Where to start? I am surprised there aren't more reviews of this hotel but I guess because it's not written up in Lonely Planet, it doesn't "rate". At 54 pesos/night, it's a bargain for the area. It is a few minutes walk from absolutely everything. I stayed here 6 nights as booked by Peregrine tours, before and after my travels around the rest of Cuba. My first night the whole 3rd floor was flooded so I got bumped to the Plaza, at 84 pesos/night. At the Plaza I had a lovely balcony room and a decent breakfast, so I was a bit disappointed when sent back to the Park View, as the breakfast really sucked, except sometimes they had grapefruit - questionable eggs, food not replenished once gone, bread dry, juice full of sugar, no condiments such as peanut butter or syrup for pancakes, service terrible, and I saw the waiter rinse out cups behind the bar with just water and his finger before putting them out again for coffee. However, the rooftop restaurant has great views and a phone that works with a calling card (hard to find working phones outside of hotels). I brought food from home as I like certain things when I travel - instant oatmeal, decaf coffee, hot chocolate powder, granola bars, ketchup, vinegar, tea bags and peanut butter. Everyone was so jealous, especially when I pulled out the snack size boxes of Rice Krispies! I travel a lot and love to eat local food but sometimes you just want a bit of home. The first 14 days I ate Cuban breakfasts but I couldn't stomach it after that so ate the food I brought. They do have nice hot milk but only in the morning - good luck finding milk anywhere in Cuba, I couldn't.
I had dinner in the restaurant twice, first time a breaded cod, not bad, but the vegetable soup (they call it minestrone but no pasta in it) was quite nice when you get tired of meat and rice all the time. They have little tiny buns which are nice and soft but white bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner! - again, try finding brown bread in Cuba!
The baggage guys (Rafael, Richard) are so sweet, they will do anything for you. Security was a bit more lax here as a jinetero actually followed me twice to my room, begging me to sign a letter of invitation for him to work in Canada as a carpenter. He also followed me on the street when he saw me in the Museum of the Revolution, which was a bit freaky but the only bad experience I had of that sort in all of Cuba. Front desk staff were not smiling but would eventually do what you asked, if it was possible. Ie, my room safe never worked, but they did offer to switch the room. Yes, my bathroom floor flooded also, but we just asked our camarera (chambermaid) for extra towels. First I had a view of Colon street and was entranced by watching the old lady across the street hand out coffees in the morning as her grandchildren played and people stopped to chat. There definitely is no park to view and the 2nd room I had looked directly into the office about a metre outside my window, so I just kept the drapes closed. I had to stick my head out and peer around the scaffolding to see what the weather was like in the morning. The TV cable snapped when I moved it but that's what I keep my duct tape handy for, and I didn't go to Cuba to watch TV anyway. I unplugged the frig one night as it was the only plug that fit my camera recharger, so it leaked onto the floor, but it's precisely for reasons like that that I never leave anything on the floor in any country. Please bring stuff for the locals: I appreciated reading trip advisor reviews before I went to Cuba about stuff to bring, so my sister's girl guide troop and I gathered an enormous suitcase of stuff to give away: backpacks, purses, bags of makeup, school supplies, toiletries, clothes, aspirin, Polysporin, vitamins, baseball gloves, toys, books, tampons, condoms, and lots of pens!!! A pen for them is a week's salary, so cheap for us and easy to carry. I left the suitcase itself when I went home because it had a small tear, and Velvis loved it. They left me lovely notes and we hugged when I left. Fr