We stayed at Los Frailes for three nights at the beginning of September 05. Our room was on the first floor and was lovely, very sympathetically decorated and spotlessly clean. Our only quibble was the fact that the room had no windows and it transpired that it's only the four mini-suites on the front of the hotel that have windows and a balcony.

This hotel is a major tourist attraction and you can see why it is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever stayed in and suprisingly peaceful considering it is right in the middle of Old Havana. The staff at the hotel are very helpful and all speak very good English for those that don't speak Spanish.

The only downside to our stay was the breakfast which is provided at a Cafe at the end of the street. A mixture of stale bread, tired looking fruit and cold coffee! I would recommend that people stay at Los Frailes on a room only basis and seek out your breakfast in one of the many restaurants in Old Havana.

The best things about this hotel are its location in the old part of Havana and its character. A lot of effort has been put in to make this resemble a monastery and there has been a lot of attention to fine detail, so you can understand that people who walk past this hotel stop and have a look inside. It is intriguing to say the least.

On the negative side, there were no windows in the room. I imagine this was done purposefully in keeping with the theme of the hotel, there are instead little slats in the door. I found it hard to get up in the mornings as it was pitch black, so had to set the alarm otherwise would think it was the middle of the night.

The breakfast at the cafe on the corner was very average. The staff weren't particularly friendly down there and they didn't make any effort to set the tables properly, so we had to quite often take a cup from another table and a spoon from another etc. There were some meats and fried foods which I didn't like the look of, so I stuck to fresh fruit, which was quite nice. The bread wasn't that fresh.

There seemed to be a lot of hotel staff in Los Frailes, I'm not sure what their roles where, as they seemed to hang about quite a bit. On our last day before we left we sat in the bar area and I wanted to use the toilets but felt afraid to go as there were a bunch of staff hanging around the loos. Renee was a friendly chap but some of the others didn't seem overly friendly. The drinks were very expensive in the bar compared to other bars in Havana.

The rooms were kept clean and tidy, you do have to pay for use of the safe though. Be aware if you use the mini bar. On our arrival we had bought some beers but they were warm so we swapped a cold one from the fridge with one of ours which was exactly the same brand. We still had to end up paying for this despite replacing it, as the manager put his signature on the items in the fridge. Perhaps this is normal practice, I don't know?

I liked this hotel for its character, it did grow on me, but I'm not sure if I'd go back there again. The lack of natural light in the rooms did put me off a bit, though like other people have said on their reviews, this probably made the room quieter.

We stayed at the hotel for a few days in April, 2005 and had a mini suite, with balcony. The room was excellent, although suffered from a 5am pump noise in the street outside every morning. The breakfasts are in a local cafe (50m away) and were very good - the best of our stay in CVuba. I was intrigued by the comment of an earlier poster to avoid the cereal. I have no idea why though, unless it was because of the non refrigerated milk (one lump or two?).
I would have said the stay was excellent, but for 2 scams. The first was not a problem for the visitor, as the receptionist appeared to keep the money for the safe key (no receipt and no credit card permitted), but the minibar scam on leaving was VERY irritating.
We checked the minibar was OK and went downstairs with our cases, locking the door. A maid was sent from reception and reported 2 bottles of water were missing and demanded $3. This was clearly untrue. After an argument with the management and the maid, I resolved the matter by taking my tip back from the maid and paying for the water out of her money. Rough justice but fair.

We spent 5 nights at Los Frailes in Feb. 2005 and it was very enjoyable. We stayed in a regular room for 4 nights, and a mini-suite on the 5th night. Both rooms were nice, but the suite was very nice and spacious, had a beautiful balcony, and good value for the price. Overall the hotel was very clean and had good bathrooms (a plus in Cuba!).The staff was extremely friendly and very helpful. The hotel was accessible, and within walking-distance of most of the major sights. I would definitely stay there again.
(NOTE: if you stay here, you will eat breakfast at Cafe Taberna. There is a nice selection of food, but don't eat the cereal! You'll regret it!)