Eastbay1K

If you are just going to hang out at the hotel and not leave at all, I'd stay at an airport hotel - Hilton in T1 or NH in T2. But when you're at the St. Regis and you see this a few blocks away, you'll suddenly have energy to go out and take a walk.

You'll note the St. R on the right not too far away



Right outside the St. R

bgriff

In theory I assume the point of the kiosks would be to process faster, which would mean the 800-person line never builds up in the first place. It didn't appear that was necessarily the effect when I used them, but one would hope that's the point of installing them. I only have one data point using them in early afternoon which I believe isn't a super busy time of day anyway so I don't know how they hold up at the crazy times of day, which I too have experienced in the pre-kiosk era.

The kiosks ask you most of the same questions that you fill out on the arrivals form, and indeed you don't need the handwritten arrivals form when you use the kiosk. I heard an agent managing the kiosks say something about it saving time because that information from the form no longer needs to be manually entered -- but I don't think the immigration agents were entering that information while they talked to you, or at least I hope they weren't -- perhaps the kiosks are just saving some back office effort where people were typing in those forms long after you leave the airport. I don't know, but MEX couldn't get much worse.

tattikat2

Hello,

Lack of sound proof walls was mentioned recently as a drawback to Las Alcobas.

Is this an issue in your experience?

Planning first time visit to Mexico city and trying to decide between it and the St Regis.

Any comments much appreciated.

Thanks.

boolean64

I've stayed at the alcobas three times and plan to continue staying there with any future travel to mexico city.

While the walls are not completely soundproof, i never found it to be really noticeable...other than the one time we got a room directly across from the gym. Then it was noticeable during the day as people were going in and out of the gym. I was never woken up by the noise but did notice it once i was awake.

The alcobas is much much smaller and boutique-y than the StR. And in a much more neighborhood-y part of town than the StR with (wealthier) locals out and about at the various cafes and high end shops vs a more touristy and business location for the StR. As your profile says San Francisco, I'd liken it to staying in Union square or SoMa for StR vs staying in Cow Hollow or the Marina for the Alcobas.

I've never stayed at the StR but the hard product at the Alcobas is top notch, especially the shower. Only downside we saw was the lack of a normal bar to have a drink.

tattikat2

Thank you boolean64 for taking the time to reply.^

Can I also ask you another question.
Do they have an executive lounge?

Thanks for any replies.

boolean64

No executive lounge, but breakfast in the restaurant as platinum amenity is top notch.

exploreaswego

I agree with Eastbay here. We stayed at the Le Meridien last year, it was nice because it was an all suites property. But their rooms didn't get much facelift from its Hiltom Embassy days.
For the many times we walked and explored, we noticed the Sheraton was much closer to the action, whereas the Meridien was about a 10-15 mins walk away.

Amy28

I see a lot of love for the W, St Regis, and Las Alcobas in this thread, but not anything around the JW Marriotts (or any other pre-SPG Marriott properties for that matter). How do they compare as far as quality of hotel and location? Thanks.

Kacee

The JW is not good. Overpriced, poor rooms, poor lounge, horrible fitness center. W right next door. If you want to be in Polanco, go for the W next door.

kmersh

I have not been to Mexico City in at least 10 years (probably more) in fact last time I was there, the Hyatt was still a Nikko, yeah it was a while ago. With that said, at the time I stayed at the J.W. Marriott and enjoyed my stay, the room was fine and the lounge was better than what I was accustomed to domestically.

It appears from your comments that is no longer the case and it has slipped quite a bit since then, which is disappointing though I guess that is the way of things now a days. The wife and I were looking at returning to Mexico City and the J.W. Marriott was more expensive than the Hyatt and Intercontinental, but we we still booked with the J.W. Marriott because of my wife's status (Titanium for whatever little value that provides) and because I remembered the hotel being nice.

Seeing your comments on this thread and over at the Hyatt thread is making my rethink my decision to book the J.W. Marriott.

The W is just not our speed, we feel too old and not hip enough each and every time we stay at one of them (and we really aren't that old) and thus really never consider W hotels, we can book the Hyatt but our last Hyatt stay (Jacksonville, FL) was underwhelming to say the least and honestly made us question what is so wonderful about Hyatt.

We considered the Four Seasons (we like the chain) but Reforma is not where we really want to be, our friends live in Lomos de Chapultepec and I liked that I could easily walk from the hotel to their house and back again without having to take a cab or other means of transportation, so we want to still be in the Polanco.

Is the J.W. Marriott that bad?

Thanks

crazyhorse

I have an upcoming trip to Mexico City (actually first time ever) and I have booked 2 nights at the Marriott Reforma and 2 nights at the Hyatt Regency. I have 2 x Marriott 25K night certs from the CC that expire soon after and one Hyatt Cat 4 Cert that also expires in the month following our trip so that is what drove the decision. If I didn't have that consideration, I'd have preferred all 4 nights at the same hotel.

Kacee

Let me provide more specifics so you can decide whether my issues would be your issues.

I booked what the hotel described as "CORNER PARK VIEW SUITE, Executive lounge access, 1 Bedroom Suite, 1 King, Park View Suite view." The "suite" was a moderately sized, oddly shaped corner room. It had no separate living area. It had no sofa. There was a single lounge chair. I complained this was not a suite, they repeatedly insisted it was. I paid $292/night, which I felt was far too much for what was basically just a corner room.

The room had a nice view of Chapultepec Park. Unfortunately, the windows are single paned, so there was also tons of noise from Reforma, upon which the hotel fronts.

Apart from the room assignment issue, I thought the service was good. Very courteous and friendly.

I hated the lounge. It is small with dated decor and was very crowded. I found the food options poor both in the evening and at breakfast. I wound up paying for breakfast in the restaurant. I asked for a water, and they brought me something fancy for which they subsequently charged me something like $4 U.S., which I found moderately outrageous.

The fitness center was probably the worst I have ever seen in a major hotel. There was literally room for only two people to work out at a time.

I'm not a fan of Polanco, so that may have slightly colored my view. My last several stays have been at the Hilton Reforma, which I much prefer, both hotel and location. But my next visit I think I would airbnb in Condesa or Roma.

kmersh

$292 for something called a suite, yikes we are paying $350 a night for a regular room, so I think we are now overpaying by a lot.

With regards to Polanco, it is not everyone's cup of tea, truth be told I do not actually love the area either, it is just convenient when vising my friends as my wife and I can walk rather than take some other form of transportation (I have a personal issue with strangers driving me around which is the main reason I do not use UBER or other services like it, I have enough trouble in a cab, but that is again a personal issue and one that probably affects very very few people).

I remember when the Hilton Reforma was a Sheraton and it was a nice hotel back then, so I would have to imagine that it is a nice hotel today, the Four Seasons is also very nice, but again for our needs Polanco best suits us.

With all the said, the wife and I decided to stay at the Hyatt, while neither she (she is really the business traveler and holds all the Elite statuses) nor I have any sort of Hyatt status, a regency club room is less expensive than a regular room at the Marriott, so we will be saving money any way and we will see, maybe the Hyatt will blow us away and maybe it won't, either way we will be saving money and there is something to be said for that.

Thank you for expanding on your earlier comments and explaining your vantage point, I would be peeved too if I paid for a suite and really only got a larger room.

Kacee

The Hyatt gets good reports. I think you made the right call.

longtimereader firstimeposter

Anyone stayed at the JW Marriott or Westin in Santa Fe? Any preference?