As English speaking first time visitors to Cuenca our experience was remarkable.
The staff spoke good English and all were pleasant and helpful, even offering to escort us to various stops to assist in translation. Inca Real has an excellent restaurant too.
We felt like we spent ten days with old friends!
Our daily questions were promptly answered. Historic Calderon Square and the official Visitors Information center were two blocks away. Also within a five minute walk were many excellent restaurants, laundry, and Dr Gustavo Sanchez, eye doctor (exam and new lenses).
After visits to 20 countries, our new favorite hotel is Inca Real!
Gary G, Asheville, NC USA

We stayerd here for 3 nights in March 2010 and really enjoyed it. The location is very close to the main plaza and we found the staff very helpful particularly the young receptionist Paola who had a great friendly attitute and nothing was too much trouble. The breakfast was good and served in the main courtyard.
Our room was large with two double beds and plenty of space. The bathroom was typical South American in that it was cramped and hot water took a long time to come through but hey if you don´t like that S America is not for you other than the international hotels and you wont find them outside of the main cities.

By the way the tourist office in the main square is very good and has good English.

We really liked Cuenca but be warned it is quiet at night particularly outside the weekend.

Tip: if you are moving on to Guayaquil take the local bus via Cajas. This takes you through the national park with spectacular views and cloud forest. The journey takes 4 hours and costs $8. The bus was on schedule and naturally much cheaper than flying, even LAN suggested the bus as we had a connecting flight to Lima and they felt the bus would be more reliable.

Even if you don't stay here, it is worth visiting this quaint colonial inn. We stayed for just our first night in Cuenca and then found the slightly less expensive Hostal Macondo. The attached tapas bar is very good... the bed was very hard!!!

We liked this traditional building in the center of Cuenca with most attractions in walking distance. The building is of traditional style and well maintained, but it is not of the luxury category. You get what you pay for.
There are some tables in the patio where a good breakfast buffet was served.
We had two rooms, one was quite big with a queen-size and a single bed, the other one was very small with space just for the queen-size bed.
We paid USD 48 for the room for two adults and a child (incl. breakfast and taxes) and USD 40 for the single person.
There is no parking at this hotel, so we parked our car in a garage nearby for a few dollars.
I would go back to this hotel because it's an interesting traditional building at a central location.
We have stayed in the past at the Oro Verde, a nicer and more expensive hotel, but it is a "boring" modern building (they look the same all over the world), and a few kilometers outside of the center.