Hotel Los Frailes

We have travelled the world in everything from 5 star hotels to hostels. The only good thing about this hotel is the location, in the middle of the old town (Havana viejo). Most rooms have no windows which is fine as they are quiet. This is where the good points end. The rooms are worse than tired. No hot water, stained, chipped bathroom fittings and antiquated, noisy air con. This would all be ok if it was £50 a night but £200?! Do not stay here. Find yourself a nice casa particuliares and save yourself the money. I agree with another reviewer about the doorman who continuously pushes overpriced excursions and taxis every time you set foot over the door. Stay here at your peril.

I visited this hotel in 2005 and it was lovely. This time around it was in poor condition. The air con didn’t work and the whole place needed a bit of tlc. A very annoying male member of staff kept offering to take us on excursions and sell us some trips and would not take no for a answer. Such a shame as it is a really nice building.

We booked this hotel as a "treat" at the end of our two week trip, staying in casas up until then. I paid £132 to "Gala Hotels" before I went. When we arrived after a long car journey from Trinidad, we were told we needed a voucher. The staff were unbelievably unhelpful and unfriendly and pretended not to speak English. They tried to sell us their internet cards at x3 of the normal price and then when we said we had our own, they were really unhelpful with telling where else we could access Wifi. This involved a lengthy walk around Havana. They claimed they could not check under my name and had "no computers" despite one on the desk in front of us. They said they had never heard of "Gala Hotels". I could therefore show payment but no "voucher" as I do not think I was sent an email confirmation. It got to the point where we had to insist they wrote on headed paper that we had no reservation so we could try and claim money back on basis it was a scam. They were deliberately writing illegibly and were resistant to give their names. It was only when we said we would write this up on Trip advisor that they suddenly "spoke to their boss" and miraculously found our names. This was 2 hours after we arrived by which time we were extremely stressed about the situation and where we would stay that night. When we gave in and bought their internet cards, they did not work and we had another job getting our money back on those. We got our room and it had no windows but it was a nice room. However, the whole thing was ruined by the experience and we then were wary about them taking things from our room. This was not an issue in fact but the trust was gone and we just could not believe a hotel with all the appearance of an international hotel off a main square could treat guests so atrociously. I do not have the name of the girl but she had black hair and green eyes and needs to be treated with caution as do the rest of the reception staff who were unpleasant at every interaction. Left a bad taste at the end of the holiday. Stay elsewhere!