lotrbfme

Yea this is 100% true. I am from venezuela and we receive people from the U.S in our office and we make their hotel arrengments. It is cheaper to buy the prepaid rate and never ever use your U.S card in Venezuela, first, the exchange rate is 6.3 bs x usd which is irreal (real one is 100bs x usd) second, they will clone your card guaranteed...

If you are travelling with a company feom Venezuela or have friends there, ask them to pay you the nights in Bolivares (local currency) and you pay them in dollars. It will be even cheaper. For instance a night in a suite at IC caracas is 8,900bs if you pay with your US card its going to be 1,400 usd... If you pay advanced rate in USD it is going to be 178 ( because conversion is at 50 bs per usd), but if you pay in local currency it is going to be 89 usd because black market exchange is 100 bs per usd.

electricberet

I just stayed at this hotel. It is not too bad: the hot breakfast included some interesting local specialties, and I particularly liked the sushi restaurant Zinc. It is right across the street from a mall, and you can walk around the immediate area during daylight hours without getting assaulted (at least as of right now--the situation seems to get worse by the week). I paid the advance rate, but in retrospect I should have had my friend in the country pay in bolivares. One thing that surprised me is how busy the hotel is--there are lots of Venezuelans staying in the hotel. I did see a couple of other foreign travelers (I am from the U.S.) but almost everyone in the hotel is Venezuelan, presumably visiting from another part of Venezuela. In any event, not a bad option if you have to go to Caracas right now.

MDFFlyer

I noticed that the tripadvisor reviews for this hotel have been quite poor of late. Can anyone report how bad they actually are? Other than the Hilton here, what else can you recommend? One guy mentioned the VIP is in Altamira, a nicer part of town..?

Thanks!

lotrbfme

The best are:

Jw Marriott
VIP altamira
Pestana
Eurobuilding

No specific order. Those are in good areas.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask. I used to live in Caracas and I go there all the time

tezzer

I've booked back into this hotel, for a business trip in September.

It is what it is, in a country going through turmoil.

lotrbfme

Hilton used to have the 2 top hotels in Caracas. One in the beach and one in the city. They were such amazing properties that the government got jealous and decided to "nationalize them". They were forcefully sold to the goverment and now they suck.

MDFFlyer

I hope that even if they are "nationalized", you can still get HH points from them

MarLim

There are 2 embassy suites properties in Venezuela, one in Caracas and one in Valencia. Both earn HH points but while credit for the Valencia property is fully automated, you have to mail for credit for the Caracas property as they have an old system not compatible with the rest of the Hilton world. They use Simadi rate for credit as of today.

MarLim

The best hotel in Caracas is the Cayena, but that's a different budget

A part from that Renaissance, Marriott, Eurobuilding and Melia (not the best location) would be my next choices. Embassy Suites is regular. I was there 3 weeks ago. Price value ratio is not bad especially if you can get a corporate rate and HH points have good value ... For a lower budget consider Paseo las Mercedes hotel, a good 4-star property.

MDFFlyer

Wow they use Simadi rate for credit!! That's very interesting... There goes my hopes of getting a plethora of HH points..

lotrbfme

Well simadi is 196 and black market is 481. So two times more points for you.

Intercontinental Tamanaco (IHG) was giving points at 6.3 last time I was there (1 year ago) but simadi did not existed at the time.

MDFFlyer

That's true.. and rising every day. My goodness.. it could be at 600 by the end of the summer. Ridiculous! Venezuela really needs to dollarize their economy like Ecuador..

MarLim

until January this year they credited at 6.30 while parallel rate was about 170. until then you got your HH points almost for free

MDFFlyer

That is simply amazing. Drat.. I should have thought of this before... I could have gotten many HH points..

Any other possible ways to take advantage of hotel points in Venezuela?

lotrbfme

Intercontinental is a good option