Our United Airlines flight was scheduled to leave about 6pm, so we took the shuttle to the airport. Check-in was quick, and we went to the United lounge to await our departure. As the time got closer, our departure continued to be pushed back and finally at 4am the NEXT day, our flight was cancelled do to something wrong with the navigational system.
We were really tired, but United said they would take us to a hotel for the night, feed us, and let us know when they had another plane so we could return to the States. We piled on the bus, practically in the morning, and arrived at our hotel about 5am. It is some distance from the airport in to Buenos Aires.

They assured us that we would have a really nice place to stay! Well, I would have been happy at the Holiday Inn at this point in time, but we were ushered off to The Hotel Presidente not terribly far from downtown. We stumbled off the bus, and given keys to our room, and this didn?t look very hopeful. The lobby was very small and shabby, but gee we could get a little sleep, so it couldn?t be too bad.

My first concern was getting on the elevator and going to the 15th floor. I am sure that it had never been inspected, and with each creak, I knew that we wouldn?t make it. Finally we arrived. The dimly lit hall, complete with shabby carpet gave us the feeling that this place was not much. I guess that would be an understatement to say the least.

The room had one small window, deep red walls, a chair that was plastic, a full sized bed, and a very small bathroom. When we looked out the window all we could see was the roof top of more buildings. Frankly, just from a safety point this worried us. If there were a fire, we would never get out.

However, let?s try and get some sleep after all it is almost 6am. That didn?t work well, as the mattress was well used, the kind you would imagine to be in a hotel that rented rooms by the hour and not by the day. After lying there for an hour, I got up and went down to the lobby to visit with the United representative. I explained our displeasure with this hotel, and safety concern. She was sympathetic, and offered to put us in Business Class for the flight home. I readily accepted!

One fine thing that the hotel did was serving a very nice buffet lunch. I frankly was extremely surprised that a hotel with such horrid accommodations could actually put out a pleasant, tasty, and very attractive lunch. If they have a negative 5 star rating, the food did help some.

We left about 1pm, and United had a new aircraft for us. We did sit in business class, which was very enjoyable and arrived home at our destination two days later. We seemed to miss every connection.

When I was remembering about this horrible hotel, I thought that they might just have a website, and in my search, I found it. If you want to see something that looks really nice, but isn?t check out (-), and I had to laugh at their description. It says and I quote ?In a cozy environment you will enjoy a stylish lodging and a
faultless and high quality service up to the standards of the best international hotels. ?

I checked the rates and it is $175 per night including breakfast at this pleasure palace! Just a little thought to pass on, do not believe everything you see on a hotel website. "Update: When visiting their website, you have a choice of language, English, French, or Spanish, and since I checked in English, the rates came up the same as before the devaluation of the Peso."

This hotel is located at Cerrito 850 and has a four star rating. There are lots of lovely hotels in Buenos Aires, but El Presidente will always remain as one that I have to say, don?t stay there.