This is my second review for Hotel Alcaldeza. Since our first stay in 2009, we have stayed here a few more times. In each previous occasion, we have chosen their most expensive room. This time we arrived really late at night and were going to leave early in the morning, so we decided to take their least expensive room just for the night. After a four-hour drive and arriving in the wee hours, we didn't check the room and were too tired to go back to reception a while later to change.

Big mistake! Even for budget travelers that was a terrible room! The sheets were stained and the towels a light blue and a grayish white one were sold old and disgusting, I passed on taking my morning shower. They were just rugs that you would use with luck to mop your floors. The mattress was extremely uncomfortable and there were mosquitoes inside the room, despite being in a room with no windows (at least I don't remember seeing one) and A/C.

I understand we were paying for a standard room, but to me, that meant as it was explained to us, a smaller room, no patio, no mini-bar or refrigerator. That's fine if it is just to sleep, but dirty sheets and towels so worn out that I wouldn't use to dry my dog, that's too much.

The location is still great and the rates are low for a hotel with parking in the Gascue area. We may return for a one-night trip but never to an inexpensive room, and will never pay before checking out the room thoroughly again.

This is the place to stay if you want to visit to the Colonial Zone.

LOCATION
Definitely, the must of Hotel Alcaldeza is its location, in Gazcue, within walking distance to the Colonial Zone and Malecón. The neighbourhood seemed very safe, even at night. The street is very calm, so there was no noise at all at night. As the street is not very large, some taxi drivers may not know it. Tell your driver it is near Independencia avenue.
There are restaurants, drugstores and groceries at walking distance. You can also find ATMs near the hotel.
There is a very nice restaurant close to the hotel, named Mario´s (inside hotel El Señorial). The food was really great and cheap!

ROOM
They have rooms from 35 to 50 USD. We had a double room at the ground floor, for 50 USD, with AC, bathroom, mini-bar, telephone, small balcony with iron chairs and table, large mirror, cable TV, one chair, blackout curtains). It was not large, but it wasn´t small. everything was very clean.
The mattress of the bed had no pillow-top, so it was a bit hard and not comfortable enough.
The bathroom was small, but clean, with towels and soap. However, the shower place was very small and although there was a curtain, the floor got wet when we had shower. Another problem was that there wasn´t ventilation system in the bathroom, so the vapour could not get out, as there was no window.
The room got pretty hot without the air conditioning, so we had to keep it turned on most of the night. If you don´t like AC, this may be a problem (at least in March).

SERVICE
We met Angel, the manager and owner of the hotel, and two attendants (a guy and a girl). Everybody was very polite and helpful.
The hotel has wifi, but it didn´t work in our room, so we had to go to the lobby to have a good connection. There is also a computer with internet at the lobby, but you have to pay for it.
The hotel doesn´t offer breakfast, but you can have a nice one at Villar Hermanos, just a 5-minute walk from the hotel. There is also a bakery near Villar Hermanos.
Ah, another important thing is that the hotel doesn´t allow guests to bring "friends" to their rooms and this was one of the reasons we chose it.
The hotel has a parking lot to guests.

OVERALL
Hotel Alcaldeza is a nice hotel for budget travelers. It is cheap, clean and relatively comfortable (despite the bed). The Colonial Zone is just aside and you can have a nice time at the Malecon just walking from the hotel. If you consider the location and the amenities in the room, this is a very good hotel for the price. I would come back to Alcaldeza.
I don´t recommend this hotel for businness travelers, as there was no working table and internet inside the room, but it is a nice choice for those who want a nice place for a nice price.

The rooms are clean, and the staff is helpful, though they did not have my room available, and upon arrival they bumped me into a more expensive room. They asked for my money upfront, something which I also did not like. However, it is a decent, budget, clean place to sleep. A bed and a bathroom.
The room, however, is minuscule. The closet was tiny and partially blocked by the nitetable. So it was useless. No cabinets either.
There is no table or desk of any sort, you cannot work from there. Outside, there isnt an option to work either. Its mostly a passerby hotel, made for those who need to sleep a nite and move on. Not for the business traveler looking for a budget solution.
My cellphone had no reception because the building is solid concrete (I have a 2G phone), and the Wireless internet barely reached my room, even though it was the second closest to the lobby on the ground floor.
It is also very poorly lit, but this seems to be a problem in every hotel except the Marriott and Hilton.

My husband and I travel frequent to Santo Domingo and usually stay for just one night. We have stayed at a variety of hotels in the past. For the most part, if you want a clean room, A/C, cable TV and parking (a must for us), you have to pay at least $100. I came across reviews for Alcaldeza on Tripadvisor and considering the low advertised rate, we decided to give it a try. We arrived without a reservation. They had rooms priced from $35 to $50, all of which have A/C, cable TV and parking. We decided on the $50 room because it also had a mini-bar and a small patio. Rooms are rather small but very comfortable, especially for a one-night stay, the A/C worked perfectly well, so did the Cable TV. The mini-bar was stocked with beverages with incredible low prices which is quite unusual for a hotel mini-bar (15 pesos for water, just 60 for a small Presidente). Our room was very cleaned too. No bed cover, and the furniture a bit run down. There's no restaurant but there are a few good restaurants within walking distance, and there was a list of restaurants with phone numbers in the room were you can call for delivery.

The hotel is located in Gascue, so it's very convenient for anyone wanting to be close to El Malecon, as well as close to Zona Colonial.

We met two of the receptionists, both very nice. The gentlemen who showed us the room spoke to us in Spanish so we don't know whether he speaks English. The young lady working in the morning speaks very good English.

Alcadeza has a sign outdoor that says Hostal Alcadeza; the business cards say the same. I don't believe that it qualifies as a "hostal". Everything we saw pretty much describes is as a regular hotel.

We're very glad we decided to stay there; now we have a nice place to stay for the night when we visit Santo Domingo on business. We will definitely go back to Alcadeza because of value. We've been in other hotels in Sto. Domingo similarly priced and wouldn't send our worst enemies to those place, but we will recommend Alcaldeza for a budget traveller or anyone who needs a clean and nice place to crash for a couple of nights.