Introduction During my mattress run of 7 different hotels in Mexico City, Las Alcobas (Luxury Collection) was in some ways the best of the 7, and in other ways the worse of the 7 so it was a story of extremes. With all things considered the elite benefits are so weak that I am unlikely to rush back – an argument can be made that this property can be considered quite similar to a Design Hotel not a Luxury Collection. Check In This hotel only has 35 rooms in total so it has a clear boutique feeling and can be considered preferable to large hotels with a couple hundreds of rooms. The problem is that room upgrades will be more difficult since they are limited and what they can offer. I booked the entry level room and received a modest one-category upgrade which is almost the same, and all other room types were occupied. When chatting with the staff at reception I found out that the more disturbing issue is that even if several room types were available, the upgrades to Bonvoy Ambassador Elite guests are limited to +2 which is a corner room and has a cash value only modestly above the entry level room, therefore suite upgrades are out of bounds. There are Design Hotels who upgrade to suites not because they have to, but because they want to be competitive, so in a way the room upgrade policy at LA is inferior. For guests booking any other room type than entry level, upgrades are limited to +1 based on what they told me. Room The room itself had the best hardware of all hotels I stayed in CDMX. The quality of the furniture was excellent, it had hardwood floors and marble bathroom, there was a Toto toilet, Bulgari bathroom amenities, a shower with side jets and great water pressure, La Bottega bathrobes, an electronic panel by the bed side to control blinds, curtains, air conditioning, lights, etc. That said, the room was not perfect: the temperature controls could not go lower than 18.5C and the room did not feel very cool. In addition, the soundproofing was one of the worse I have seen especially for a hotel of this caliber: I could clearly hear housekeeping doing non-noisy tasks such as laying towels in a plastic bag, dipping a broom in a water bucket, or just moving their cart without banging it. As a welcome benefit I received a fruit plate and everything in the mini-bar was included except for alcoholic drinks, for example there were several kinds of snacks. Dining Some hotels who are stingy with room upgrades can make up for it in other ways such as F&B. Unfortunately it was not the case at Las Alcobas: they had one of the most limited breakfast benefits I have seen anywhere in the world. The breakfast was fruits and bread, period, and for drinks it was a standard juice and regular coffee or tea. Cappuccino? Extra charge. “Green juice”? Extra charge. Yogurt or granola? Extra charge. Cereals? Extra charge. A hot dish? Extra charge. When a Four Points charges extra for a cappuccino I can somewhat understand, if a Sheraton or Marriott charge for it I think it’s a bad idea, but for a Luxury Collection to do so is not aligned with luxury hotel standards. When I expressed my shock about the breakfast benefit, they removed the charge for cappuccino and they offered me to choose one hot dish as a courtesy, which was appreciated. However when they brought it to me, they cut out the fruits and the bread so it ended up being a substitution rather than an extra, so at that point I just decided to be quiet and move on. In my opinion they should take a hard look at their breakfast policy.To make matters worse, for rate packages like Amex FHR / Virtuoso, Las Alcobas is one of the few hotels in Mexico City where F&B is not allowed for the 100 USD credit.To conclude on a more positive note about breakfast, I should mention that it was the only hotel of the 7 that offered breakfast in the room instead of the restaurant, so at least by giving the option between restaurant or in the room, they got that part right to give a feeling of luxury which others do not, not even St.Regis. In addition, most importantly the Enfrijoladas Oaxaquenas dish I ordered was delicious. Gym The fitness gym was essentially just a guest room with a treadmill, an elliptical, and weights. The room could be booked one at a time for a private workout which was great during covid and only something which is possible in smaller hotels. Wifi Wifi worked well with speed of 15 Mbps. Overall I like staying at Design Hotels, or hotels from SLH (Small Luxury Hotels) / LHW (Leading Hotels of the World) chains, when I travel to some towns in Europe without much local hotel competition. However in big cities with lots of choices, those rarely provide good value for the money, and I found out that Las Alcobas behaves like those hotels. The upgrades have very limited value and the breakfast benefit is ridiculously weak, so while the room itself was nice, for the same reason that I rarely stay at DH-SLH-LHW hotels in big cities, next time in Mexico City Las Alcobas is unlikely to be at the top of my list.