Hotels in Argentina - to pre-pay or not?
 

Typically when I travel I'll pre-pay some hotel stays for a more preferential rate, fairly normal thing to do.

From what I read of Argentina and the blue dollar, I'm wondering if I'm best just taking USD with me for hotels?

I typically book one of the larger booking sites like Hotels.com and would still plan to book online, just wondering if best pre-paying or not.

Other consideration is timing. Will be travelling around May, so with inflation am I best getting booked now and pre-paying?

Typically on hotels.com when making a reservation in advance, they will quote your price in your local currency from where you're booking, so if you're in the US it will be in USD. Then they'll have a conversion rate based on their rate of exchange on the date when you're making the booking. That's the rate lwhat you will have to pay at the hotel, if it's not a prepaid rate. If that's the case then the blue will work well for you

Um, possibly not so fast. What is the situation with the VAT rebate? Does it not still exist? Do you not have to pay with foreign CC or foreign bank transfer? If so, there's 21% back, and if you pay with cash, you won't get it.

Thanks.

I, like most, probably have the following options:

1. Book via hotels.com, pay with credit card at the time of booking in GBP but of course based on local cost and currency conversion.

2. Book via hotels.com, reserving a rate based in local currency, pay by credit card when I check out.

3. Book via hotels.com, reserving a rate based in local currency, pay by cash when I check out.

If paying at check out is only of marginal benefit I would probably just pay in advance as it's less hassle. But if there's a good benefit to me and/or the local hotels I'm happy to do whatever.

Good point I didn’t think of that..

Looks like rates via Hotels.com (and i assume other leading sites) already exclude the VAT:

What passport do you have? Many countries can enter without a visa.

My understanding is that for a USA passport (no visa required) you must pay hotel room charges at the hotel with a foreign credit card (or foreign debit card) to be exempt from the 21% tax that locals pay.

UK passport.

Might be worth me calling ahead to hotels before booking

It looks as if paying in pesos and using a credit card for a foreign tourist is a close to a wash. Dollar blue seems to be @ 20 % above official rate. That being said , the hotels are always 3-6% higher on their " official " exchange rate. This has been discussed on another thread. If you can get a good blue rate , cash may work the best but may not be worth the effort. I always make the mistake of going home with to many worthless pesos. Have 100k worth from a good session at the casino. Should have converted them before I left and things went south.

You already were south, and that's where the things occurred. So, things might have gone poorly, or in some other manner, but they didn't go further south :p

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Not exactly totally on topic, but others may have the same questions as I do, Right now the dólar blue is about 180% of the official rate (114 official, 197 blue). When I Google Hotel Anselmo Buenos Aires a very nice website comes up from the hotel, in Spanish, with lots of beautiful pictures – but no prices. When I hit “Reservar” it moves me over to the Hilton.com site, which gives prices in USD.Now, if I want to pay at the hotel, in pesos, does that USD price translate at the official rate? So for instance, $100 / night is 11,400 pesos which will cost me $58 at a cueva. OR do I have to pay with a non-Argentine credit card or US cash in USD?

I do understand that the hotel’s “official” rate might be somewhat lower than the Banco de Argentina official rate, but that would not wipe out the advantage of paying in pesos at the blue rate.

Thoughts?

Our experience here in BA
 

We are in BA, and took a "side trip" to Mar del Plata. I booked the hotel on booking.com. It was a "pay at the hotel", no deposit, no-prepayment. At check-out, the clerk, gives us the bill which was in pesos. We asked if we could pay in pesos ( instead of CC) and he said of-course. So we paid in pesos, we had got on Florida stree(t blue dollar). So it was basically 1/2 of what I was quoted/expecting from my booking.com ressie. So, yes, 100.00 $USD p/n, and we ended up paying about 50.00USD per night. It was a small independent hotel.

Now, part 2. We are heading to Iguazu Falls next week. Staying at Melia. I pre-booked on no-deposit, no-prepayment. It SAYS pay at the hotel, local ARG currency. We'll see! Its pricey, and we are bringing a wad of pesos. Fingers crossed, they let us pay in pesos!!! Would make it again, about 1/2 price!!

Will post after we get back what happened.

So I guess the booking.com reservation included tax.

Tax is dropped only on hard-currency stays. Meaning a blue-dollar stay should be around two-thirds of one funded by USD.

Interesting, wonder if there are any workarounds with Airbnb when staying at an apartment? I wonder what other sites would be good to book local apartments at the Blue?