Jul 19, 2022, 4:21 am
Las Alcobas, Luxury Collection, Mexico City [Master Thread]
Nov 19, 2017, 2:03 pm
There is an expert review in the Luxury Forum for Las Alcobas that I thought would be appropriate to share here in the Starwood Forum, as well:
https://www.flyertalk.com/hotel-revi...ghborhood-2256
May 15, 2018, 11:18 pm
Nov 13, 2018, 12:24 pm
Nov 15, 2018, 1:11 pm
Nov 15, 2018, 7:51 pm
Booked a base king room on points. Upgraded one category to Grand Deluxe King. Had a city view on the 5th floor. The room, while not overly spacious, was modern and comfortable. The minibar, excluding alcohol, was included in the rate, and had a wide selection of snacks and beverages. The television and sound systems were great-- the sound systems extend to the bathroom. Curtains and lighting can be controlled by a tablet. The toilet includes a bidet, and the shower had a grand total of 8 shower heads: 1 overhead, 1 handheld, 3 on one side of the wall, 3 more on the other. It was a true human carwash. Two small criticisms: power ports were scarce and walls were not sound proof-- but hardly a dealbreaker.
Rates include "continental" breakfast, which is the misnomer of the century. You will be offered coffee, juice of your choice, fruit plate, fresh baked goods of your choice, and one hot item from the menu. The menu had a selection of American and Mexican selections-- we stuck with the local choices and everything was spectacular. As breakfast and lunch generally tend to trend later than in the states, breakfast at this hotel is served until 11:30am, and is practically a lunch substitute. Do not miss.
Service was professional. English proficiency was excellent.
All in all, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Jan 29, 2019, 1:29 pm
For me if excessive it would be a deal breaker.
I expect peace and quite when I'm at a luxury hotel and would be very vary of staying somewhere that wasn't.
Thanks for any replies.
Last edited by tattikat2; Jan 29, 2019 at 1:30 pm Reason: spelling, always speeling...
Feb 7, 2019, 5:47 pm
Feb 7, 2019, 5:52 pm
Feb 25, 2019, 4:13 pm
- We love the location. It is in Polancas district. It's easy to walk to a wide range of restaurants and stores.
- The hotel is very intimate with just a few rooms on each floor. It is only 7 floors high. We saw many high rise hotels in Mexico City and far prefer this boutique size.
- Breakfast was outstanding. I dislike breakfast buffets. Here, there was a menu. You got your choice of orange or grapefruit juice, a plate of chopped up fruit in a bit of yogurt with some seeds on top, a choice of a pastry, and tea or coffee. Then there was an extensive list of breakfast items, both Mexican and American. You could choose one. The chiliquiles were superb as was the French toast. It's a treat to have a hotel deliver such good breakfast food. We followed advice above, where we had breakfast and then ate a second meal during the afternoon. We skipped an evening meal.
- Concierge service was good. I reached out well in advance and asked that Pujol be booked for us. Quintonil and Pujol are high on the list of the Top 50 Best Restaurants in the World. We got our Pujol booking. It was a short walk from the hotel. We loved it, very sophisticated modern Mexican food. We also ate at Dulce Patria in the hotel. I was skeptical but it was excellent. Again, it was sophisticated modern Mexican food though more mainstream than Pujol. There was flexibility in what we chose rather than the prix fixe at Pujol. The concierge also booked our car transfers and a private tour of Luis Baranger's 3 sites. He was the 2nd architect to win the Pritzker Architectural award. I waited too long to book the public tour so was happy that the hotel has a relationship with an architect who knew Baranger and offers private tours. It was pricey but we appreciated all that we saw including the last home that Baranger designed. He consulted with Louis Kahn on the Salk Instittute central courtyard in La Jolla. It was fun to learn about this local connection.
- Nonalcoholic beverages along with nuts and candy in the minibar were free.
- A selection of 7 unique soaps made by a local group of women from herbs and flowers were left in the room.
- I booked a deluxe room and was upgraded to a corner room. It had a half circle window with lots of light flooding into the room thru tree branches. However, the room was still not very spacious. It had a chair at the desk and a partial chaise along the wall. I always want a chair and stool in a room. It lacked even a comfortable chair. Further, the TV and chaise were along the same wall so there was no place in the room to sit and watch TV. The hotel was fully booked and no further upgrade was possible.
- Internet was frustrating. My computer dropped off frequently and even when on had very slow connectivity.
The hotel GM, Michael Chiche, left about two months ago. The new GM is Daniel Malo.
Last edited by SanDiego1K; Feb 26, 2019 at 4:55 pm
Feb 26, 2019, 1:00 pm
Aug 3, 2021, 6:36 am
Las Alcobas
Av. Presidente Masaryk 390 Col. Polanco Chapultepec Mexico City, MX MX 11560
Las Alcobas Mexico City (Luxury Collection) = Stingy Elite Benefits (14 Photos)
Las Alcobas
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.