David B.
Google
There were a number of pluses to our three-night stay at Hotel Aurora. The staff was friendly and responsive, our room was spacious, and, unlike the experiences of another visitor, our AC unit worked without problems. The fridge was good-sized and there were plenty of outlets for all our electronic devices. But there were other aspects of our stay that were problematic and may have been peculiar to our room.
Our room was #33, the most remote one in the hotel. It was situated up three flights of stairs (the last one measuring no more than two feet wide) and down one short flight. Unfortunately, one of the room’s walls abutted the main road into Montezuma and that wall was apparently very thin and lacking in sound insulation so we could hear the unmuffled sounds of cars, trucks, and motor bikes going up and down. Future visitors, to this room at least, should bring earplugs, or buy some at the local supermarket as my wife did. For us, the conveniency of a hotel located close to the town center was significantly offset by the volume of road noise. It’s possible this is less a problem for rooms in other parts of the hotel.
Importantly, we could never get reliable Wi-Fi service in our room, despite that feature being advertised and despite the best efforts of a staff member to connect us. Our immediate neighbor had the same issue we discovered when we met in the shared outdoor seating area where reception was better.
Other Aurora visitors have mentioned the cleanliness of their rooms, but this wasn’t something that stood out for us, perhaps because the white tiles in the floor of our room had so many dark cracks. In addition, the dark tile grout was dislodging in places, including the bathroom, which sometimes made walking inconvenient.
There were two other significant problems with the bathroom. First, while it did have a window that could be vented, that window was not screened, unlike the other venting windows in the unit. This meant choosing between a bathroom of odor and steam or one of insects. Second, emptying a bathroom trash can should have been a daily, routine service since, as is true in many rural communities in the world, a sign told us not to use the toilet for toilet paper. We had to ask for after two days to get such trash service.
These shortcomings would have loomed less in our minds if our lodging had been a great value. At $139 per night it did not seem so.
