Straight from Europe in winter it's great to have breakfast in the patio with the flowers & parrot. Yes, things take time, but it's a holliday, ok. Not all the bread was fresh and some burned but at least they do make the effort to put it in the oven. A choice of eggs, not always what we thought we asked for, but then we had to ask in Spanish; we liked the tortilla - or was it the omelette which had the onions, peppers and pineapple added?
No problem getting tea or good coffee or a second serving of it.
Staff was friendly, helpfull and efficient with information, arranging taxis, adjusting AC and so on. When we wanted to change money they adviced us to go to the bank or an ATM because the hotel rate was very bad. Isn't that kind? Also the first night we ate the chicken dinner witch was simple and tasty. We had no CUCs and couldn't put it on the room. The waiter/cook said it was no problem to pay him two days later, he would than be in the kitchen again.
We paid extra to have the junior suite which has a small balcony overlooking the nice street (only pedestrians, so not much noice but you can hear the music from the old square or people talking Spanish in the street) and a separate livingroom which we didn't use. The furniture is Spanish and old. All the rooms have nice stone floors and low ceilings and some only have small windows in the double doors whitch open towards the patio on one off the inner balcony's. This is an 18th century mansion in the middle off town, still original so no (large) windows. If you are used to Hilton or Holiday Inn don't book this hotel. If you do love authenticity including some minor handicaps, this is the place to go.

We had spent the first week of our holiday at the all inclusive Blau Costa Verde and had a wonderful time and was looking forward to spending our second week in Cuba at the Beltran "boutique" Hotel. The hotel itself was very pretty and traditional. However, the first day, we had no bath towels, just hand towels. Second day we had to ask for toilet roll, third day we had no bath mat, which made the bathroom floor treacherous, fourth day - no toilet roll again. Safe didn't work and we were told we would have to wait until the next day for the man to come to sort it out, man never appeared, so we resorted to locking our valuables in our suitcase.
What can I say about breakfast??
Day 1 - one glass of fruit juice, four slices of grapefruit, four slices of orange (I can't eat grapefruit because of some medication I am on, so hubby had my grapefruit, I had his orange), choice of boiled or scrambled eggs - I chose boiled, hubby had scrambled, both arrived covered in tomato ketchup. Basket of bread, plate of butter, two small pots of jam. No tea or coffee offered. Husband asked for tea, they unpadlocked the fridge to get a teabag and then repadlocked it. Husband then had to ask for milk to go with his tea, then had to ask for sugar to go with tea and milk!.
Day 2 - one glass of fruit juice, four slices of grapefruit, four slices of orange (same as before, hubby ate grapefruit, I ate orange), choice of boiled eggs or omelette - I chose boiled, hubby had omelette, asked for no ketchup. Basket of bread, plate of butter, two small pots of jam. No tea or coffee offered. Husband asked for tea, they unpadlocked the fridge to get a teabag and then repadlocked it. Husband then had to ask for milk to go with his tea, then had to ask for sugar to go with tea and milk!.
Day 3 - no fruit juice, four slices of grapefruit, four slices of orange (ditto as before), both chose omelette, asked for no ketchup. Basket of bread, plate of butter, two small pots of jam. No tea or coffee offered. Husband asked for tea, they unpadlocked the fridge to get a teabag and then repadlocked it. Husband then had to ask for milk to go with his tea, then had to ask for sugar to go with tea and milk!.
Day 4 - no fruit juice, four slices of grapefruit, four slices of orange (ditto as before), both chose omelette - this time we had one omelette cut in half and shared between us, asked for no ketchup. Basket of bread, plate of butter, two small pots of jam. No tea or coffee offered. Husband asked for tea, they unpadlocked the fridge to get a teabag and then repadlocked it. Husband then had to ask for milk to go with his tea, then had to ask for sugar to go with tea and milk!.
Day 5 - fruit juice was back - but was diluted with fizzy water, four slices of grapefruit, four slices of orange (ditto as before), both chose boiled eggs, asked for no ketchup. Basket of "toast" which looked as if he had been waved in front of the grill - sent it back and asked if it could be toasted a bit more, plate of butter, two small pots of jam. No tea or coffee offered. Husband asked for tea, they unpadlocked the fridge to get a teabag and then repadlocked it. Husband then had to ask for milk to go with his tea, then had to ask for sugar to go with tea and milk!.
Day 6 - icing on the cake - fruit juice was again diluted with fizzy water, four slices of grapefruit, no orange - husband now getting sick of grapefruit - on this occasion he couldn't eat it all as it consisted mainly of rind with very little flesh, managed to eat two slices. Both chose boiled eggs with no ketchup. Waitress asked how long we wanted them cooked for - we said 3 minutes, 20 minutes later they arrived. Basket of "bread" arrived, however this would have failed a trade description - it was crusty bread with no bread - all the middle had fallen out and they just served up the crusts. We sent it back asking for some bread in the crusts. Plate of butter arived - unbelievably drizzled in tomato ketchup, no jam. No tea or coffee offered. Husband asked for tea, they unpadlocked the fridge to get a teabag and then repadlocked it. Husband then had to ask for milk to go with his tea, then had to ask for sugar to go with tea and milk!.
Check Out - we had not heard from our rep regarding pick up time for transfer to airport, so I asked reception if he had left a message, she said no, but offered to phone him to get the time, which she did. We paid to keep our room a bit longer as we were not leaving the hotel until 10pm, left our room at 7pm, handed our key to receptionist who handed it straight to the maid who ran upstairs to check the room and make sure we hadn't taken anything from the minibar! Then the receptionist asked us for one peso for the phone call we had made from the room. I said that we hadn't used the hotel pohone at all, we had our mobiles with us and would have used them if we had needed to call anyone. She then proceeded to reel off the number we had rang and the date and time, it materialised that this was the phone call the receptionist had made to the rep!
We were so disappointed with out stay here, the staff were unfriendly and unattentive, the chef spent most of the time standing in the doorway of the kitchen smoking and talking to the other staff. The staff were also quite keen on watching television, drinking, smoking and shouting at each other into the early hours of the morning - once until 4.45am - they need to find the mute button on the television remote control as a minimum.

We booked in advance for a dubble room in hotel Betran de Santa Cruz. Paid by creditcard, arrived on time, but never got in... While handing our papers, the man at the receptiondesk told as that due to unforseen circumstances, the room was not avalaible. The airco was broken and they were repairing it.
But no problem: they had an alternative room in another hotel of equal standard: hotel Los Frailes, just around the corner.
So when you book in advance, by internet, paid, keep in mind that probably you'll hear the same: 'I'm sorry to inform you that due to technical problems..'

We stayed for just 2 nights before going on to Vinales, so the tour operator just chose this hotel for us as it wasn't the main part of our holiday.
We were extremely happy with the location, and the cleanliness and the friendliness of the staff. Our room was amazing overlooking the inner courtyard and was so spacious for just the 2 of us,
Our room safe didn't work which was a shame, but they immediatley offered us another room, even bigger than the first, but not as much ambience, so we just stuck it out with the first and nothing bad happened thankfully.
I would recommend this hotel to anyone.