I've heard that luxury hotel rooms in the Cuban tourist areas aren't renovated and are actually quite seedy.

Question

I read that only the hotel lobbies and public areas are maintained in an effort to conceal their true dilapidated condition. True or not? Please tell me when you went and the condition of your room.

Answer 1

I would say that this is generally not true but there are Hotels in Cuba that are owned by the Cuban government and then there are those that are owned in partnership with the Cuban government buy foreign companies.

The ones that are owned in partnership (like the Rius, Barcelos, Sandals etc.) I almost certainly say this is never true. In my experience, the ones that are 100% owned by the Cuban government are not extravagant but not dilapidated either. You may even see some interesting stuff, one we stayed in had these giant in room air conditioners that were made in Russia and they didn't have pool chemicals so they would drain the pool every second or third night and fill it with half fresh water and half sea water, no toilet seats in the loby bathroom, and toilet paper was rationed out by a bathroom attendant. There were definitely some sort comings with this hotel but it was cheap, cheap, cheap so you get what you pay for same as anywhere.

Generally speaking there are two sets of everything in Cuba, one set for tourist and one set for locals. You'll have one set of stores/buses/restaurants etc. that only accept dollars (or convertible pesos, essentially tourist dollars) and one set that accepts regular Cuban pesos. The standards are drastically different. So in all likelyhood any hotel/resort that you as a tourist would see would be ok. If you are looking to book a specific resort, debbiescaribbeanresortreviews.com is very helpful, it has reviews posted by past travellers that will share both the good and the bad:

http://www.debbiescaribbeanresortreviews.com/cuba/cubarevind.html

Answer 2

My cousin went and said they were without hot water for 3 of their 6 days there at a "luxury" hotel. On the brighter side. She had the time of her life and wants to go back!

Answer 3

I went from Sept 3rd to Sep 12th. I stayed in two different hotels: one in Havana (Tryp Habana Libre) and another in Varadero (Barcelo Marina Palace). In both cases, the accomodations were excelent... I didn`t find anything wrong with them. And I did have hot water all the time

Answer 4

I went in April, and stayed at Club Amigo Varadero, and it was an absolutly amazing hotel, very clean and nice and my room was great.