Catalinas Suites Hotel
This is a run down dump in a high crime area. The photos of the rooms in the Travel Bound website do not reflect the conditions of the rooms. They are drab and in poor condition. Ours had holes in the wall with wires coming through and the vanity in the bathroom was fiber board and was falling apart and the general workmanship was very low.

When we checked into this hotel the desk clerk gave us a key to check the room out. It was very poor. Travel Bound rated this as a 4 star hotel. My wife then got another room key but got stuck in the elevator trying to get there. The room was equally unacceptable. He said that was all they had and had no concern or apology for the elevator.

He talked on the phone constantly and we had to wait for him to finish his conversation to ask a question. He seemed irritated at having to answer questions. Finally he found he had a room on the 1st floor (second floor up) since my wife was now afraid to go on the elevator. The room was dark and in poor condition but we took the room.

Since it was hot we called and asked the clerk how to turn on the AC. He said there was a switch on the wall. We looked and it turned out to be a ceiling fan. We called him back and he said he had turned the AC on down at his desk. After a while when there was no cooling affect, we called him again and this time he said he didn’t think they had AC. As far as we could tell there was no working AC for the room we were in. We got bit by bugs because we had to leave the windows open to sleep and there were no screens on the windows..

After checking in, we asked if the area was safe walk around. He assured us it was a safe area. One day my wife was outside the hotel at the corner waiting for me and a thug jumped off a motorcycle and choked and old man in an attempt to rob him. This was in broad daylight with people around. It was extremely fast and well practiced. About a half an hour later a block away, we were sprayed with a black goop by two pickpockets who then rubbed the goop off us in a attempt to pickpocket us. Fortunately I had read about this scam and we got away from them.

When we moved to a better hotel one block away a couple of thieves stole our bag from the new hotel lobby. Beware this hotel is in a very high crime area. But the impression I get from other travelers is that Argentina is a very high crime country.

When the general manager of the Catalinas Suites hotel saw we had been sprayed with this black goop, he offered to get our clothes cleaned on an expedited basis. It took over a day to get our clothes back while other hotels take about 4 hours. When we got our check out bill we found he charged us a 50% surcharge for the expedited cleaning (which took over twice as long as other hotels normal service).

Also the Travel Bound voucher indicated that they offer a hot buffet breakfast. They do not - just pastries, cereal etc.

Bottom line – don’t stay here and beward of Travel Bound hotel ratings.