I have been coming to Caracas for a number of years and this has been my favorite hotel. If you are looking for an american tower cookie cutter hotel then this is not for you. It was built in the 40's has solid concrete walls so you don't hear anything from the room next door. It is set out of town in a nice quiet setting, away from the traffic/caralarms of Caracas. A lot of the rooms don't have airconditioning, instead ceiling fans, but it has that old world charm about it. It's as if it was built in 1940 and no one has changed anything since. I like the building and the setting.

The bad part is the staff. It's as if everyone is trying not to do their jobs, or do them so badly you leave and go to another hotel(this is what I did).

The checkin was very rude and disorganised. It was as if the lady behind the counter was trying to serve as many people as possible before me. I felt like asking "Am I invisible". When I finally got to checkin they gave me the lowest class of room even though I had booked the most expensive room a month before. The checkin lady was having none of it and even waved her finger at me saying the room I had booked was being repaired. I just let it slide and took my room.

The room was number 11, cost $65 a night and was nice as it had a garden outside the sliding doors which had been welded shut and security bars added to ensure you couldn't let any air in or walk out into the garden.

I tried ringing the room service but no one answered. Then I walked down to the restaurant to order - same again, it was like I was invisible. Finally got a steak after a lot of to and fro but at least I wasn't starving anymore.

I tried ringing the reception a couple of times to check to see if my bags had turned up but it was the same in that no one answered the phone.

After a bad nights sleep(there was a dog outside my window all night barking) I went to breakfast at 8.30 am. No orange juice, no coffee or tea. There was a buffet with melon juice, scramble eggs, arepas, beans, toast and some mango jam. No waiters to be seen anywhere but two chefs behind a counter who were too busy to talk to anyone. It was a bit like a south american faulty towers.

After my very ordinary breakfast I tried to get a taxi but he wouldn't accept US$ so I asked the hotel if they could change US$20 for me - no way was the front desk able to change money - by this stage I was losing my cool and let the poor girl behind the counter know I wasn't impressed then one of the security guards took me aside and changed the $20 at a good exchange rate - finally someone who was willing to help but it was really just self interest as I think he was making some gain on the exchange.

By this stage it all got too much for me and I decided to change hotels - I went to the Radisson Eurobuilding.

At the checkout it was a different person but she was just as bad. She told me my checkout wasn't for another week, I explained I wasn't happy, she didn't ask why, then proceeded to charge me an extra night. I was just glad to get out of the place. It is quite sad as it is such as nice hotel and location and it would just take some average management to make it a great hotel.