We stayed here just one night while passing through Havana and liked it a lot. It's a relatively recent refurbishment of a fine old building, done wth tact and fidelity to the original strucure. We were upgraded to a junior suite - a spacious room in the front of the hotel, where everything worked (not always the case in Cuba...). The position gave us good views, though there was a certain amount of traffic/street noise from quite early in the morning. Breakfast average for the Cuban hotels we used. Staff seemed keen and on the ball.

Later in our trip we stayed at the nearby Florida hotel - a place to avoid. Stay here instead.

I got moved here on my first night after being told the hotel I had booked was full. This seems quite common in Havana.

Room was a good size, clean, high ceilinged, two sets of doors with balconies with a great view of the castles across the harbour.

Road a bit noisy outside. Breakfast uninspiring. I found the communal areas a bit soul-less.

An average hotel

The hotel is very beautiful, the high ceilings, stunning staircases and modern bathrooms. However, the pushy staff here left me with a bad taste in my mouth after my stay. There was 1 staff member who tried to charge us 2 pesos for absolutely everything, and we constantly felt we were being ripped off by this staff member. When we queried all of the 'additional' costs with another staff member, we discovered there weren't fees associated with these sevices after all.

Also stayed at Hostal Valencia while in Havana, and thought it was much better value.

Had a reservation at hotel Raquel, but having arrived there after 16 hours travelling were sent to the hostal San Miguel. No warm welcome here, the woman at the reception is one of the worst hotel employees I have ever experienced in my life. Got a terrible room, no view but a blind wall. Breakfast service is very slow. Furthermore it turned out we had a wrong voucher and had to pay extra. I told her this was the hotel Raquel's fault (both belong to the same group) but no apology whatsoever. Same nasty woman at the reception told us we would not get the key to our room if we didn't pay first (cash only of course...). Discussed with her for at least half an hour, she didn't show any understanding, let alone hospitality and was shouting at me at the end!! All in all a horrible first day in Cuba, all thanks to San Miguel. Words like 'thanks' or 'please' do not exist at this hotel. Luckily we stayed at casas particulares the rest of our stay which are ten times better than Cuban hotels. If you need to stay in an hotel in Havana, spend some extra money and stay at the NH Parque Central which is excellent. Unless you want to ruin your holiday, NEVER stay at San Miguel!!!!