Last month I stayed at Casa Ray for the 10th visit. This casaparticular has declined over the past 2 1/2 years, because Rafael has moved out, and Ray is soon moving to Spain to live with his new husband. In the day time, the hosts take turns dropping in to the rental casa for a few hours per day, but they no longer offer guide services, advice, or breakfast. At night, both hosts sleep elsewhere, leaving no one on duty. This makes it less safe for guests. I shortened my stay because of security concerns. Specifically, someone slept in my room while I was out of Havana for 3 nights, and my possessions were disturbed. I can no longer recommend this place. Below is a photo of the hosts from an earlier visit.

I LOVED this place! It is decorated in Grandma/retro-kitsch and Ray himself is a doll. It is also comfortable and the breakfast is good. I suggest calling ahead to confirm the reservation.

Ray's is a great place. I have stayed there twice. I also checked out the other gay friendly options while in Havana, and Ray's is the best option in town. In relation to what suvariboy from Toronto has to say in his review (based on having spent enough time at Ray's place to see exactly how he does things): you have to be aware of how things work in Cuba. Casa owners can't take payment in advance, it simply isn't possible to receive money electronically in Cuba. So there is a bit of a booking problem, for all parties. While I was at Ray's I saw him turn one person down on the basis that someone else was arriving, and then the other person never arrived. If Ray takes a firm booking, he will stick to it, (he did it with me) but he will want precise details, including the flight you are arriving on. My advice is if you absolutely only want to stay at his place, confirm and reconfirm, and reconfirm again a few days before travelling - especially in high season That's what I did! I think you'll find Ray will be much reassured by this! Sometimes you will find him saying that he may not be able to put you up at his place, but not to worry: he'll make sure you are fine. I've seen this happen, he does look after people well. It regularly happens at other popular casa particulars... its the Cuban system and you just have to bear with it, especially in high season. Clearly people passing through town for 1 or 2 nights get less priority than people coming for a week or more. And be nice! If you boss casa owners about as if they were truculent desk staff at Holiday Inn (as if lol) then you are likely to get fobbed off...

I contacted Ray several times regarding our trip to Havana. We were coming from Varadero, needed a room for one or two nights, and were really looking forward to staying at his place. We'd read a couple of very good reviews, the area was good, and Ray seemed quite nice in the several e-mails that he sent to me. However, when I asked for a final confirmation including price...Ray didn't respond. I thought that perhpas he didn't have daily access to e-mail & hoped for the best. I'm glad that I took a list of other casa options with me.

I called Ray from Varadero, as requested, and was quite surprised when he: told me that he would not have a room for me and scolded me for not understanding that this was high season for him and he only rented out his rooms for a week or more! Had he told me this initially I would have made other arrangements.

As it turned out we did manage to find a place, quite close to Ray's actually, and had an amazing two days in Havana.