An old hotel, suffering of overwhelming lack of charm, but with a fully refurbished lobby. In the dark and somber hallways and elevators, expect to watch some ghosts. All the rooms looks fully renewed. The standard rooms have no window view at all (terrible), but are relatively silent. The noisy “superior” rooms have view to a corner garden; and the also noisy “deluxe” rooms have a very nice view to the Flamengo park and Sugar Loaf. The old window-type air conditioners make noise worse. Since you have a dozen different types of room, consider the above classification.
A nice free continental buffet breakfast, but you have to wait the "pageboys" to serve you coffee and milk, and it can take a while.
Front office can be totally indiferent or amiable. They were friendly to me, but tried to charge me a couple of things I didn't ordered, and insisted to. They also did the same to other people, so be careful. It was very annoying.
Fees are acceptable (for Rio’s standards, since this is an unfairly expensive city), but the reason is it's location: an affluent yet not a mainstream place of the town. Just one block from a subway station. A half way between the downtown and the southside beaches (in other words, a little bit far from both), but no great places to watch, eat or shop nearby.
At least they are renewing the rooms (even they are not in mint state at all), a thing you usually don`t see in old hotels in Rio.
Not my first choice, but if you are looking for a secure, comfortable base camp to visit some clients or trade partners, you can consider it for your next business trip.
- Novo Mundo Hotel
