Gran Hotel Bolivar Lima — Attraction in Lima Metropolitan Area

Shady porters! I am writing to post an official complaint against the Gran Hotel Bolivar. My wife and I are tourists who wandered innocently into the Gran Hotel Bolivar on Tuesday evening 07/05/19. We were looking for a taxi to Miraflores. Front desk receptionist Mr Victor was fantastic. He took initiative, used his personal mobile phone to find us a taxi to Miraflores via the Easy Taxi app. He got us a bid for 23 Soles. Unfortunately the Easy Taxi driver cancelled on us. During this time, the front entrance porter, Mr Carlos 'found' us a yellow taxi on the street. We were quoted 34 Soles. But were told by hotel staff that 30 Soles was an acceptable tariff. So we got into the yellow taxi, but noticed at the last moment the yellow taxi driver giving a 'kickback' of some coins back to Mr Carlos. This is what I am complaining about. Mr Carlos is a perfectly nice and friendly chap. However from our perspective, it almost seems like he (and thus the hotel, as he represents the hotel) is preying on innocent and vulnerable foreign visitors in their hour of need. Tourists in a foreign land, unable to fully speak the local Lingua Franca, in their hour of need, find themselves having to pay an artificially inflated fee, just to line the pockets of hotel staff in a rather shady and disreputable manner. I urge hotel management to take action. I am sure the Gran Hotel Bolivar is a superb hotel. But Mr Carlos' actions this evening directly question the integrity and thus values of the hotel and all the staff at the hotel. Thus I urge all fellow tourists to boycott and avoid the Gran Hotel Bolivar at all costs as I find their values and attitude to integrity and honesty leaves something to be desired. I do hope hotel management is able to impress on their staff the value of maintaining the trust of tourists and how hurtful it can be, breaking the trust of new visitors to the fantastic land...

We stayed here so that we could spend a day and a half in Lima before flying home and because it seemed close to the sites we wanted to see. It is close to the sites. But that is about all it has going for it.||There are old hotels that have worn charm. The Waldorf Astoria 15 years ago comes to mind. ||And then there are hotels that are old, clearly not being maintained that are running on the fumes of their illustrious past. This is one of then. ||You can tell that 50 years ago this hotel was the epitome of class. And about then they apparently stopped giving a damn. ||The check in area is drab and uninviting. The wallpaper is peeling. ||The hallways are long and dark. Almost spooky. They brag about having the first two working elevators in Peru. Only one works now.||The rooms. Good lord the rooms. If you like period furniture and fixtures this is the place. Because they have changed nothing for decades. Not the soiled arm chair begging to be reupholstered. Not the chandelier with burnt shades and light sticks held together with masking tape. Not the bathroom straight out of 1930, including the tarnished mirror. Certainly not the outlets that look like they could catch fire if you glance at them the wrong way. Every surface needs a paint job but you would need a hazmat crew first to remediate the lead paint. ||One of the major chains should buy this place and thoroughly revamp it. Or it should be put out of its misery. The latter probably makes the most sense because central Lima is basically a derelict ghost town.||If you are looking for old school charm, this is not the place. Just stay in Miraflores with the...

Looks great on the outside, but inside is old and worn and needs updating. My kids’ first reaction after walking through the cavernous hallways and entering our room was: “this place feels haunted.” I felt the same way. The hanging lights in the foyer were crooked. The rooms were large and spacious but the furniture felt dated (old but not charming). The elevators creaked. The bathroom grout were yellow and the some of the electric outlets didn’t work (they were also all close to the ground, none easily accessible at table level like the modern hotels). The bed mattresses look old and so do the blankets in between the white laundered sheets. There is no hairdryer. ||We are a family of four and got a two-room suite. There was one bathroom with a dated bathtub with plastic curtains. The hot water ran out after 1 shower that was 10 minutes. (Also, the “H” knob gave cold water and the “C” knob gave hot water, we had to follow the instructions on the wall to get hot water). So the remaining 3 of us took cold showers. All 4 of us slept in one room because the place felt haunted (also with two rooms there was only one heater). The streets was loud outside and the security gates kept screeching at midnight.||All this was especially disappointing given the grandeur of the hotel exterior and lobby. I went back and checked the Google reviews and many were based on visitors who didn’t stay here and came mainly to check out the historic lobby and the bar. This hotel has good bones and could be so much more. But sadly in 2025 the stay here...