Recoleta Grand

We stayed at the Recoleta Grand Hotel for three nights prior to our cruise and had a very positive overall experience. Upon arrival, the lobby immediately makes a strong impression — it’s beautiful and welcoming. Service, however, is what truly stood out. The bellman quickly assisted with our luggage and brought everything into the lobby on trolleys, and the front desk staff were attentive and efficient. Both my sister and I were checked in smoothly and in our rooms in record time. Our room was clean, comfortable, and adequately sized. The view was nothing particularly special, but the space worked well for our stay. Housekeeping maintained everything nicely. The hotel is currently undergoing renovations, but this did not disturb us at all during our visit. The pool area, however, could use some improvement. The space is quite small, the pool itself could benefit from repainting, and the water was extremely cold — even in February (Argentina’s summer). That said, we were still grateful to have access to it. One small inconvenience was the lobby bar hours. It closed relatively early (around 8:30 p.m.), which felt limiting. We later discovered drinks could also be ordered from the restaurant bar, which was helpful. The restaurant space itself is attractive, and we did enjoy breakfast there one morning. The hotel’s location in Recoleta is excellent — walkable, safe, and central to many highlights of the neighbourhood. Overall, the staff were top-tier professionals who made us feel genuinely welcomed. Once renovations are complete and the pool area receives some attention, this property has the potential to be an exceptional option in Buenos Aires. A strong four star stay.

beautiful hotel shows it is possible to save an old building and make a new addition

THE HOTEL is very poorly run. The rooms are dark and the lighting is so avant guard, you can’t get enough light to see anything in the room. Two of the lamps take up the whole bedside table, and the most important light where the coffee is, is a tiny little spotlight. There is a steep learning curve in light switch usage. Tried taking a shower and no hot water and when checking out, they just said sorry. No offer of recompense. Try to get something to play on the television and you might as well go to school to be a technician. The food in restaurant was good but the service was sub par and the servers were crabby. They don’t seem to love their work. Among other things, had to get salt myself after asking two waiters. It’s not cheap to stay there but they are chintzy with the coffee. In the room, one coffee pod per person per day. And I should mention an odor in the lobby of sewage. The rooms can be cooled down but the rest of the hotel is hot and humid. On the brighter side, The location is good and the concierge tried to be helpful by getting a car to take us to and from the airport. All in all this is the second disappointing experience at Marriott (stay away from the behemoth hotel in L.A.) and too bad for this chain, we had just gotten off the Seabourn cruise where the service is impeccable. My advice to Marriot is that management takes a lesson from them on how to run a service industry business.

We were excited about a fancy stay and the Recoleta Grand delivered nice — but not quite what we’d call truly grand. With lots of Marriott stays in the U.S. and abroad, we had high hopes, and while the basics were solid, a few little things felt off for the price. The welcome was pleasant but not extravagant, and we found the policy about charging a corkage fee if you opened wine anywhere other than your room a bit odd. Social spaces were limited too — outside of a seat in the restaurant or bar, there wasn’t much room to hang out. Overall it was a good stay with comfortable rooms and a decent location, just not the big, memorable experience we were expecting from the name.

Had a wonderful stay. Excellent staff, in all areas of the hotel. Very walkable location, went to good restaurants, gelato and shopping. Water feature in cafe is beautiful, wish I had a photo to share, two plus story wall of water. Tasteful and clean room, especially liked the auto on nightlight in the bathroom.