Having stayed in the Hotel Baru Lodge I had to get another hotel while my apartment was being arranged. At first I was really worried by this hotel, it seemed dingy and dark and in a bad part of town compared to Baru. There are no safes in the room and although the doors lock you could quite easily pop them open if you so desired. The lights in the rooms are really dim for some reason, I have no idea why they don't have brighter bulbs. The hotel isn't in the best part of town, Calidonia is 5 minutes down the road, and I'm told to avoid that place as a foreigner. Having said all that the rooms are kept very clean and there is a fair sized pool out the back. There is a reasonable restaurant in the hotel that does a fair range of food at a good price, this closes at 11pm and they do room srevice. There is a laundry across the road and a very small shop where you can buy water and snacks. I would only reccomend this hotel for a couple of days stop over. It is value for money though, so if you want somewhere cheap and location isn't an issue for you then this hotel would be fine. The staff seem cold at first but after they know your face they warm up a bit. They have an armed guard on the door at night.

This hotel is just not good. Incredibly noisy street location with thin windows (I had to wear ear plugs and still could not sleep well). Terribly outdated and BASIC (if you know what I mean). This is a place you would be embarrassed to bring your wife and sorry you actually paid for it. The ONE thing I will admit - it was relatively clean.

I had a group stay at this hotel and we all thought that for the price this was a great place. First, it is clean. The restaurant food was very good at all the meals. The staff was friendly and helpful. A few spoke English so we got along well. When there was a problem Maintenance was right on it. The administrator was there every day overseeing things, very involved and accessable. The maids greeted us and the rooms were kept with clean towels every day. We used the conference room and it comfortably held 20 of us. Could probably hold 30. Internet access was spotty in the rooms but good in the lobby.
The hotel is centrally located and they had cabs for my people to go on forays that were fair. Drivers were good too. Not too fast.

The diner in the restaurant is cheap and good food all day long. The rooms are very clean, and the staff very helpful. The rooms look into a courtyard that has the pool. Internet works but not always very dependable. It was a great deal for what we payed, and our four day stay there went very well.