I travel frequently to Rio on business and have always styed at the Praia Ipanema hotel. This time I wanted to try something different and chose the Ipanema Plaza.
I ordered a room with a balcony and it was fine. Quite dated and definately in need of an update, but ok.
Bathroom was small and the bathtub does not fit a normal sized person. Shower pressure was very good. The hairdryer was very old and made more noise than it actually worked. It also made some strage noises and startet "glowing" inside from time to time. Quite scary. The room itself was quite large with a comfortable bed.
Balcony was larger than the ones at Praia Ipanema, but the view was nothing special. There is only a few hours of sunshine on the balcony each day so it is a great place to sit and cool down in the afternoon. The hotel web page mentions that the balconies are "accommodating domestic animals of small size". I was a bit worried what this meant, but I quickly found out that it means small ants.
There was a minibar, a safe and also free wifi in the room. The aircon was old and not very effective, but sufficient enough for my need.
Walls vere super thin so I could hear everything going on in the adjacent rooms. Even the TV.
Breakfast was standard buffet and there is an area where you can sit outside and eat which was very nice. I only had dinner at the hotel once and although the taste of the thai chicken was good, the chicken was rather chewy.
The roof top pool area is a great place to relax. Quite large swimming pool for Rio. The gym was nothing special. Not much equipment and most of the times I was in there the aircon was off and the doors open so there were 32 degrees C inside. Not the perfect work out tempereature. The so called "SPA" was a joke. Thereis only a massage table in the corner of the coffe shop where you are only covered by some thin partition walls. With a loud TV on and children running around in the coffe shop right outside these "walls" it does not exactly creates a very relaxing environment.
The very best thing about this hotel is, as other reviewers hve mentioned, the location. The beach is one block away in ine direction and the main shopping street of Ipanema is one block away in the other direction. There are several restaurants in the same street and also in the shopping street, and the area feels safe.
All in all I enjoyed my stay and I will probably stay here again on my next visit, but if you are looking for luxury, this is not the place for you.