We stayed at the Miravida Soho hotel in October of 2008, in room #3 on the upper floor.

This hotel was in a residential area with a lot of cafes, little grocery stores and close to the subway. We liked its newly designed interior, with dark wood floors contrasting otherwise bright space. It was kept meticulously clean.

The room itself was on a small side but it was furnished very ergonomically. The size of the room, however, did not represent a problem for us because most of the time we spent touring the city. The bed was firm and comfortable and the bathroom was spacious. The TV set had a lot of channels, including all leading US news programs.

There was a nice bar/dining/lounging area downstairs. We did not have a chance to try from their selection of wines or have a dinner there, but we found the breakfast menu to be quite good.

The best part of staying at Miravida Soho was the presence of the hotel owner James and his staff. We do not speak Spanish, and we would not do well at all without their unwavering service and advice. Not only they are very helpful, but also they are genuinely nice and friendly people.

We would highly recommend this place to people looking for a quiet base in Buenos Aires with an easy access to the downtown.

I stayed at Mira Vida for four nights from late September to early October and can echo many of the compliments that others have already posted.

Pros:

1. The hotel is beautifully renovated in one of the best neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and yet very competitively priced.

2. James and his staff are extremely friendly and hospitable. They e-mailed me a week ahead of my arrival with suggestions for restaurants, tango shows, etc. Once I arrived, they were very helpful with making restaurant reservations, calling cabs and suggesting itineraries.

3. Breakfast, which is included in the price, is excellent. I only took advantage of this once, but the food was great.

4. The hotel held my luggage without any issue for a few days while I made a side trip to Uruguay.

Cons (minor):

1. When making my reservation, I was told that I would be upgraded to a suite for one night of my stay. Once I arrived at the hotel I was never upgraded and never told why I wasn't. My plans had changed and I ended up being in Buenos Aires solo. I think the hotel was a bit surprised by this and figured there was no reason to give the larger room to a single person. In truth, I didn't really care one way or the other, but I do think that once a guest is told they will receive something the hotel should follow through. Whether you are traveling solo or as a couple the rooms still cost the same.

2. I like fresh air when I sleep and kept the balcony door slightly ajar at night. A few of the employees seemed to congregate on the back patio very early in the morning and chat which made things a bit noisy.

My husband and I were fortunate enough to get rooms at the Miravida Soho for seven nights in September. I did a tremendous amount of research on TA before booking our room here. The glowing reviews seemed almost too good to be true, but I can tell you now that this place completely lives up to its reputation.

THE LOCATION: as a young, married couple, we wanted to stay in a location that had energy and lots of hip boutiques, restaurants, and bars. Palermo Soho was the perfect spot for us. We RARELY ever took a taxi. We simply walked to restaurants, bars, museums, etc. We walked around at night a lot and never felt unsafe.

THE SERVICE: Impeccable. James, the owner, was so helpful and pleasant and truly seems to care about providing the best hotel experience. He was almost always present (whether in the lobby area or the wine bar area) and available to answer any questions that we had. Oh, and never underestimate staying at a hotel where the staff speaks English. While I am all for cultural immersion and appreciated the opportunity to practice my Spanish, having James (a Canadian ex-pat) around made it much easier to ask obscure questions or to simply have a conversation about the wine we were drinking. We enjoyed many nights just sitting at the wine bar having conversations with James and other couples we met over a good Malbec. The girls who work at the Miravida were also so helpful and they always seemed to have a smile on their faces. From calling taxis to making dinner reservations to planning excursions for us, they were always available to help.

Another thing that we appreciated was that James allowed us to pay for our total stay of seven nights (we stayed at the Miravida for two nights, then left for Bariloche for five nights, and returned to the Miravida for another five nights) after we returned from our mini excursion to Bariloche. Other hotels, such as the Art Suites, refused to let us do that even though they were holding our luggage for us.

Another gesture I appreciated was that when I originally wanted to book a room for seven nights, James indicated that that particular room was not available the seventh night, but that he did have a nicer suite available. James gave us the nicer room on the last night at the basic room price and had our luggage moved to the suite. It is small gestures such as these that make the Miravida stand out from other hotels.

THE HOTEL: When we first arrived, we admired the architecture of the building right away. We loved how even though the place was renovated, it maintained a lot of its original charm and didn't feel overly "trendy-modern."

The rooms were very clean and comfortable. The beds have thick, soft comforters and fluffy pillows. Each room has a safe and some of the upgraded rooms have mini bars. We stayed in the full range of rooms from the smallest to the largest and we noticed that even the smallest room was sufficient for our needs: a place to sleep at night! We really didn’t spend too much time in the room.

The wine bar on the first floor quickly became our favorite place. This was the area where we had our daily breakfasts, and, at night, it transformed into the wine bar/social area. It was so much fun to be able to have a few drinks with other patrons of the hotel and we quickly became friends with all the nice people that we met at the Miravida. We loved the wine bar so much that we even came back to the Miravida to simply have drinks even after we had switched to staying at the Mine Hotel for our last two nights in BA.

THE PERKS: Every morning we rolled out of bed at our leisure, knowing that we didn't have to rush downstairs in order to take advantage of the included breakfast. Out of all the places we stayed during our 25 day trip to Peru and Argentina, this was the only hotel that didn't have a time constraint on breakfast.

The breakfast is wonderful. I tried pretty much everything on the menu: fruit and granola yogurt parfait, french toast, poached eggs over spinach and roasted red peppers, eggs with yummy fried potatoes, and the delicious crepes. It was so nice being able to start the day with a substantial meal. On the one morning that we had to leave super early for a flight to Bariloche, Jim gave us muffins and yogurt that we could take with us.

After eating the amazing breakfast day after day, we had to try the chef's dinner. We were lucky that we were staying at the hotel on a thursday night (they only serve dinner on the weekends and thursday night) and Sebastian, the cook, served up a delicious meal. He even made a perfectly spiced traditional cazuela at the request of another diner. My husband thought his steak was one of the best he had eaten in BA.

Overall, we highly recommend this place (can you tell?) It's a telling sign when you find yourself back at the Miravida for pre-dinner wine and conversation, even when you are staying at a different hotel! It's really the people and the ambience that had us keep going back. Our seven night stay at the Miravida was definitely the best hotel experience we have ever had.

After reading the not so rave review of Red Room 5, we had trepidations. But we kept our reservation anyway. BIG mistake. Upon entering our room, there was an inccessant vibration like we were on top of the train tracks. When we realized it was the A/C that made the window vibrate, we asked them to turn off the A/C - we couldn't control the on/off from our room. When that took care of the problem, we were okay with it even thought everything that Sofia-Luca pointed out was right on. We also overlooked the fact that the shower was tight and every time we washed our side or arm would hit the wall or handle. But when we couldn't sleep, we knew we couldn't stay another sleepless night. Every time one person turned in their sleep, the other would bounce or feel like an Earthquake was occurring.

When I called to explain to the girl at the front desk that we couldn't sleep and would be checking out that morning, she outright lied and said they'd never had this complant before. Yet, she told us at check-in that they were #3 on TripAdvisor. How interesting...could she be the reason? To add insult to injury, she went on to tell me that they will buy another bed TONIGHT...they haven't replaced it since the last bad review a couple of months back...what makes anyone think they will replace it now? Incredulous!!

We also had asked if Room6 was available. It wasn't but James, the owner said that if it did become available, he would change our reservation to that room. After arrving at the hotel, we talked to some guests who said they had just gotten Room 6 at the last minute, the day before in fact! - for the nights we had asked for it weeks earlier. In such small hotels, guests do talk, really talk, to each other.

The final straw came when presented with the final bill...with the exchange rate being 3 pesos to the dollar, our bill for that room would have come to 450 pesos ($150US) but our bill was 471pesos...even with a 1 minute local call to the previous hotel 21 pesos or $7 is a little exorbitant. At that point, we just wanted to get the heckl AWAY from this hotel. We just wanted the nightmare to end.