Astrophsx

Is there an update on when this property is opening? It's listed at June 1st, 2013. Though, I'm seeing several websites list the opening date as May 1st in some sort of news release put out in early March. The having a Starwood property in Miraflores will be a rather nice improvement location wise over the two other properties in Lima. I'm curious what the category will be as the Sheraton is a cat 2 and the Westin is a cat 5.

ResQTekBill

Website is taking reservations for June 10, and lists it as a Cat 3. I walked to it when I was there in March, and it is not as close to Larco Mar as map indicates, IIRC. Seemed much close to Parque Kennedy.

It will be nice to have SPG in Miraflores, as I have normally opted for the Radisson Decapolis or an apartment rental on the Malecon.

Astrophsx

I wonder why it is a Cat 3. The prices seem lower than the Sheraton Lima and that is a Cat 2. Usually the category level is based off of the average price that the rooms sell for through the year. I think the Sheraton Lima is only good for people on business or in Lima for an overnight stay. My second stay there was a disaster. The Jr Suites at the Sheraton are nice, but the service is almost as bad as the area the hotel is located in. I've stayed at the Doubletree in the area and it should be a big improvement area wise for the SPG hotels in Lima.

beofotch

I am debating between staying here or the Sheraton. Right now we have the Sheraton on cash + points before the devaluation. My wife and I could make it work for either location. Her parents, however, will be joining us and have never really traveled outside of the USA. We will pick them up in a taxi from the airport. For general sightseeing, taking taxis, would the difference in the Four Points location give it a significant edge over the Sheraton? I think we are comfortable taking taxis as needed from the Sheraton.

Astrophsx

Cash and points at the Sheraton Lima can be tempting if you haven't been there. More than likely you will be upgraded to a Jr Suite since there are so many of them at the hotel. The breakfast in the club lounge is mediocre at best, but runs until 11am. At 4pm there is a decent selection of cold finger foods, small deserts, and three tasty hot selections. There is free champagne and espresso/cappuccino, but everything else you will pay for. This runs till 11pm. There is a new shopping mall attached to the hotel, which can be nice if you are there on business and need to get something from the supermarket. That's the end of the positives. The hotel is rather old and the front desk staff is rather cold. You will more than likely have to wait 5-15 minutes to speak to anyone at the front desk. There check-in process literally takes a minimum of 10 minutes.

I highly recommend looking into the Four Points. Traffic during the day between the Sheraton Lima and Miraflores and be quite heavy. The cab ride is very cheap, but I think the convenience of staying in Miraflores is worth it. Miraflores and Barranco seem to be one of the very few parts of the city that I feel safe walking around in. A huge negative for me is the amount of time it takes just to get to my room at the Sheraton. There are 4 elevators (only 3 working), but often only two are functional. The rooms do not have a thermostat, and instead have a high/med/low... so your room is either very hot or extremely cold.

I've been to Lima three times and am excited to see the Miraflores location even though it does not have an ocean view. I would suggest staying there and then taking a taxi to any sights outside of Miraflores. The city center, museums, and water park could all be done in one day. You'll find many of the great places to eat, drinks and dance, are in Miraflores and Barranco. Though, I've been told by many locals there is an area in the city center that is more high end and offers great places to eat... I just have not seen them.

I think the Sheraton is good if you want to save money or are in Lima for a very short time.

Thunderroad

Anyone stayed at this property yet? I'd welcome a review.

BayAreaTraveler

Recently completed a two night stay at the Four Points Miraflores. I booked two double beds as I was traveling with a guest. Arrived to the hotel at 6AM as my flight was delayed for 6.5 hours from IAH (thanks UA!). There was a separate line for elites but we were the only ones at the front desk. I didn't ask for an upgrade (if there were any) as I was dead tired and preferred the double beds. We got a room on the 14th floor with a view of the city. I think there are about 17 floors in the hotel. Internet speeds were decent and I was able to make VOIP calls to the US. There's also a business center on the ground floor right across from the lobby.

Since we arrived early, we decided to stop by the restaurant for breakfast. The spread was decent but left something to be desired. Both western and Peruvian dishes were served. There were also fresh fruits, a variety of fruit juices (can't tell if they were freshly squeezed or not), yogurt, and also a nice bread basket. I was a bit disappointed to find some egg shells in my scrambled eggs.

There's a nice outdoor space on the 13th floor. The gym (if you can call it that) was also on the 13th floor and was very disappointing. It was very small and had only three machines: an elliptical, a treadmill, and possibly (can't remember) a stationary bike.

I would probably stay here again. The price seemed OK and the location is excellent - Astrid y Gaston is right around the corner, a couple blocks away is Parque Kennedy, and Larcomar is a nice stroll from here.

Photos below:

MahiMahi524

Looks like BayAreaTraveler beat me to it by a few days, but here are my pictures and report for the Four Points Miraflores. Basically, a nice hotel in a good location, but I think maybe because they are so new the customer service could be improved a bit.

A couple weeks before arrival, I noticed my initial reservation disappeared. I called SPG, and they were able to determine someone at the hotel cancelled my reservation but made a new one for me, but with the wrong SPG number and wrong address. The agent was able to get the hotel to change the SPG number, but not my address. I emailed back and forth with the hotel a few times to try to get them to update my address, but after a couple times, they stopped responding to my emails, and my address was never corrected.

At check in, after asking for a higher floor away from the lobby, I was told no other rooms available, and that my room on 3rd floor near the elevator was the only room left in the hotel that was not already occupied. Later I found out that there were indeed regular rooms available on higher floors, and the front desk agent basically admitted that the check in agent misinformed me that there weren't higher rooms available, but that it was too bad for me because now they were REALLY full.

Later, when I asked for late check out, I was told they did not have me listed as a Gold member, so I was not eligible for late check out. After I verified my gold status for 4 pm checkout, I asked to see if it could be extended further because I had a late night flight. Was told they would check with the manager. A little later, I was called back and was told that no later checkout was available, and that they had to take back the 4 PM checkout as well because the hotel was full. (This is not a conference center or resort hotel.)

Besides these little SNAFUs, they room was actually quite comfortable, and I was pleasantly surprised that despite the location of my room, it was pretty quiet.

I spoke to the front desk and to SPG and there appear to be discrepancies on the room types listed at this hotel:
According to SPG, 3 rooms types: traditional, city view, and suite.
According to hotel, 4 room types: traditional (with/without balcony), suite (with/without balcony)

Based on my searches, it doesn't look like any rooms other than traditional are bookable online. There are quite a few suites in this hotel if you look at the floor plans posted below. If anyone knows otherwise, please post.


Main entrance:



Entering the lobby:



Business Center (right next to lobby):



Meeting Rooms (2nd floor):



Atrium view from 3rd floor and 14th floor:



King room (with balcony, 3rd floor): Of note, the bathrooms have dispensers of soap/shampoo.



Happy Hour Menu:



Map of Miraflores provided by the hotel:

MahiMahi524

Floor plans (3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14):
- of note, some of the floorplans are not accurate, for example suite 1303 is actually the (tiny) gym.
- 2nd floor is for meetings
- 3rd floor is the lowest floor with rooms
- 13th floor is the one with the patio and gym
- 14th floor is the top floor


Outdoor patio (13th floor): quite nice and large


Gym (really Ste 1303): TINY! There is a balcony because this was originally a suite.


Breakfast (in Umami Restaurante on first floor):
- Contrary to BayAreaTraveler above, I thought they had a great spread with a selection of breads, hot foods, and fruit/cereal
- hot food included lomo saltado, fried chicken, tamales, and scrambled eggs
- Really happy they had granadilla pulp!



Taxi to the Airport was S/.110 to have the hotel call for you. I used Taxi Green for S/.60. You can probably go cheaper to S/.45-55 if you look harder.

Astrophsx

This hotel should be dropped down to a Category 2 based on its average price. The Sheraton Lima is a Cat 2 and it is typically $20-50 more expensive than the Four Points. Typically the category adjustments are in Feb/March. It's a bit annoying when Starwood gives new hotels 1-2 category levels higher than what they should be based on price. They should give a free breakfast at the category 3 level.

BayAreaTraveler

Thanks for the review MahiMahi524. You just reminded me that my reservation also disappeared a couple of weeks before my scheduled arrival. Since there were no rooms available, I frantically called SPG and they told me that the reservation was still in the system but the hotel was working on upgrading their IT systems so that's why the reservation wasn't showing up.

I may have to change my opinion on the breakfast spread. Now that I come to think of it, it's quite good for a 4Points. I did stay at the JW Marriott Cusco and Miraflores Park Hotel and both were excellent so perhaps my opinion was a bit skewed. The service was definitely lacking as on the first day there wasn't anyone available to escort to our seats and it seemed like anyone could have walked in for breakfast. We just left after eating because we couldn't find anyone to give us our check (as we thought that was the standard procedure and breakfast was included in our rate) but it was quite disconcerting to know that anyone could just walk in.

I didn't need late checkout but that is quite troubling...

MahiMahi524

Well it was troubling a bit to me too, so I called SPG and they told me basically I was out of luck because it is up to hotel discretion. They did call the hotel and convince them to extend the checkout to 1 PM, which was not that helpful, but I appreciated the effort.

Starwood Lurker

I'd like to follow up on this if you will send me the confirmation number.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

MahiMahi524

Thanks Starwood Lurker. I sent you an email via your profile.

Starwood Lurker

FWIW, this email never arrived. I'm out now for the weekend, but if you still want to send the confirmation number via PM, I'll be back on Monday.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]