Believe me, much of the Libertador has been upgraded. That includes rooms with the exception of the Presidential Suites, front end staff, bellman staff, and general attitude. Is it a great property?, in a word, "No". Am I much happier about it than in 2007-absolutely. Despite the multitude of "bus people" and "cruise people" staying there, the staff tries to make Starwood Golds and Platinums comfortable.

Having stayed at the Hilton, the Sheraton Convention Center and SL in September, 2008, I rank them as follows (from the prospective of Hilton Diamond, Starwood Plat.) Hilton is overall best, SL worst, but more than acceptable especially considering the price.

1. Hilton: Our stay $159++ Modern, great lounge, again female conceirges (club floor in this case) better than their male counterpart by a factor of 1000. Sleek modern rooms, not particularly convenient, but taxis are plentiful and cheap. One quibble is that they want 75 pesos for a guest in the club lounge during happy hour. Only Hilton that I have ever seen this approach particularly when one considers the "spouse stays free" policy. So spouse gets access for free, but guest of single traveler pays, "not!". But booze is free.

2. Sheraton Convertion Center: Our stay points and $. Rooms OK, but not nearly as nice as Hilton. Renovation underway just like Libertador 2 years ago. Lounge staff (conceirge) put us on floor with renovation and strong paint/lacquer smell. She was not particularly gracious when we told her room and floor were totally unacceptable for any guest. Finally reassigned us a satisfactory room. Lounge server insisted on refilling all wine, but finally figured out that perhaps four of us were capable of pouring our own and brought us a couple of bottles. Nice recovery from an initial "tightass" approach. Good snacks at happy hour. Location requires a taxi to most attractions and shopping.

3. Libertador has vastly improved. $119 ++ and 129 ++ two stays broken by one Hilton stay. Good location and convenient to shopping (Florida Street), some decent restaurants, pharmacy, ATMs, and SIM card purchase. Lounge and staff covered above.