Spent 2 weeks at the kholy in January 2006. The rooms are a good size and clean. Maids visit every day although sheets not changed at all during our stay. The rooms are very noisey, the walls are paper thin.
The facilities are good for the price you pay, and by cuban standards. The food is not bad except that you often get served the left overs from the night before at breakfast time. There are 2 nice bars but they are not well stocked. The hotel is located several kms away from the old town, a taxi from the hotel will cost you around 8 CUC but you can walk for 5 minutes then hail a taxi and reduce this to 4 to 6 CUC. A walk of about 20 mins will get you to the nearest decent sized shopping area (23/12) near the cemetary.
Not the plushest hotel but good value for money.
If the airtours rep (Jose)is still there, have a chat with him, he is fantastic and will give you lots of information.

Check in-
We arrived after 12am and were escorted to our room on the 2nd floor. The room was fairly spacious- with two double beds, roomy bathroom- and clean. On closer inspection we noticed that one of the pillow cases was dirty (maybe old mascara stains?) and a long dark hair on the bed spread. The wall socket that the fridge was plugged into was also faulty.

The following morning we asked for a different room with a better view (we were overlooking the reception roof and a wall) and an operational fridge. We were told that a room was unavailable and that we'd be better off asking the next day. We were told that someone would come up to have a look at the wall socket that day... 'someone' didn't arive.

Our room-
On our second day we were moved to another double room with a functional fridge & a lovely view of the Kohly area. The maids visited on a daily basis and created swans and flowers with the clean bed linen & towels- our maid Rosabel was very helpful.

The cable TV had a lot to offer, with at least 2 MTV stations and other American channels.

Breakfast-
I've looked at other reviews of the Kohly and what they say about the breakfast being 'interesting' is true! On the upside, you get what you paid for so you shouldn't expect haute cuisine.

The range of food was ok- no two days are the same- but it did seem that on occassion we were served leftovers from the night before!! The combinations of foods i.e. scrambled eggs & cabbage/green peas left much to be desired. However, it was all edible and we HAD paid for it so we ate it!!

The hotel had a chef who made pancakes & omelettes to order, but he often ran out of ingredients (we DID usually come down to eat at 8am) and was gone for 10-15 minutes getting more ingredients- was he churning/killing the cheese/ham himself?! The omelettes WERE nice though, and my boyfriend filled his plate with them & the pancakes everyday...

We only found out on our last day that the hotel served lunch and dinner (at extra cost) in the main dining area!!!! Great (!) The pizzeria located next door was a lifesaver as it was open until 12am, but don't expect all the items on the menu to be available- the selection of desserts was minimal.

Poolside area-
The pool is open to the locals, so its nice to be able to interact & observe Cubans (especially if you enjoy people-watching). The temperature of the pool was FREEZING!!!! We assumed that this was unavoidable, however, we DID hear it was occassionally heated for the night synchronised swimming peformances.

The service was good.

Location-
Hotel Kohly is about 5 minute cab ride to Miramar, 10 minutes to Vedado and 15 minutes to Old Town/Central Havana. It's worthwhile trying to hail a 'Panataxi' cab on the main road (the Calle 23) as they are cheaper than the 'OK' taxis parked outside the hotel.

It's a 5 minute walk from the Almendares river- it's worth taking a stroll down there for the picture opportunities alone, the stream was lovely.

The Kohly area is nice, clean & residential, although it would be more convenient to be more centrally located. Cab rides to Old Town averaged 8CUC. My boyfriend was woken up at 2.30am one night by loud music and noises in the car park below- the security guards didn't seem to be fussed about noise control (he believes they were involved!!).

Facilities-
The hotel has many facilities- gym, massage parlour, shop, bowling alley etc.

Overall-
We had a choice of 2 hotels (the Deauville, near the Malecon, and Hotel Kohly) when booking our holiday. The Kohly Hotel didn't disappoint, nor exceed our expectations of a 3* hotel in this area. We'd recommend this hotel.

We have recently returned from 2 weeks at the Hotel Kohly and am pleased to say that overall we were pleasantly surprised with the hotel. The hotel itself is clean and is a nice size with an unheated outdoor pool, tennis courts, massage area and gym. The room had 2 double beds and a clean shower room. Friendly maids in every day too. My only complaint would be that the walls are too thin! You can hear everything going on, the phones constantly ringing, the ping of the lift and chairs/tables being moved round in the bar area. The breakfast got to be a very boring affair of scrambled eggs/sausages/fruit/pancakes/leftovers. Such a shame the Cubans aren't very interested in their food, they certainly don't know what flavour and variety are!! It also became a little pricey having to get taxi's into Havana town each night esp. as there were only the 2 of us. Tip - don't get a taxi from outside the hotel. Take a walk and grab a Panataxi - the cheapest fares out there (and they're metered). The hotel is a little out of the way of anything, so taxi's are required to get anywhere. I would recommend staying in Havana, we went to Varadero for the night and would have got bored if we were there for the whole 2 weeks as it's much smaller than we thought, and it's certainly not lively and buzzy like Havana!

Not the fanciest hotel, but clean and safe. Its 3 of 5 stars are probably deserved. In a nice residential part of town with short walk to small river-side jungle area. Electronic locks on doors, but our patio door didn't lock. Quiet except if you are above the bar (they moved us at our request). Walls are not sound-proof. Most travellers here are Latin American. Breakfast (included) left something to be desired. Lunch and supper for 10 CUC/person is expensive and not likely to be good, so we went to the adjoining cheap pizzeria (had our camera stolen from there - be careful). Rooms are clean, terrazzo floors throughout. No facecloths. Satellite TV. Safes in rooms for 2 CUC/day. Pool not heated. Two double beds in our rooms. Internet very slow (as in all of Cuba). Most staff speak basic English (bring phrasebook) but they try to be helpful. Taxis always available and drivers generally speak some English. Good drivers at the hotel: Augustine (private owner of green 1948 Chevrolet) Ph:--- after 7pm, email: ---, extremely helpful, cheap, will guide to attractions. Raul at "Taxi OK" also very good. They speak English.