Illa Experience Hotel

We recently stayed at Illa Experience Hotel after booking it through our travel agency, and overall the property itself is absolutely beautiful. From the moment you arrive, they welcome you with a drink, which makes the experience feel very special and luxurious. The hotel feels more like staying in a historic mansion than in a traditional hotel, and every area is elegant and full of charm. Honestly, we cannot complain about everything the hotel has to offer in terms of atmosphere, design, and comfort. However, there was one uncomfortable situation during our stay that we feel should be addressed. One day, my wife and I were trying to find the front desk staff because we needed assistance, but we could not find anyone at reception. We walked around the hotel searching for someone until we accidentally reached the jacuzzi area, where we found two staff members being overly affectionate and making out. They did not notice us, and the situation was honestly embarrassing for us as guests, so we decided to quietly return to the reception area and wait until they eventually came back. We completely understand that staff members have personal lives, but during working hours the priority should always be guest attention and professionalism. Aside from that unfortunate moment, the hotel experience was excellent.

We stayed in Quito for only two nights and we were very happy with The Illa Experience. The service was top notched and the place is beautiful and artsy. Very unique! Restaurants are top of the line and our views were amazing. Ask for a high floor with a view. Great breakfast. We had to take our food to go on the last morning since our ride was picking us up at 615am. They accommodated us with a boxed breakfast and coffee. Great location to walk the area. Now onto the big trip, Galápagos Islands!!

Fantastic find in Quito, a small boutique hotel in the old quarter of Quito. Impecable standards, well run and an oasis of elegance, calm & tranquility. Excellent staff, good food, we just can’t fault it

The ILLA experience was a wonderful place to stay. Convenient for the old town, but in a quiet neighbourhood. The rooms were luxurious, the plumbing worked. The staff were so helpful, they couldn't do enough to make our stay enjoyable. The experiences they offered were varied - lavender tea, to Ecuadrian biscuits, to rose water and ice facial treatment. Breakfasts were good too.

We booked this hotel for the outward leg my wife’s special, ‘big birthday’ trip to Galapagos, based on our booking agency’s more than 40 ‘10/10’ reviews and a reassuringly high price point. However, whilst the staff were all very pleasant and helpful, the hotel fell some way below what we, as fairly experienced international and third world travellers, consider to be our reasonable expectations. It is located in a side street at the very edge of the ‘safe’ historic old town, to the point where locally-based lunchtime hotel diners stopped us at the entrance door and strongly cautioned us against turning right for fear of being mugged in broad daylight. Our room was on the hotel’s first level, being several meters below street level with obscured and permanently curtained windows and hence absolutely no view or natural light . Our room’s coffee machine was missing, and our beverage supplies comprised 2 teabags with no milk or creamer. There was no hot water to the bathroom until 6am, (which presented a serious problem for our early flight out), ridiculously small bathrobes, and a poor selection of low cost toiletries. The shower was interestingly designed with a lightly obscured glass side wall that became completely transparent when wet, and as this formed a large part of the adjacent bedroom wall my wife had absolutely no privacy whilst showering. The wine list was surprisingly expensive, the mini bar required $6 for a small bottle of still water, and the dinner menu was unexciting. The lobby was dark and uninspiring, and what the hotel describes as its ‘Rooftop Terrace Bar’ proved to be one table and three almost permanently occupied chairs in a tiny area against a wall next to the breakfast hut. Despite that we were the only guests in the breakfast hut, our so-called ‘hot breakfast,’ was served nearly cold with equally cold coffee, and included completely inedible bacon with the texture of extruded hard plastic. Finally, and quite inexplicably, the front desk charged us $80 each way for our airport taxi compared to $55 quoted by our return leg stop in Quito, which is nearby, but more safely and attractively located.