use lift this had been the situation for some time. It took a long time to get to the third floor. The only stairs are the fire escape and these have high treads and slippery tile surfaces. If you do use them mind the last two as the edges of the steps are not marked and when you look down the last flight you cannot see where the edge of the steps are.
The best thing is the restaurant on the top floor is excellent and as the hotel is the tallest building in old Havana gives fantastic views over the whole city. Don’t bother with breakfast here, as the ground floor restaurant is better with freshly cooked food.
We were here for five nights, one more than expected as our flight was delayed by one day. Not the bargain you would think, as I would only recommend Havana for two nights as the constant barrage of people trying to get money from you is very wearing. The pool was out of action so we could not chill out there to escape.
The reception staff are very surly as when we stayed our extra night Air Cubana picked up the tab but we had to get our Kuoni representative to get our drinks, meals and telephone calls home taken off our bill and to get our rooms unlocked after midday on our last day. All things that had been agreed before hand
We did eat in the ground floor restaurant and when the hotel was full it was buffet style and this was OK. However if they were not expecting a full restaurant it was a la carte and this was pretty dire, our table had undercooked fatty chicken as a main course, it was returned uneaten. One further word of warning about the horse and carriage rides outside the hotel, always check where they will take and for how much, do not pay more than $25. Our trip with guy called Layo took two hours he charged us $50 as he said it was $25 per hour, some of our colleagues paid another guy called Richard $25 for two hours and he gave an excellent informative trip. This experience sums up Havana for us as we found a lot of people are trying to get as much money as they can from you by hook or by crook.

What can I say that hasn't already been said? The Sevilla is in a fantastic location in old Havana where you can do all your sightseeing of the old city on foot - including a visit to Havana Club rum museum with tasting of a 7 year old rum (very nice!) and a guided tour (10 pesos, approx £6 each) of the Partagas cigar factory (no tours on a weekend) to see the locals at work producing some of the most famous brands. The Museum of the Revolution is less than 2 minutes walk from the hotel and 5 pesos entrance to this includes a look through a glass building of the ship, Granma, in which Castro and Che Guevara sailed to Cuba. The hotel is only just a short (5 peso, approx £3) taxi ride away from Revolution Square - a must see. The decor of the hotel itself is lovely - Andalusian with hint of Moorish style with tiled public areas, statues and inner courtyard with a bar serving snacks and drinks 24 hours a day. Good friendly service in the bar, mediocre service in downstairs restaurant. We appeared at the rooftop restaurant on our first morning for breakfast and were told that it was only for honeymooners at breakfast time and we were not given the option of paying extra, perhaps they didn't like the look of us!!! We were pleased with the food in the downstairs restaurant anyway with far more choice than we expected in Cuba with cold buffet, hot buffet, freshly baked bread and a selection of sweet pastries and meringue and plenty of fresh tropical fruit. The hotel has its own mini shopping street with travel agency, foreign exchange office and reasonably priced shop selling cigars, Cuban coffee, etc. Our rooms were on the 8th floor and we had fantastic views over the city - even a sea view!!! Both rooms were really spacious, one was more like a suite and both were very clean. The antique style furniture in the rooms was beautiful, very old-worldy yet with mod cons like fridge and big telly!!! The only thing we were disappointed with at the Sevilla is the swimming pool - the setting was lovely - but the water looked very cloudy so none of us took a swim which was disappointing in a way but on the other hand we would have struggled to fit in a swim because there is just so much to see and do in Havana - 2 and a half days is not enough - we shall definitely go back and will definitely stay at the Sevilla mainly because of its location, wonderful decor and indoor courtyard bar open 24/7. I would recommend the Sevilla to anyone who is looking for accommodation in Havana but I would be careful in recommending Havana itself to people - the 4 of us loved it but one minute you are gazing at wonderful old buildings and incredibly old cars still in use then the next minute you feel sadness when you see the living conditions of some of the locals in dilapidated dwellings that barely look safe to house any living thing. Knowing the lifestyle and poverty you can't blame the locals for trying to get money from tourists - in their position we would be the same - but we never found their approaches hostile nor too persistent and in some busy streets just had to keep moving. Since we were on a package holiday, after 3 nights at the Sevilla we had to transfer by coach to Varadero but I would have preferred longer in Havana.

We stayed at the Sevilla as part of a twin centre holiday for 3 nights and thought it was great. It's location is perfect for sight seeing and within walking distance of most of the attractions, whilst being far enough out to get you away from the bustle. The hotel itself is full of the 1950's gangster style charm I had hoped and there were reminders everywhere of the olden days! The decor in the rooms was quite grand and traditionally cuban. We stayed on the 6th Floor which is renown for Al Capone's stays back in the day. The reception area is airy with a nice open air bar area, where there is more often than not a cuban band playing the local music with great enthusiasm. The downstairs breakfast restaurant is quite poor, but we chose to pay 5 peso's extra and enjoy the tranquility of the 9th floor restaurant, with great views, some relaxing music and a good variety of breakfast food. There is a pool area if you get time to sit and relax for a while, but this tends to get very busy at certain times of the day. Havana was very cool, there is a lot to see and a real beauty to the place, but just be a bit weary... The locals are generally very nice people but there are the odd scams going on and you do get pestered, so if you get approached on the street just politely but firmly say no thank you and walk on - they leave you alone. We took the Lonely Planet guide with us and it was great, but also booked onto an afternoon tour when we first arrived and that was very informative and helpful in getting our bearings. Tropicana is worth a visit, but is expensive and we also went for an evening at a restaurant called La Bodegeta which was very traditional and enjoyable. If you want to experience Havana properly I would recommend this hotel as a good superior option!