Jason_M_Ontario
Google
The Hotel is located just outside of the mail Plaza, so the location is good. There are "Polloria" within steps of the hotel, and getting cheap eats was easy too. ||The Gates of the hotel are always closed! This is the first hotel I have seen, that has this unique characteristic. And there are no lighted signs either: so we missed it twice. My van driver had to bang on the closed doors of the hotel, when he found it on the third attempt and they opened. ||We checked in: paid for 2 nights, and were not given a receipt! The owner claimed that she was going to email it to us next day. We were given help with our luggage: we were gasping for breath being the first day in Peru and the altitude at Ollantaytambo being about 9000 feet. But there came the rider from the owner: she told us not give the guy too much luggage to haul! It was like listening to a hallway monitor in school!||We asked for heaters, and she (the owner) told us that we could run them 2 hours per night: as if we would get up in the middle of the night to switch them off!||The room was a spartan affair: with acceptable beds, open racks for storage and no work space. I got the impression that it was normally used by backpackers, and not families on vacation. But we tried to make the best of this opportunity. We were given extra pillows, and while the room was not luxurious, it was spacious for the 4 of us. The room was kept warm by the heater, and there was hot water on the taps and in the shower. But no sitting arrangement in the room and no work space. Wifi was weak at our room: the family room.||The breakfast was just as spartan, even though it was supposed to be a buffet, but the spread was thin and replenished only when it ran out. We had to ask for scrambled eggs and was once told no. There were a few slices of ham, cheese on offer, with plenty of bread and yogurt. There were cereal and juices. It was the cheese and ham that kept running out often.||There was a side door that served as the main entry, and it was closed all the time. The owner had to buzz us in every time we came back to the hotel from our trips. Free movement was not the priority here, apparently! When we asked the owner about it: she hinted security concerns. When I asked her if this area was safe: she said yes. So what was she on guard against with the closed gates and entrance, exactly?||There were tuk tuks at the main plaza and we used it for local hops. There were Uber on offer, surprisingly, but it was not that regular. It was available between 9 am to 5 pm, and we took Uber and made a deal with them by the hour for our local tours after our first trip. We paid about 25 soles per hour to go to local attractions, and they waited for us and we headed to the next one. ||The hotel night clerk did help: as he stored my wife's medications in the fridge and got them when we wanted. Thank you, Michael!||It was a very strange experience overall. Not a pleasant one. We won't go back!
