Imagine a truly Argentinean family home, set in happening Palermo Soho. Offering all the comforts needed: from a fresh breakfast in a lovely garden to a plunge in the pool during the day and a good-night sleep in the comfortable beds. Everything is taken care of with great attention. And that also goes for the way Bernarda (and her family) treats her guests - paying attention and always wiling to help. I really had a wonderful stay here!

Service was at best cool, and often openly hostile. Irritation of Bernada was obvious from the moment we arrived - at midnight but having warned her that we woud be arriving late - and lasted throughout the stay culimanting with threats of the police for daring to make a complaint on check out.

Bedroom was mosquito ridden and there was a spider in the bed. Smell of cat urine pervaded the house. Very basic - bed, table and small cupboard.

Location is said to be in the better part of town but it is far from the centre and in a noisy street so don't expect much sleep and with drunk youths shouting and smashing bottle sin the street, I would not feel safe walking at night.

Sleep impossible - noise, mosquitos, heat etc

Breakfast - a bit of bread, juice and tea/coffee served by sullen woman who seemed to resent us being there. Felt very uncomfortable as if we were trespassing rather than paying guests.

Value - I do not mind backpacking style accommodation and have stayed in plenty in my time but do not expect it at 3+ star hotel prices.

The hotel tainted our 2 day visit to Buenos Aires, a city we had been really looking forward to visiting and heard so much good about. Please learn from our mistake and stay somewhere else.

My wife and I stayed in this place in February for two nights before boarding an Antarctic cruise. When choosing where to stay in Buenos Aires we relied on a well known travel book's description of this place as "quiet, tastefully decorated family home for a relaxing stay..." I am afraid what we found in reality was somehow quite different.

Our plane was late, our taxi driver tried to rob us, so we arrived just before midnight (we warned that we might be late). After a while a woman opened the door and showed us into a room on a top floor (no lift, no attempt was made to help us with our luggage).

First thing that strikes you when you not even entering, but just approaching this place is a strong odor of a cat and dog's poo and urine - there at least three cats and a dog in the house - I saw the following morning a dog defecating right in the middle of a small lawn in front of their postcard-size "swimming pool".

When I first contacted the hotel re reservation (and I have to say that they were very slow with responding - we received their final confirmation when we were boarding a plane) I specifically asked for an en-suite room - and I was promised one, for USD100 per night (minus 10% if we pay cash). Instead we were offered a communal hostel-style bathroom across the hall. But it was not all "good" news. The woman said that apparently they had a power cut so their air-conditioning was down. There was about 30C at night so the only option was to sleep with open windows. Then the woman said that if we are unhappy with that she could call another hotel - the option which we could not even think of, given that it was a middle of the night, we were totally exhausted after a 16 hours flight, there was no taxi around and the fact that we had to get up early next morning to catch a plane to Iguazu. So we decided to stay.

The room was small, with one shabby night table and a wardrobe which had most of its doors locked. As soon as we switched off the light we realized that the room was full of tiny mosquitoes - biting us every minute (note that Argentina is malaria and yellow fever risk area). As there was no air-conditioning it was very hot. There was an intensive night traffic right in front of the hotel. It was our first sleepiness night there - what was to follow was even worse.

Since we had to catch a 7am flight to Iguazu next morning, returning in late evening of the same day we had no chance to change that accommodation for anything. We were stuck there in hope that they would at least fix their air-conditioning. We were wrong.

When we came back to spend the second night there we found the air-conditioning still down - so it was an another night with windows open, in a room full of mosquitoes - and it was a Saturday night... There is a night club within 100 meters from the hotel across the street with loud music lasted all night. There were gangs of youths shouting, screaming and urinating right in front of the hotel - it lasted for hours. There was not a single attempt from the hotel owners to confront the youths or call the police. Generally, Palermo is notoriously dangerous area at night, infamous for armed robberies. We have not seen a single police car around. The street where the hotel located is full of night traffic.

Next morning, after our second nightmarish night at that place I asked whether I could speak to the owner. The woman (who I believe was the owner called Bernarda) refused to do that. Instead she sent a younger woman to speak to us. Not even the slightest apology was made - except saying "what would you expect - this it the Third World" (with the First World's prices - I would add). The woman was extremely rude and abusive. She said that she knows "how to deal with people like us" and threatened us with the police (!) and immigration authorities (!) (my wife and I are British - and we are lawyers, by the way). She said that there were blood stains on my towel so we needed to pay extra (I had my nose bleeding at night because I was so tired).

My wife badly damaged her ankle night before walking on one of notoriously uneven pavements in Buenos Aires, so she could hardly walk - despite that we were still asked to pay her immediately and leave the hotel at 10:00 am (apparently their normal check-out time). She refused to call a taxi. In a minute we found ourselves standing in a street in front of this place with our suitcases - and my wife in tears, unable to walk.

My wife and I travel the World intensively - we have visited about 60 countries, we stayed in various quality hotels, including not very nice places - but I have to say this place easily beats the worst place we have ever seen both in terms of its quality and guests care.

Summing up: a small room with no bathroom and no air conditioning, full of mosquitos, located in very noisy street and in dangerous place, very rude and unhelpful staff - that all is all yours for just USD100 a night ... thanks very much.

We stayed in Buenos Aires for a week, first in San Telmo and then after discovering Palermo, we moved into Bernado House. It was a great experience to see behind the walls of the houses and apartments that line the streets, to have a lived experience of the people that live in this amazing city. The house is beautiful, filled with art, light and colour and comes with family pets. Buenos Aires is an animal haven, everyone has dogs! The garden is tranquil which we could see from our peaceful room. Breakfast was relaxed and deluxe. The welcome friendly and helpful, the staff accommodating and efficient. I would and have recommended Bernado House to my friends.