Hilton Buenos Aires {ARG}
Nov 11, 2021, 11:47 am
Since this thread and my original question appears to be attracting a lot of interest from members with experience of BA, can anyone say if there should be issues using Western Union? I checked the Western Union rates and they appeared better. Are the WU agents our here safe and reliable?
Nov 11, 2021, 4:55 pm
Since this thread and my original question appears to be attracting a lot of interest from members with experience of BA, can anyone say if there should be issues using Western Union? I checked the Western Union rates and they appeared better. Are the WU agents our here safe and reliable?
You're asking for reassurance it's difficult to give. But of course Western Union employees are safe: maybe grumpy and unhelpful, maybe they'll refuse to speak English, but they are unlikely to risk cheating you and they are unlikely to pull a gun on you
.Cuevas are a fact of life in the city: it seems a bit cloak and dagger, but they oil commerce, do high volumes of business and are tolerated by the authorities. It's not in their operators' interests to create problems over (relatively) small transactions with foreigners.
Walking the streets of most world cities with large amounts of cash in your pocket is never wise. But there you are: at the end of the day you've got to decide if you are happy taking on a measure of inconvenience, putting yourself in a situation you might not feel fully comfortable or secure. Many simply don't bother playing the black-market game for any or all of those reasons.
Currency Controls
Last edited by IAN-UK; Nov 11, 2021 at 5:04 pm Reason: adding the link
Jun 9, 2022, 9:25 am
The neighborhood is sort of fake as everyone else has suggested, but it’s not horrible. It’s more like being in a made up area like midtown Atlanta or the gulch in Nashville. It doesn’t have the charm of the more historic neighborhoods, but with taxis so cheap, if you’re loyal to Hilton it’s not a bad option. I’m on a ridiculously low rate that will be lowered even further after paying with blue dollars. If I didn’t get really low rates at Hiltons I would probably stay somewhere else.
edit- restaurant breakfast was nice. Standard hot and cold buffet with an omelette station.
edit Edit- Lounge is now open for evening cocktails.
Last edited by TravelerMSY; Jun 10, 2022 at 7:58 am
Jun 10, 2022, 8:01 am
I looked at WU, but ended up using a reliable cueva to change $1000 usd. Both options were within $20, in favor of the cueva. WU had a better rate but had $50 in fees. I suspect there’s a break even point at which Western Union is better on larger transfers.
Nov 9, 2022, 8:39 am
Hilton Buenos Aires
Hilton Buenos Aires
Av Macacha Guemes 351 Buenos Aires, AR C1106BKG
Hilton Buenos Aires = Excellent Service (23 Photos)
Hilton Buenos Aires
I have not stayed at lots of other hotels in Buenos Aires in the past, but my previous stays at Anselmo (Curio) and at Park Hyatt have not been entirely satisfactory so this time I tried Hilton. I quite liked the neighborhood and I also found service to be proactive and staff having a “can do” attitude so I can recommend this hotel.
Location
The location of Park Hyatt is considered excellent by many people but personally I think it’s best for a couple who want late night dining and upscale shopping. Now we have a baby in tow so I found the area around Hilton to be a better fit with lots of restaurants and terraces open all afternoon rather than have inflexible dining hours.
Room
I booked the entry level room and I noticed many weeks before our stay that the hotel was fully booked so I did not expect any upgrade. To my surprise I was proactively upgraded to a junior suite as Diamond which was very appreciated.
The room was very bright thanks to a large window on the entire length of our top floor (9th) room with some sea views, and the hardwood floor helped the room sustain the test of time better than if it had too much carpet. The walk-in closet was very large and could handle our numerous suitcases.
Similar to many other hotels in Argentina, Hilton does not follow brand standards regarding bathroom toiletries – we had some local brand which I had not seen before.
Dining
The executive lounge was a stand-out at this hotel. Most importantly the lounge was not overly crowded like many hotels tend to be these days, there were sitting areas indoors and outdoors, and they also had a billiards table.
Happy hour 6-8pm had some appetizers available and drinks were a bit better than food with some choices of cocktails prepared by staff.
For breakfast the majority of Hyatt and Marriott hotels give the choice to elites between having breakfast in the lounge or in the restaurant, but a non-negligible number of hotels force guests to have breakfast in the lounge only and they offer something of lower quality there to save on costs. With the Hilton chain, I have not observed the same pattern because as Diamond I don’t recall having been told before that I had to have breakfast in the lounge only, in part because it would be illogical to give breakfast in the restaurant to Golds (since they may not be allowed in the lounge), but only in the lounge to Diamonds. I was surprised at Hilton BA to be told that Diamonds only had breakfast in the lounge. I am not opposed to have breakfast in the lounge if the quality is there because after all it tends to be more quiet, but there is no downside in having the choice between two venues. Consequently I challenged their policy for Diamond breakfast and in the end they told me I would be allowed in the restaurant as well, if we wanted to.
We had breakfast both in the restaurant and in the lounge during our stay in order to compare (until 10:30am during the week, 11am on weekends). The choices in the restaurant were more varied and had many dishes not typically found in the plain vanilla Hilton breakfasts (outside Asia), such as basmati rice, blueberries, and more veggies than most buffets. I would not say the restaurant was a chaotic zoo but it was not that easy to find an open table.
In contrast the lounge was far more peaceful and enjoyable, but as expected choices more limited. That said it did not feel like they simply made a cheaper version of breakfast; I found it to be an appropriate breakfast.
The main negative at the hotel regarding dining was the room service menu which was surprisingly overpriced considering the numerous restaurants right outside of Hilton.
Service
As mentioned above, service was excellent for a hotel of this level. I was welcomed at reception by a manager, during the stay the hotel was in contact via SMS to ask about feedback, and service in the lounge was very good as well with several proactive offers to refill drinks. There was a bit of a hiccup regarding billing at the end of our stay but once again they offered to have a manager call me in the room to explain what went wrong which was a nice gesture. Last but not least, housekeeping was done exactly at the time we requested, which tends to be a problem at some hotels post-covid.
Wifi
Wifi worked without interruptions but speed could have been better at only 5 Mbps.
Overall
Overall for the price paid I think Hilton is good value for the money compared to the previous alternatives I stayed at in BsAs so I give thumbs up to this hotel especially for Diamond guests who might score a suite upgrade and will benefit from the above average lounge with good service.
Jun 23, 2023, 3:19 pm
I'm a Diamond Hilton member and used points to stay here. It was 60,000 Hilton points or the going rate was about $350 US dollars per night. I originally booked a Queen standard room but upon Check-in they upgraded me to a junior suite that was very spacious (#825) on the Executive 8th floor.
The hotel is really big and the staff are all friendly. Upon check-in I asked for a late check-out but the nice gentleman said that I needed to call in the morning to see if it was available. Then upon entering my room, I got a text message to my cellphone from "Agustina" asking if there was anything she could do to make my stay better. I said the only thing to make it better was a late check-out and she immediately said because I'm a Diamond member I can check out at 4 PM which was great as I wanted to sleep in as my wife and I were going to be out late.
The room was really quiet and spacious. The AC worked well. The room when we entered was very hot (even though it's winter here). They also had the AC pumping in the hallway. I think with all the windows, it gets really hot so they keep the AC running.
The room had a spacious bathroom and everything worked perfectly. They have an executive lounge on the 8th floor and it has some drinks and snacks from 6 PM to 8 PM. VERY basic and blah food so don't expect anything fancy. They had some pita bread and various salsas, onion rings, caesar salad and a bunch of desserts. They also had breakfast in the morning but we slept in so I didn't see how it was. They claimed to have "snacks" during the day but it was really slim pickings with just some nuts and tortilla chips and some water and sodas.
I didn't bother posting photos of the room as the set up was exactly like Escape4's photos and theirs were really good.
All in all a great stay. I really prefer Recoleta but it was good for a little staycation. I don't really consider Puerto Madero true Buenos Aires as it's all pristine and modern. Definitely a safe area but further away from the neighborhoods that I prefer (Recoleta and Palermo). But close to San Telmo and downtown. I just prefer the Park Hyatt or Four Seasons vs. this hotel but the rates are also much higher. But Recoleta area is much better and more central.
Also, at check-out the guy at the front desk said we had to pay some tax even though we were staying on points. My wife and I both have permanent residency here in Argentina so we showed our DNI cards and he then said we didn't have to pay the tax so just an FYI for those of you staying on points. On researching, it looks like it's probably this $1.50 tax referred in this article - https://trips-southamerica.com/bueno...eign-tourists/
Last edited by saint; Jun 23, 2023 at 3:45 pm
Jun 23, 2023, 3:24 pm
All in all a great stay. I really prefer Recoleta but it was good for a little staycation. I don't really consider Puerto Madero true Buenos Aires as it's all pristine and modern. Definitely a safe area but further away from the neighborhoods that I prefer (Recoleta and Palermo). But close to San Telmo and downtown.
Jun 23, 2023, 3:39 pm
If you have Hilton points or a free night certificate or something then it's an ok option but do yourself a favor and stay in Recoleta. A really high end beautiful authentic neighborhood. JMHO.
Jun 23, 2023, 3:47 pm
If you have Hilton points or a free night certificate or something then it's an ok option but do yourself a favor and stay in Recoleta. A really high end beautiful authentic neighborhood. JMHO.
Jun 24, 2023, 1:12 am
I just checked, and my last stay was in 2010 for 7 nights, for 210k points. Special Diamond 7 night stay.
Jun 24, 2023, 7:06 am
About breakfast for Golds and Diamonds at this property — all the way back to when the hotel was new and I a frequent regular at the property and since — I’ve always been told it’s limited to the Executive Lounge except for a few times when the lounge happened to be temporarily closed for whatever reason.
Jun 24, 2023, 6:07 pm
About breakfast for Golds and Diamonds at this property — all the way back to when the hotel was new and I a frequent regular at the property and since — I’ve always been told it’s limited to the Executive Lounge except for a few times when the lounge happened to be temporarily closed for whatever reason.
Jun 24, 2023, 8:44 pm
Jun 24, 2023, 9:25 pm