JGR001
April 30, 2025
This is a very different type of hotel, that's for sure. It occupies only one floor - actually only half of the second floor of a nondescript building. Not even a large sign in front to announce the hotel. Instead of the usual glitzy revolving door or large glass doors with a doorman, you're faced with a large wooden door, with the names of the various office occupants inside on the buzzer panel off to the entrance side. After buzzing, they open the front wooden door and there's a dark garage-hallway you cross to get to the small lift. When you get to the second floor, you turn left and press your key card to again open the locked wooden door. That's when you get inside the hotel premises. The 11 rooms are close to each other and at the end is the reception cubicle, which is adjacent to the small breakfast area. The hallway is pretty and white but it's raised - perhaps to allow for all the wires and cables to retrofit an old style manor - but the effect is that you have to step down a few inches when entering your room. The rooms have nice high ceilings, with a decorative centerpiece with fancy woodwork and cloth panels. Nice. There is a narrow old-style floor to ceiling window-door with external shutters and a tiny balcony to look at the street below. You do have to open the shutters to bring the sunlight in otherwise it can get a bit dark. The headboard-night table panel is nicely done, but the reading lights didn't work and the wall lamps above the night tables are multi directional so it gets distracting - traditional table lamps would have been better. The worktable is serviceable - but there's no outlet there where you need it the most. There's the usual ref, safe, but no hot water kettle. In fairness, you can get a cup of hot water and tea - but not coffee from the breakfast area and bring it to your room. The bathroom is nicely laid out, equipped with bidet, shelves, and full sets of towels. The T&B space is carved out of the square guest room area, and the T&B ceiling does not reach the guest room ceiling so you can easily see how it's carved out. Breakfast was very modest - no hot food of any kind. We thought the hard boiled eggs would be warm but they turned out to be cold. They had a complicated coffee machine that could only be operated by the staff. They did have real orange juice and strawberries, which was a treat. The staff aren't very friendly and have difficulty speaking in English so it was hard to communicate. Housekeeping was quick but they didn't replace the towels - not sure what the towel replacement policy was. The hotel is very nicely located, near the center of town, very near the city hall, the cathedral, the ferry terminal, and the galleria.