Llao Llao Hotel — Attraction in Municipio de San Carlos de Bariloche

This is a beautiful resort located about half an hour's drive from the city of Bariloche or the Catedral mountain ski area. It is about 35-45 minutes to the airport depending on traffic. The views here over the lake are equivalent to Europe. The rooms in the newer Moreno wing are a few extra minutes of walk but they are larger and have bigger windows. We had the royal suite 6314 and a connecting room. The room had a large terrace with a gorgeous view. Photos at this hotel are best taken in the morning.||The suite was spacious and well decorated. We were miffed at the lack of welcome amenities -- all we got were some chocolates that you might get at turndown. And the quality of the toiletries they provided were not anything you'd want to take home.||Food is a plus here. The breakfast buffet is very good, although I had to ask for smoked salmon and avocado (and be charged for it). Food is expensive here; expect something close to Manhattan prices even though you are in Argentina. Dinner at both restaurants was excellent, and the main restaurant offers a buffet of sides and salads that is fantastic. You get a really beautiful selection of high quality fruits and vegetables here. The fish from the BBQ grill (ie trout) is outstanding and one fish entree could almost feed a family of 4. This resort has a great team of pastry chefs. Lunch in the winter garden was also nice.||Facilities are good; the gym is decent and so is the warm indoor and outdoor infinity pool with a killer view. The indoor pool can get crowded and closes at 7. No bathing suit dryer and I am not sure I recall if there was a steam room. There is a spa and it was fine. I enjoyed the nightly live entertainment in the lobby from 10:30pm. Things run late here -- the kids club at night is open from 9pm-11:30. Not many people eating dinner before 8.||The public areas here are beautiful and the place has a sophisticated vibe to it, although there are many families with kids here. Hotel has a travel agency onsite that arranged good tours for us prearrival as well as hotel transfers and hikes. This is a great place to explore the outdoors. ||My main beef with this property is that considering we were in the royal suite, I had hoped they would do more to make us feel welcome and special. They did nothing, even when I pointed out that there was a lack of amenities in the room to greet us. First a person said they would check our reservation and decide, based on who the travel agent was, if they would do anything. They did not, which did not make my travel agent look good. Every time we asked for a hotel shuttle, we didn't get one. So my wife had to walk up the hill from the boat dock in the freezing rain with ice coming down on her head undoing the $70 blow and dry she had earlier in the hotel salon, and boy was she angry. I had $230 worth of laundry there, mostly a collection of socks and underwear at $10 each, and I asked for a discount. It took 3 days to get a reply and then a grand offer of 10% discount. Great, so now $9 a pair of socks instead of 10. In the Copacabana Palace in Rio the list price was $3 and they gave me 30% off. Finally, a manager agreed to 30% when I got upset and insisted because I had asked about this when I gave in the laundry. Finally, a customer relations person told me that they don't do anything special for any of their guests. Yeah, right. But our suggestions are good ones and appreciated, she said. All the answers we got above to our queries were clearly not the right ones for a good 5-star property that's been in business for many years and sees itself as a world-class player.||Every time we went to a restaurant, we were asked which room we were in. The concierge made our dinner reservations. You might have thought they would have flagged us for good tables or at least not charge me $50 for breakfast items they should have had on a buffet but didn't. They didn't do anything for us.||When we checked out, I tried to see if my Amex FHR amenities were included. They might have been but the bill was so confusing with several pages of mumbo jumbo with all the Argentine taxes and various items on their own bills that I couldn't figure it out. I had asked several times at the front desk but was told things would be done that had not been done, so I didn't trust them anymore and was frustrated at having to waste so much time working through my hotel bills with them. Finally, I opened a dispute with Amex to have them make sense out of my hotel bill because the last thing I want to do now is try and correspond with this hotel.||When I checked with my travel agent, they told me that the hotel no longer had a dedicated sales rep to deal with the Andrew Harper travel agency (a high-end agency) and had downgraded its commitment to having relationships with travel agents. It is clear to me that there is an arrogance here on the part of this resort in terms of what it thinks of customers and travel agents. In terms of its customer relations, I would rate this place in the bottom 20% of 5-star hotels. I am telling you now that the last thing I want to see is some stupid note from hotel management below this review saying that they apologize for the way I was treated, that it was below their usual standard, and that they are studying the matter and hope to improve and do better for me next time I visit. I told them several times while I was there that i wanted to be treated better while I was there and not apologized to at check-out or on the TripAdvisor site.||So my verdict on his property is it is an excellent property and you should go there, but don't expect to be treated particularly well if you ask for anything. I was paying top dollar for the top rooms and was backed by American Express Platinum and Andrew Harper, which clearly left no impression on them. As long as this doesn't matter and generally it doesn't matter with me except that the manner customer relations was done with me was downright...

I do not normally write reviews, nor do I typically read them. I avoid people on the internet who complain too much about too little. A broken hot tub, expensive wine list, or disaster of a meal? These things happen, even at a 5-star hotel. Negative reviews often leave me disappointed in my fellow travelers and how we fail to show grace and understanding that we are half way around the world. That is why I have never been inspired to write a hotel review until staying at the Llao Llao Hotel this past week. ||When the Llao Llao Hotel was originally constructed in 1938, it was a masterpiece. Beautiful wood architecture, white glove service, and elite hospitality. It burned down the following year, only to rebuild and reopen the entire hotel by 1940. ||My recommendation is to repeat history: burn it down and start fresh. Except this time with new ownership. ||Our family stayed in the $1800/night cabin - a 1970s time capsule which leaves no illusion why Llao Llao has never built a second cabin. The furniture is from the original 60s construction; the “working” AC is non-functional; the twin bed sheets are a plastic blend which allow you to experience life as a shrink wrapped deli meat, sweating in a grocery store that lost power. ||You may be thinking, grow up. This is Patagonia! Who wants to stay in a cabin anyway. It’s just a bed! So we sweat through unpacking and quickly hurried to begin what became the most arduous task of all in Bariloche. ||Not hiking Mount Moreno, fly fishing Limay, or white water rafting: The hardest part of our journey was actually getting a drink at the alleged 5-star Llao Llao hotel. ||This mislabeled, outdated chateau houses 850 guests in 424 rooms with 9 elevators, 4 restaurants, and 127 mountain bikes available for rent. They also have one reception area bar with 1 bartender servicing the entire hotel, even during peak hours. This does make 9pm dinner easier. You arrive for a cocktail at 7pm, enjoy the free olives and chips at 7:30pm and close the check on your first round at 8:30, without ever having to take a sip. The staff will then grumpily remind you, gratuity is not included and it must be paid in cash. ||In that way, Llao Llao has a funny knack at making you wonder if you’re being ridiculous. You start to wonder, do I really need a gin and tonic? After questioning your vacation mindset long enough, you decide that you’re being ridiculous. You’re just hungry. What follows is the same, regardless of which of the 4 restaurants you choose. ||You walk in and sit down, everything is normal. With gorgeous mountainscape views, you may even feel some charm. Napkins and silverware arrive, along with a QR code menu, but hey, we survived Covid and were saving the trees.||You try to remind yourself that you are in a 5-star hotel. You swear you are being picky or spoiled when it takes a half hour to get a wine list, and you wonder if there’s something wrong with your palette when you take your first bite of food. At the altitude of Bariloche, perhaps you are on an airplane; maybe you just paid for a gourmet snack box on a domestic flight to Indianapolis. ||Then you realize you’re paying $80 for a salad bar which is just that, or $20 for an empanada which would embarrass the hotel staffs mothers. Or maybe you bought the $100, 400g skirt steak and experience beef without salt or seasoning for the first time. ||You start to wish you had brought the family dog, not to eat the leftovers, but to eat your entree after the appetizer left you questioning the tastebuds of Argentina.||But beyond the inhospitable lodging, exceptionally poor service, acute lack of English speaking staff, outrageously undeserved NYC- level pricing, and food that would be better served in a dog kennel, what you realize is that Llao Llao is located in such a beautiful part of the world, and Patagonia is stunning. Anything that isn’t beautiful during your stay, is the fault of Llao Llao, not the natural landscape. And with hundreds of hotels to choose from, this place is not deserving of a single dollar, peso or yuan. ||Llao Llao hotel is better fit for a back of the woods, highway hotel, visited by long-haul truckers who bring their own booze and order pizza to the room. The hotel exists solely from its location and history. The natural beauty of Bariloche can be found in dozens of more luxurious places at a fraction of the cost.||It’s a decent 3 star hotel to go with a couple college friends who enjoy fishing and are tired of Bariloche’s backpacking accommodations. It simply is not close to the caliber of a 5 star hotel anywhere. El Casco Art Hotel is closer to the airport, offers modern rooms, and I will carry the regret and shame of not rebooking there after a visit 6 years ago.||While I believe that the natural course of market forces should drive Llao Llao out of business, I would not be disappointed if the hotel meets the same fate it did in 1939, and burns to the ground one off season, to make way for something -...

I do not normally write reviews, nor do I typically read them. I avoid people on the internet who complain too much about too little. A broken hot tub, expensive wine list, or disaster of a meal? These things happen, even at a 5-star hotel. That is why I have never been inspired to write a hotel review until staying at the Llao Llao Hotel this past week.

Our family stayed in the $1800/night cabin - a 1970s time capsule which leaves no illusion why Llao Llao has never built a second cabin. The furniture is from the original 60s construction; the “working” AC is non-functional; the twin bed sheets are a plastic blend which allow you to experience life as a shrink wrapped deli meat, sweating in a grocery store that lost power.

This mislabeled, outdated chateau houses 850 guests in 424 rooms with 9 elevators, 4 restaurants, and 127 mountain bikes available for rent. They also have one reception area bar with 1 bartender servicing the entire hotel, even during peak hours. This does make 9pm dinner easier. You arrive for a cocktail at 7pm, enjoy the free olives and chips at 7:30pm and close the check on your first round at 8:30, without ever having to take a sip. The staff will then grumpily remind you, gratuity is not included and it must be paid in cash.

In that way, Llao Llao has a funny knack at making you wonder if you’re being ridiculous. You start to wonder, do I really need a gin and tonic? After questioning your vacation mindset long enough, you decide that you’re being ridiculous. You’re just hungry. What follows is the same, regardless of which of the 4 restaurants you choose.

You try to remind yourself that you are in a 5-star hotel. You swear you are being picky or spoiled when it takes a half hour to get a wine list, and you wonder if there’s something wrong with your palette when you take your first bite of food. At the altitude of Bariloche, perhaps you are on an airplane; maybe you just paid for a gourmet snack box on a domestic flight to Indianapolis?

Then you realize you’re paying $80 for a salad bar which is just that, or $20 for an empanada which would embarrass any proud Argentinian. Or maybe you bought the $100, 400g skirt steak and experience beef without salt or seasoning for the first time.

You start to wish you had brought the family dog, not to eat the leftovers, but to eat your entree after the appetizer left you questioning if you really are that hungry.

But beyond the inhospitable lodging, exceptionally poor service, acute lack of English speaking staff, outrageously undeserved NYC- level pricing, and food that would be better served in a dog kennel, what you realize is that Llao Llao is located in such a beautiful part of the world, and Patagonia is stunning.

Anything that isn’t beautiful during your stay, is the fault of Llao Llao, not the natural landscape. And with hundreds of hotels to choose from, this place is not deserving of a single dollar, peso or yuan.

Llao Llao hotel is better fit for a back of the woods, highway hotel, visited by long-haul truckers who bring their own booze and order pizza to the room. The hotel exists solely from its location and history. The natural beauty of Bariloche can be found in dozens of more luxurious places at a fraction of the cost.

It’s a decent 3 star hotel to go with a couple college friends who enjoy fishing and are tired of Bariloche’s backpacking accommodations. It simply is not close to the caliber of a 5 star hotel anywhere.

While I believe that the natural course of market forces should drive Llao Llao out of business, I would not be disappointed if the hotel meets the same fate it did in 1939, and burns to the ground one off season, to make way for something -...