Park Hyatt Buenos Aires Report, August 19, 2006:

Arrived at AEP and arranged for a remise (private radio taxi) to take me to the hotel. I gave the counter and the driver the printed address. The charge was A$24. Then the driver got lost, luckily I wasn’t in a metered taxi. He called for assistance and we ended up at the Four Seasons (the old Park Hyatt) – even though I had written Nuevo Hotel Park Hyatt with the correct address. I then, again, in my VERY halting Spanish, stressed NUEVO. Then he apparently believed me. The hotel has only been open less than a month so he was unaware. EDIT: The hotel is only 3 1/2 blocks down Av. Posada (the "back" entrance) from the Four Seasons.

Greeted at the front and taken up the grand staircase to the front desk. English is not a problem. Quick, efficient check-in. I am a diamond staying on points for 3 nights. I was upgraded to a Park Deluxe room which is very large and nice. My room has windows both to the street and the inner courtyard, very spacious with a business/desk area off in an alcove; automatic drapes; bathroom lights work with automatic dimmers. The bathroom is large and nice, but not as nice as the Park Milan’s -- my best experience with the “new” Parks. The concierge, Tomas, took me on a mini-tour of the hotel on my way up to my room – a very nice, somewhat green, young man who has worked in the US – his English is perfect. Either the hotel is very slow or everyone has great memory – I was addressed by name very frequently! The TV has 81 channels – only CNN and BBC are dedicated English channels, but 25% of the other channels are partly in English with Spanish subtitles – lots of movie channels, CSI, Law and Order, etc.

The hotel is in two buildings separated by a garden. There is an underground connection between them which is somewhat inconvenient, but does offer access to two different street entrances (see comment about dinner below). The charge for internet access is $12/day. As a diamond I was offered two items for free pressing – but as I checked in late and it could not be done that day prior to my going to dinner. Dinner, in the continental/French restaurant entails taking 5, yes 5, elevators to get from my room to the restaurant on the other side of the hotel. Now I walked most of the stairs which are not great, but a handicapped person would have to deal with 5 elevators!

Dinner was fine, although service was a bit ragged: over eager at some points, not attentive at others. I chalk it up to novices learning. The food was excellent and relatively inexpensive – the rack of lamb, with veggies and potatoes was A$44 (about $15), but by the time I had an appetizer, two bottles of water, 2 glasses of very good wine, cheese course and a port it was about $75 -- certainly not a bad deal for serious eating, but quite expensive by Argentinean standards. The room was modern conservative, a bit noisy as the floor is wooden. My only true issue is the wooden floor and the chairs – every time someone gets in or out of a chair the chair really scraps across the floor – awful noise.

The other restaurant is continental/Italian. They are advertising a big Sunday brunch. As for the Diamond breakfast – I asked at the front desk and was told that I should order anything I wanted (including room service), sign for it, and then it would be removed from bill at check out. I am not a room service person, but it all sounds good to me.

That’s all for now. I will update at the end of my stay. Please excuse my "stream of consciousness" style of reporting.

August 22, 2006
Just checked out and am waiting for time to catch taxi to the airport. The stay has been very fine with these exceptions. The room has be very sound proof compared to other quests -- a very heavy door that is great for sounds but does not lock automatically, you have to pull it shut to lock -- this is perhaps due to newness, but none the less is a concern. The automatic drapes just don't work smoothly -- they try to close but the motor keeps going after closure -- just another adjustment I would think. The problem that bothered me the most was the heating. I like a cool/cold room to sleep in. As the windows open (and this room actually has cross-ventelation) cool this time of year was no problem . . . . but getting the room warm in the AM was. The first morning I had to call to have them check on the heating as 30 minutes after getting up the room was seemingly not any warmer. They quickly were up and "fixed" the problem. It was then heating but it still took another nearly one hour to get the room to toasty level. The same held true each day. One evening I could not turn the heat off -- again I called and it was taken care of. Obviously there are some issues here. In a five star hotel it should not take more than 5-10 minutes to heat the room. Enough of b....ing.

The breakfast was a decent cold buffet with additional items ordered off menu. I just had eggs and the buffet. The charges were removed at check out as a diamond -- I am still unsure if other items on the menu would be a la carte or included. There is no ice machine, but room service was VERY prompt. The key to the room is completely electronic -- you just pass the key over the lock, no insertion needed. Again it seemed that nearly everyone greeted me by name. The local english language paper and the xeroxed mini NYT were under my door daily.

All in all, expecially on points, it was a very good stay. A few more weeks of working out the bugs should get everything right. BTW I did not check out the spa.