On the whole, Mexico city turned out to be a pleasant surprise, the people are kind and gentle, the roads, despite some gloomy traffic queues, are still reasonable and there is a lot to do. Don't miss out on a trip to the Basilica, a must visit in the city.
My room at Holiday Inn was small but the bed was comfortable, however, as things progressed it was clear that the hotel lacks intelligent management of any form. I had a number of simple maintenance issues in my room which ordinarily could have been overlooked or tolerated but as the stay progressed other matters simply compounded the nagativeness of the overall stay.
In the room (105) I had a broken ironing board (2 days before it was broken) no hot water reported in the morning and it was still cold when i got back at 8 pm - 9 pm before i could take a shower, the bath tap was broken so the bath could only be filled using the shower, Internet access (despite claims of in room internet) was non existent and I was forced to sit in the bar all night to do my mails, digital clock was never set correct in 5 days, Leaking basin drain caused my case to become soaking wet (i stupidly put it under the sink area not expecting for leaky pipes).
The lobby was stripped of furniture when we returned to the hotel on Friday evening and it stayed this way until we left on Monday. Ropes and yellow tape adorned the lobby while hundreds of people filled the lobby the entire week-end on events of some sort. Guests were left feeling second class to the group activities they were doing in their event room and there was no where for us to sit.
Despite the negative comments the staff were pleasant especially Margarito in the bar a pleasant elderly gentleman who really took care of us and one of the house taxis Mauricio. He turned up in a small sporty blue car but his driving skills were excellent and we used him our entire stay. He was safe courteous, kowledgable and knew the streets inside out and back to front. He took my colleague into town to see the city while i worked and i felt comfortable leaving her in his capable company.
I ate every night expect one in the bar area, food varied greatly and was not brilliant, at best a decent cafe meal. Pasta Carbonara on the first night was a mountain of tagliatelle by the last night it was a few mouthfuls and gone!
I had one breakfast at around US$ 20 thought it was expensive. We took some sandwiches from the little cafe next door for breakfast one day and then had two breakfast at Starbucks in Santa Fe, where we were attending an event at Bancomer exhibition centre.
On the last night they even failed to open the bar, again i suspect because of the big crowds for some in house event. We gave up and went across to the road to a great steak house, cant remember the name but directly across from the hotel entrance and the meat was simply mouth watering, For the two of us it came to around US$ 70.
On the last night i asked for a manager to make a complaint about the various issues and she said she would reflect a discount of some sort, i did not really work out what that related to. In fairness the guest service manager wrote to me by the time i reached back home and i will reply to her though this story is pretty much the sum total of my experience at the hotel.
I imagine that week day the hotel may be tolerable but on week-ends they seem to have these big events (something alluded to by the staff) pretty much all the time. My colleague in room 104 said she did not experience any in room challenges except the lack of internet which was for her rather frustrating.
Loved the city and it's people, will choose another hotel in returning next year to do the same travel show.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
