Hotel Emperador Buenos Aires - Review

[pvdecastro]

Fresh review of the Emperador where I just stayed for 3 nights. Online rate on their site ( Amex select ) was 175 USD including early check in, late checkout till 4pm, breakfast on the restaurant for 2. For an extra 20 USD / night you would get an " upgrade based on availability".

The hotel website lists a large number of rates, so I called the 0800 line for Brazil to enquire about the upgrade. Talked to someone in English ( strange for Brazil hotline ) and was assured that the upgrade would be from a Deluxe Room ( all rooms are called Deluxe ) to a Corner Suite.

This looked like a good deal as the Suite was retailing for something between 199 to 333 USD on the web site. Having stayed at the hotel before I know these rooms offer a small office isolated from the main room what would work fine for me as I had a number of conference calls scheduled during my trip and my wife could be undisturbed while I did those.

Got to the hotel at around 1pm already prepared for the obvious discussion... Our room was ready, an "Executive Deluxe Room" on the 13th floor. No the Corner Suite as expected.

10 minutes of polite discussion with the check in agent, he wouldn´t budge so wouldn´t I. In the end I got the keys to the Executive Room, asked him to call his manager and I would expect nothing else than the Corner Suite as informed by their hotline.

Got to the room, 5 minutes later got a call and got transferred to a Corner Suite on the 4th floor.

Not a great start and the mood didn´t change over the days.

The hard product is great! All rooms are over 40 sqm. The Corner suites are over 50 sqm and they do have a separate room as you enter with a work desk and a coffee machine that works great as a mini office. Everything is very well maintained. Good amenities, soaps, a fully stocked mini bar. The bathrooms are good sized with separate tub / shower. Good water pressure and plenty of hot water. Fluffy towels, good bed linen. No bath robes or sleepers but a quick call took care of that.

And that´s my main gripe about this hotel. Service is a best uninterested. You´ll get things done once you ask for it but no one is proactive in offering great service. Employees don´t smile a lot and don´t look to be motivated to work there.

Couple of examples:

Your room key card states breakfast is from 7 to 11am. We arrived at 10.15am and the sign at the restaurant says breakfast is from 7am to 10.30am.

I pointed this to the hostess and she said I should take it up with reception because everybody is complaining about this issue and nothing gets done.

Breakfast is good by the way. Plenty of fruit, scrambled eggs, toast, pastries, juices.

Another morning I asked the bellboy for some matches. He told he didn´t have any and I should ask at the bar... the bar is 15 meters away; on a good service hotel he would go there and not ask me to do it.
In the end they had no matches on the hotel... strange for a 5* ?

Internet is on the slow side and expensive at 20 bucks a day. They seem to nickel and dime you whenever there´s a chance.

I would stay again as rooms are great but only if the rate is also great.

And this is where I think the Emperador is at a fault. They had 4 days / 3 nights to make me faithful to this hotel and they didn´t even give it a try.


Small office ( no photo of the desk, sorry )... room to the right.


Bedroom


Bedroom


Bathroom


Bathroom


Beer


Wines at the bar


Bar and lobby to the right

[KurtD]

Thanks for the detailed review, I've walked past it a few dozen times and ridden past hundreds of times. I wondered what it was like to stay there, the first 5 or 6 years I visited I always stayed somewhere in Recolleta, the last few years its been the Hilton or one of the obscure boutiques in Palermo.

[pvdecastro]

Originally Posted by KurtD

Thanks for the detailed review, I've walked past it a few dozen times and ridden past hundreds of times. I wondered what it was like to stay there, the first 5 or 6 years I visited I always stayed somewhere in Recolleta, the last few years its been the Hilton or one of the obscure boutiques in Palermo.

I like the location as it´s close ( taxiwise ) to all the main sites. It´s a nice hotel with some service issues that could be easily fixed.

[HIDDY]

To be honest a $20 upgrade...."availability permitting" no matter what the call centre told me would have me thinking getting a corner suite was too good to be true...so I think you were a bit unfair to think you were being shafted at check-in.

Unless you're paying top whack and staying somewhere like the BA Park Hyatt (a proper 5 star hotel) service can be hit or miss at most hotels nowadays.....I think staff are rather stretched to run after guests like they used to in the old days. It looks quite a smart hotel judging by your pictures and pretty good value for money I would say.

Thanks for posting.

[Gaucho100K]

Excellent review...

This report gets Report of the Year prize until someone else tops it....

[pvdecastro]

Originally Posted by HIDDY

To be honest a $20 upgrade...."availability permitting" no matter what the call centre told me would have me thinking getting a corner suite was too good to be true...so I think you were a bit unfair to think you were being shafted at check-in.

As said I found that a great deal so I called to confirm. I was willing to let go the upgrade as is "on availability" but not to pay extra $20 for an upgrade to a room category that doesn´t even exist on their website and that is a regular "deluxe" room.

In the end the 20 bucks a night turned out to be a good deal.

[pvdecastro]

Originally Posted by Gaucho100K

Excellent review...

This report gets Report of the Year prize until someone else tops it....

Thanks. It´s my first TR ( well, at least my first effort at one ). I´m working on the TAM C GRU-EZE-GRU.

[HIDDY]

Originally Posted by pvdecastro

As said I found that a great deal so I called to confirm. I was willing to let go the upgrade as is "on availability" but not to pay extra $20 for an upgrade to a room category that doesn´t even exist on their website and that is a regular "deluxe" room.

In the end the 20 bucks a night turned out to be a good deal.

Indeed....a great deal.

Hotel upgrades are amongst the biggest cons of this century. One brand I know well seem to think an identical room but with a Nespresso machine instead of an ordinary kettle qualifies as a room upgrade.
Looking forward to your TAM report.

[wenkroy2]

Thanks for the info.
I am also booked this hotel in November this year for a corner suite.

[pvdecastro]

TR on the flight now posted: Sao Paulo - Buenos Aires on TAM Business

[Gaucho100K]

The price of this hotel is very competitive... for the non hotel points junkie this is clearly an option.