Sofitel Buenos Aires Arroyo

Length of stay: 2 days start of October 2015.
Room booked: Prestigue Suite (Room 719)
Room given: Prestige Suite (upon request by ourselves at the first stay)
Le Club Status: Gold through CdA

Airport Pickup:
The airport pickup from AEP had been re-arranged via mail prior to our first stay and a driver was present with the Sofitel sign as expected.

Airport – Hotel Transfer:
As AEP is very close to the city, the transfer went very fast in deed. Only problem was that we seemed to hit rush hour so took a little longer than first anticipated. The drive spoke next to no English but only Spanish but we got along-never-the-less. No paper work from the hotel this time making us believe everything was carried over from the first visit.

Hotel Arrival:
This time around there were hardly any staff around with the same warm welcome we had last time when arriving from EZE. Our bags were eventually taken care off but no one oppend the side doors as previously.

We were greeted by a female staff member which I did not recognize from our first stay and she was friendly enough. First thing that I noted as being a tad odd was that we were now quoted a nightly price of the room (which we had not been quoted first time around) even though she could see my name in the system. Secondly she told us that breakfast was not included which struck me odd as the reservation I made in deed included breakfast. She asked if she could see the reservation confirmation which I had to dig up through the very slow internet connection and showed her it in deed was included. I was given some explination that the reservation must have been altered at Accors end but she was going to honour the included breakfast as this is what I had booked and what my booking was quoted. Thirdly, I asked her if she didn’t have a welcome drink voucher for us (as we were expecting this) as there was no indication that it would be handed over to us - I hate asking for these things tbh but at this time I was ready for anything.

We were taken to the lifts by the bell boy (together with our bags) who was puzzled over the extreme long check-in and this time around followed us into the lift and pushed the 7th floor button. Well there we notised that the room was bang in front of the lifts something we were not too happy about due to possible noise. We went down again and a new front desk person was present. I asked nicely if it was possible to maybe get a room further away from the lift but I was told that this was not possible unless I wanted to get a down grade of room type. I was then told that the room as quiet as the bed room was away from the entrance and we thought we’d give him the benefit of the doubt (and we had a dinner date with a friend in the city later that evening anyway so running out of time). Back up with the bell boy and the bags (again in the same lift). We talked to the bell boy in the lift on the way up and told him that the front desk had told us that this was in deed a quiet room, and his answer was: “…and you believe that?” which was a tad worrying to say the least. This said, when openig the doors and we looked inside we were not disappointed (and it was quiet enough in the end)

The room:
The Prestigue suits is a two room category accomodation with a small sitting room with TV



a hall way with the bathroom to the left leading down to



a large separate bedroom without a TV.


Apologies for the messy room. 8 days out in the wilderness makes man a beast

The bathroom has a separate shower and bath tub and very well equiped in deed with all the usual amminites.

Amazingly we got a hand written letter from Ms. L.B (as mentioned earlier) along with three different amuse bouche and a bottel of Argentinean red wine. The hand written note was personal as she in deed mentioned things we had talked about prior to our check out earlier, but unfortuntely she was off for two weeks during our second stay. We had also received an invitation to the GM’s musical soiree that same evening with drinks in the bar before and after the concert but unfortunately we couldn’t make it due to prior commitments.



Turn Down Service:
This got even worse compared to the first stay. We actually never had the turn down service as the door bell rang once, my better half opened the door and was handed one (1) bottle of water and a piece of chocolate and the chamber maid ran off. My better half stopped her and said we were two people staying in the room, and got a “Si, Si” and that was it. Second night we got two bottles of water, placed in the sitting room…

Breakfast:
The second stay really underlined how poorly the restaurant was run. We got a table with half the stuff missing (i.e. cups, condiments, forks, knives etc) and the one cup with saucer that was there was, erh, moved from my partner over to me. We didn’t always get a breakfast menu and the waiting staff was still ready to take our orders? The butter situation had changed to the better from our first stay as this time the amount had been quadroupled but looked like something that had come out of a tube. Still better than individual plastic Lurpak servings. Hot breakfast dishes still missed components that was mentioned in the menu and still no warning from the staff. Coffee was served relatively quickly and was pretty desent IMO.

Check-out:
The evening prior to our deprature, I asked the front desk if we could have a late check out and was told I needed to confirm in the morning which we then did. We had ordered a limo to take us back to EZE for our 22:25 flight home to Switzerland (Via MIA) through the fantstic concierge and had this timed for a 18:00 pickup (traffic to EZE can be a lengthy project at that time). I slowly approched the receptionist and asked if it was maybe possible for us to maybe have the room a little longer thinking we coul dhave it until 14:00 or so and was blown away when I was told we could have it for as long as we wished, so 18:00 check out it was. WOW! This gave us a full extra day in Buenos Aires as we could come back and get all cleaned before heading to the airport. When we got back to our room in the afternoon, it had been partly prepared, meaning the bed had been made and one set of clean towels left for our last BA shower. This was amazing tbh and Sofitel BA had just won me back (not that it had lost me before).

During our first stay, I had wanted to part pay with points but it never materialized for whatever reason so I asked to have them transferred to this second stay which worked out a treat.

Hotel – EZE transfer:
We were sitting in the bar having our last drinks at the hotel which were kind of covered by the voucher I requested (the voucher from above which by the way did not included the same selection as the first voucher we received upon arriving for our first stay – i.e. this time I got a free coffee whereas first time around it was free sparkling wine) when the concierge came bang on time 18:00 telling us that the limo was ready to take us the airport and that the bags had been taken care off. The trunk of the car was left open for us to check that all the bags were there.

Quite glad we chose to be picked up at 18:00 as it took close to 100 min to get to the airport giving us enough time to get through security and emmigration which also took quite some time.

Over all this hotel is fantastic, but the restaurant, inconsistency in tiny details (they are there for a reason) and turn down service let it down some-what. Also, as discussed earlier, I don’t quite follow what the VIP treatment included (the wine and amuse bouche or the invitation to the musical soiree from the GM?) as I saw some rooms got news papers delivered in the morning; we just didn’t get any or asked if we wanted any (not that I care as my iPad takes care of that these days). What really won me over this time was the ultra late check out which was FANTASTIC.

So, we land on a 9/10 based on how happy we were with the stay, but should we follow the extreme detailed expectation rate it would probably land on a 7/10 or maybe a 8/10.

Would I want to stay in the penthouse suite again: NO (forgot to say it got very noisy as the elevators have their engine room close by the room upstairs)
Would I want to stay in a prestige suite again: YES (best bed I have ever slept in - my own included)