I’ve written quite a few reviews for Tripadvisor now and rarely had to write a bad one but I can’t honestly say that we enjoyed our stay at the Parque Central. Reading some of the glowing reviews this place gets I wonder if we stayed at the same hotel.
We stayed there twice during our 3 weeks in Cuba; the first night and three nights at the end. In each case we stayed in the older part of the hotel (although Virgin booked us into the new part). The first night our sheets were damp, but as we were leaving at 3.45am to catch an early flight the next morning, didn’t say anything.
Our stay for the last 3 nights was in a fair-sized room with ok but dark, characterless furniture and a blackout curtain that looked as though Fidel & his revolutionaries had used it for machine gun target practice. We also had a coffee-making machine but no coffee, no filters, no water and no information on how to get them.
The bathroom was basically clean, though a tissue on the floor under the sink on our arrival remained there till the end of our stay and one of the bathrobes matched the blackout curtain – I wondered if the last wearer had survived the machine gun fire.
But the worst thing was breakfast. Whether you went when it was busy or nearly empty the tablecloths were stained, spilt-on and filthy, not changed until the very end of breakfast service when they were preparing for lunch. One morning, the bag I put by my chair disturbed a cockroach, which then ran up the wall as we beat a hasty retreat. The food was just ok, not a patch on other hotels we’ve stayed in in Cuba; items ran out and weren’t replaced for ages, if at all. And how can you habitually get 10 slices of bacon to stick together as if glued? And nothing more than a spoon to separate them? Most of us gave up. Never saw cooked tomatoes, mushrooms or baked beans. Getting coffee (supposedly waiter service only – there was no urn) was a haphazard affair at best, even when we asked nicely, our waiter made a point of serving several other tables first. And this on day 1, before he even knew we weren’t going to tip him. Many times we saw three waiters standing by the coffee station having a chat with their backs to the guests while we and others waited for a table to be set/coffee to be served/plates to be cleared. Not good when you’ve got an excursion booked for that morning.
However, it was not all bad. Location is good if you want to explore the old town and the rooftop restaurant/swimming pool is lovely with spectacular views over Havana by day or night. The receptionists were helpful and the concierge staff even more so.
It’s not the only hotel we’ve stayed in in Cuba but standards here were noticeably lower in everything from cleanliness to food quality.
How much does it cost to launder a tablecloth in Cuba? How much to provide a bottle of drinking water in the room? Is this meanness, negligence or bad management? For what you get (and don’t get) how can they justify the room rates?
We also found the atmosphere (excluding the roof terrace) bland. The hotel cannot compete as an international 5* so why not emphasize it’s Cuban heritage? - add some local colour. Would it cost a fortune to have a local band once in a while to provide what Cuba’s so good at – music? At least we’d know we’re in Havana then, and having some fun. Certainly for the 4 days we were there we heard no live music. I liked the nicely painted, if geographically challenged, Mediterranean mural in the restaurant but why the Mediterranean? I would have much preferred to look at a beautiful Cuban landscape (and there are so many) during breakfast. It’s almost as though the hotel feels it has to deny its Cuban roots. And this in the very heart of Havana.
It’s not our first trip to Cuba and we accept that things are not the same as elsewhere, but we have stayed at hotels that are reasonable value and welcoming – here we felt, sadly, little but disappointment and frustration.
Next time in Havana? To be sure, not the Parque Central. Probably the Nacional. We’re prepared for rooms and breakfasts that are not the best. But it has got style, a sense of place, atmosphere in abundance and great live music. My happiest times in Havana were the evenings when we sat on the huge seats on the terrace of the Nacional, drinking Cuba Bella cocktails and listening to superb live music. It was just a shame we had to take a taxi to go back to the colourless Parque Centrale.
- Nh Parque Central Hotel Havana
- Nh Parque Central
- Parque Central Havana
- Nh Parque Central Havana
- Parque Central
