Fantastic location, especially as it tends to be quiet in the evenings and mornings despite being in Havana Vieja proper. Aircon not the best as it is a bit dated but that the hotel is one of the oldest in Havana and you can feel the history.
Breakfast is very good as is sitting on the terrace enjoying some sun and listening to the sounds of the city. The staff are very helpful and can sort out tours etc for you. WiFi cards they sell seem to be the cheapest we found at CUC$1 for 1 hour.
Great architecture, location and breakfast. All the rest is far far away from a 5 star hotel. Unfriendly staff tries to use every situation to make money. Overpriced taxi service, internet cards for 4.5 instead of 1 CUC. etc etc. Lift boy tried about 5 times to sell me his cigars. While checkout they called the room service if the minibar is really full. In a nutshell: bad experience. Recommendation: not at all.
Relatively, very good hotel for Cuba. Only lacks internet that is stable.
An awesome place to have breakfast and people watch in the Square the hotel bartender was Top Notch
One of the most iconic hotels in old Havana
Best hotel on planet earth. I've been to approximately 80 hotels in this world and this one is by far the best. Amazing staff, you don't hsve to wait they check you in very quickly and get you all you want. Feree breakfast aswell ahhhhhhhh.
AVOID THIS HOTEL AT ALL COSTS! We checked in at 4:00 pm and were told to "wait a short while". The clerk, Mr. Gonzalez, then answered the phone innumerable times, took care of two other guests, and did not check us in despite me standing at the desk, sitting in the lobby, pacing, etc. for a full hour and 45 minutes! Another woman employee showed up, gave us two rooms, but with one of the paid-for 'junior suites' not facing the square, which was what we paid for. After returning to the desk, she gave us another room and my wife went up to look at the room, entering it with the key card only to see a full frontal naked woman guest occupant shrieking in the room! Returning to the desk AGAIN, a appropriate room facing the square was given. When I was at the desk waiting for the slightly more competent woman clerk, Mr. Gonzales asked "may I help you?" thinking I was a new guest! We then had to move our luggage to the other rooms. Total screw up from stupid, worthless, disinterested, and apathetic staff! We were late to our dinner reservation. Oh, yes, let's not forget cockroaches under the sink vanity, along with another interesting species that looked like a trilobite fossil.
We needed to leave the next morning at 5 am for an early flight. The 'desk is manned 24 hours' was a lie. I waited at the desk to check out, only to be greeted by the clerk (equally inept as Mr. Gonzalez) who was sleeping (along with the bell man) in the lobby. He stumbled around in the dark, trying to find some paperwork at the desk, tapped aimlessly at the antiquated computer for 10-15 minutes before he found a slip of paper in the drawer, and then declared that 'the room must be inspected by the bellman". WTF! I said I wasn't going to wait more than 3 more minutes. The bellman returned, stating it was okay. That, after we left gifts for the maids.
We left with a HORRIBLE experience from Hotel Santa Isabel. Other guests at the hotel corroborated our experience with the WORSE STAFF I'VE EVER SEEN AT A HOTEL! Although the location is prime, it was not worth the expense, hassle, time, disappointment for my family. Choose elsewhere - I can't see this hotel's infrastructure being corrected soon. It deserves a ZERO star. If you go here, don't say that you weren't warned. I've not been to a hotel worse than this in my whole life.
This hotel has a lot of history and is charmingly restored, but our room was awkwardly arranged and very dark, with heavily shuttered windows that opened onto a narrow, noisy alley. The front desk was staffed by rather listless employees who never had any change and charged twice th going rate for Internet cards. The service at the included breakfast was comically slow, despite the sparse crowd. On the positive side, the location of the hotel is as good as it gets, right on the historic central plaza of the old city. I did see that some rooms in the hotel were very nice, so, if you can pick your room and avoid any reliance the front desk staff and any expectation of service at breakfast, you should be OK. Interestingly and in contrast, the bell hops were very helpful ad friendly.
Cuba is one of the heaven on earth.
This hotel looks authentic and warm.
Love to be there soon.