We had a small room and a tiny bathroom. We did not have a view of the river, but we did have a "Private" balcony (they told us it was private, but there was a second door leading out to it from the hallway that anyone could access. No one did, but they could have).

The room was small, but had ample space for our gear, unlike one of our other hotels. The bathroom, however, was muy muy pequeno. You literally had to step over the toilet in order to get into the shower. It was relatively clean though and, though the hot water inexplicably got hotter during my shower, there was plenty of hot water to be had, which is something in and of itself.

The breakfast was decent enough... standard Peruvian hotel breakfast buffet.

The hotel was easy to find, being located right along the river (and right along the bus route, so we'd seen it on our way up to Machu Picchu.

The hotel did not have anyone waiting at the train station for luggage when we got there, so we had to take our overnight bag to the luggage storage at the top. They did transport our bag to the train station the next day though (although they were later than all the other hotels, getting there right at boarding time).

This hotel is nice, the location is convenient, even though it' a bit far from the bus stop or the city centre compared to other hotels but we are talking about 5 minutes walk, Aguas Calientes is very small. We had a good room with river view, the breakfast was good too. A good hotel but the price is too high compared to the standards.

I think most of the places in this small town don't go above an beyond because they don't have to. There are a limited amount of places to stay in Aguas Calientes. People are only there to go to Machu Picchu. So you're stuck with what they'll give you. Given the magnitude of the ultimate destination, you have to accept this (unless you're able to stay at the very pricey lodge outside of the park). Coming to grips with this idea, I'd say this place is average. If this were in an area with more options, it would score much lower. They do provide you with the basics (breakfast, decent customer service, etc) but the vibe here is fairly grim. The hallways are dark. It doesn't smell clean. The rooms are so sparse, it resembles a hotel that you'd be paying for by the hour. The most disturbing part of the stay was the dead splattered bugs on the ceiling from people trying to rid the rooms of mosquitos and other pests (we added a few). All of that being said, the location is nice because it's away from traffic (expect that buses that go up to the ruins) and the river is beautiful. WiFi was spotty too.

The hotels in Aguas Calientes are not that great unless you are willing to shell out obscene amount of dough for the few 5 star hotels that exist in the area. For us, Santuario Hotel was a good enough option for one night stay. The room was comfortable, but was not the cleanest room. You have to fiddle around with the water temperature constantly when taking a shower. We were only here for the night so we could catch of the early buses to Machu Picchu (before the hordes of tourists arrive) - for that reason alone, staying here for the one night was definitely worth it. Did not try their breakfast.. so I cannot comment on that. The 9am checkout time is ridiculous but it did not affect us as we checked out around 5:30am before heading up to Machu Picchu for the day. The hotel had no problems holding our luggage while we were away. When we returned, we grabbed our luggage and took the train back to Poroy (Cusco).