CONDESA DF

LOCATION:
In Condesa neighborhood, one of the ritzier neighborhoods in Mexico City. It is not close to a metro station. It is about 15-minute walk to the Sevilla metro station. It is not the hotel’s fault, however. There are not many stations around in Mexico City like those in Paris or London. Taking a taxi also has issues due to traffic jams.

COMMON AREAS/AMENITIES:
There is no formal lobby per se. There are plenty of seats and tables that serve double use as dining tables/areas at mealtime. I saw some cardio machines on the rooftop but there was not much else. I think there are other amenities like a steam room but I did not check that out.

ROOM:
Verging on the smaller size, but not bad. What is seriously lacking is closet space. Bed and pillows are comfortable and up to standard. Bathroom is also small but very functional and feels much more spacious than it actually is due to clever design and high ceiling. They also offer great toiletry products that actually work and feel great using them. The desk is of decent size and there are many art books and magazines for browsing.

The room showed aging and lack of proper upkeep and maintenance. An example of the small details that needed attention is that a shower curtain ring was missing. The bathroom ceiling was a bit dirty around the edge and a poor paint job. If one were to look at those poorly maintained details alone, one would think one is in a cheap motel.

SERVICES:
Checking in and out did not take too long. There was not much warmth and friendliness during check in. I would say it verges on the side of unfriendly. Housekeeping does a good job at tidying things up every day.

We had the breakfast buffet there every morning and it was excellent. The service at breakfast was very good, almost a complete opposite to that at the front desk. The breakfast spread is very good. Great selection of fruits, juices, cereals on offer as well as beautiful presentation. I also ordered egg chorizo one day, as it was supposedly one of the best hotel breakfasts per Travel & Leisure (or CondeNast). It was pretty interesting and tasty but not sure if it was that amazing. We also had dinner there one night and it was excellent both in terms of taste, service, and value.

During our stay, it rained very hard one night. We asked to borrow an umbrella but was told that they don’t offer one. Should have some to lend out.

RECOMMENDATION: Would definitely recommend to friends and would stay here again.

If you are looking for good food: Polanco is an excellent area with many great restaurants. We tried Cote D’Ivoire and it was good. The crowd was mostly American, and power broker locals. Ask for upstairs seating if you want more formal service, and better food, and priced accordingly.

We loved our stay at this boutique hotel. The area is very safe and gorgeous (I felt no hesitation to go for my 6:00 am jogs on my own, for example), with loads of places to go out at night for either dinner or dancing (including the hotel's rooftop bar!). The staff are incredible and very accommodating. I highly recommend this for any visitor of Mexico City, whether there on business of for pleasure.

First, the positives: safe neighborhood (altho far from the Metro),excellent hot shower, nice rooftop bar. Their trademark "wind-up" vintage Chevy out front always made me grin. And unlike previous TripAdvisor reviewers, I found the front desk and breakfast room staff to be accomodating and very friendly.

The room itself was lacking: no coffeemaker (at these rates we should get a free Mr. Coffee every day!), 3 hangers and a wacky key system by which if you want to access the fridge, you need to turn off all the electricity in the room. The sole tiny table was stacked high with design magazines, as if to convince the guest of how trendy the place is. (I kept moving the magazines to the closet so we could actually use the one table, but housekeeping kept moving them back...cute.) Check-out took way too long (because housekeeping had to inventory the 100 or so mini-bar items.)

I could live with all this, but the noise was inexcuseable. Ever sleep in a disco? Several nights a week (including weeknights), a discoteca inside the hotel blasted "trance" music from about 10 pm to well past 1:00 a.m. The hotel erected "sound barriers" to protect suffering guests, but they're paper-thin jokes. When the party broke up, drunken crowds lingered outside, yelling, fighting, revving motorcycles. To compound this insanity, every morning at 5:30 a.m., two guys set up an official looking table on the street just below our window and proceeded to laugh, scream and blast a radio until sunrise.

Obviously, hotel management made a calculated decision that operating a disco for young locals outweighs the lost revenue from travelers like me who will not return.

I did not stay there there- just went for drinks on a Friday night to their rooftop bar. A friend had said it was very "Miami beach." Although I don't think that is a great description, we did have a great time. The place was packed with yuppies, but the manager found us a table. There are couches, small cushion type ottamans etc. around cocktail tables. The service was very fast. We had an order of sushi and it was delicious. It was a little expensive (40 peso cervezas, 120 peso for Herradura reposada), but so much fun. There was a jacuzzi but I didn't see anyone in it.