**** BEWARE *****New Owners – If I were you I would disregard all reviews before May 2008*****

First off, in the month or so before we arrived, the original owners of The Cocker sold to a woman named Amanda. I was not informed of this. You can tell the original owners infused a great deal of charm into the hotel, I only wish I had experienced staying there before the change in ownership.

LOCATION - On the outskirts of San Telmo, bordering La Boca. Not exactly the central San Telmo location I was hoping for, and walking too far in the wrong direction at night (or getting a little lost) proved to be a dangerous event.

INSIDE - Once inside the hotel I noticed that things were looking a little shabby, the marble on the stair fronts was slipping and had open gaps, the paint looked old and scuffed up, in the lobby/lounge area there was some serious water damage to the plaster ceiling (see photos), the shelves were half empty and the art was minimal (unlike the photos from when the original owners occupied the space). It also smelled heavily of oil based paint as they were renovating a new room on the main level. ****** A note about this new room - it is tiny, tiny, tiny, right off the main hallway, with no window to the outside and ZERO privacy, there is no way I would stay in this room, so beware if you plan on booking this room********

We were then escorted up the rickety metal spiral staircase and into our room 17-04. The room looked vaguely like the pictures on the website, except dated and a lot smaller. My problems with this room:

*Small
*Dingy paint, scuffs all over the walls and floors
* No place to put your clothes
*No mattress pad on bed
*Cheap sheets
*Uncomfortable mattress
* Moldy down pillows that made both my husband and I sick
*Dead flowers in moldy water
*Wet room for the bathroom=wet toilet paper=wet toilet=icky
*Dirty cushions on lounge area
*Dirty blankets on lounge area
*Generally dirty room
*STRONG paint fumes coming from downstairs

My main problems with this room, other than the fact that I started sneezing as soon as I walked in the door, were that it was very, very noisy and dirty. The room is above the kitchen and breakfast room, you can hear every footstep and every word, and after breakfast the maid listens to loud music on the radio in the kitchen, so there is little chance for relaxing or reading.

I had booked 7 nights, but after three nights we left for a better hotel (the miravida soho - see review, wonderful place). In the three nights we stayed, no one cleaned our room or changed our towels or sheets once. The bathroom is a wet room and really needs to be cleaned and wiped down every day, otherwise the toilet stays wet, you track wet shoe prints all over the room, and it is generally just disgusting and damp.

After our second night, I told Amanda about my allergy to something in the room, and that would be leaving the following day. She was nice enough, but asked us to pay for 5 1/2 nights. Well, that night ended up being the worst of all. Next door to The Cocker is the CASA DE CANTANTE, so we got to hear bad show tunes and clapping through the wall of our room until midnight. We finally fell asleep only to awake at 2:30 am to the sounds of the owner and her friends back from a night of drinking. They were hanging out in the kitchen listening to loud music, talking very loudly and smoking cigarettes, which filled our room with smell of cigarette smoke. I had to go out to the landing to put an end to it all, only to be heckled by her guests. It was really ridiculous; I can't believe that the owner of the Hotel would have such complete disregard for her paying guests. It was very immature and unprofessional.

Anyway, the next morning, after yet another terrible nights sleep I informed Amanda that I was only willing to pay for 4 nights due to the spectacle the night before, and she claimed to not know what I was talking about?!?! Maybe she was so drunk she could not remember the events from the night before. So, we paid for 4 nights (which in hindsight was WAY too generous) and left for the sanctuary that is the MIRAVIDA SOHO in Palermo, god bless Jim for taking us in and saving our vacation.

The moral of this review is that The Cocker did not live up to my expectations or the previous reviews, and I believe this is due to the change in ownership. Maybe the rooms on the third floor are better, but a decent room would not make up for the new negligent owner.

Read my review of the Miravida Soho if you want a quality, small (6 room) hotel, that is owned by someone who really cares about their property and their hotel guests.