Hotel ALEXANDER — Hotel in El Alto

We were on a one-night stopover from Uyuni on our way to Peru, so we wanted to pick a hotel close to the airport. As a first time traveller to La Paz, I can attribute a lot of my perspective to my own ignorance; however, I hope my review helps others in my circumstances avoid my experience.||||Hotel Alexander is located in a horrible and unsafe part of the city.||||We were greeted at around 9:30pm by a security guard in a bullet/stab proof vest - luckily he could speak a small amount of English to help translate to the reception staff.||||They do not accept any type of credit card and due to the unsafe nature of the area (especially at this time of night). As a result, the security guard escorted me the next morning around to a number of ATMs in an attempt to withdraw cash. In my life, I have been in some bad places; walking around this part of town unarmed, even in the morning was a very disconcerting and uncomfortable experience.||||We had to wake up a homeless gent who had locked himself inside the 'secure' ATM room for the night. After getting the homeless gent out, the security guard backed up to the door of the room while I locked it and withdrew cash struggling not to vomit from the puddle of mess left on the floor inside the ATM.||||If I did not have the assistance of the security guard to speak to local police and other security guards to finally find an ATM that accepted foreign cards, I am not sure what the outcome of the overnight stay would have been.||||On to the room: Filthy, smelly, noisy and in a horrible state of disrepair. The bathroom was a sight to behold and as the shower door was completely broken the bathroom floods. The bed was still filthy from whoever had stayed in the room previously and still smelled of cigarettes.||||The reservation came with a 'free breakfast' served at a small 'bar' with stools around the corner from the reception. One look at the state of the place was enough to make the pre-vomit response happen, let alone eating the pre-packaged breakfast food on display on the counter.||||Do not stay at this...

We booked a room with 2 double beds and were switched to a room with 2 twin beds at check in. The room was barely large enough to fit the beds with room to walk around them. The WiFi did not work at all. The staff was very helpful (the only reason this is not 1 star), but no one spoke any english. I hate to be the tourist who expects everyone to speak English, but I speak enough Spanish to get by. The folks at the desk simply would not slow down to help me understand.

Best of all, there is a freaking dance club on the second floor of the hotel. Not only did we not get the room we reserved, they put us in a room directly above the dance club, which pounds dance music from 7 pm until 5 am.

El Alto is not a good place to be a tourist. We had a 7 am flight and thought, why not, it might be an enlightening and interesting experience. But it ended up being uncomfortable all around. We spent almost all our time far away in plaza San Francisco, which is wonderful. Stay around there if you can.

UPDATE: Well it's our last night here. Got back around 5 pm to decompress before dinner. Found out that the power was out, but only on our side of the building and on our floor. Asked at the desk and they said it would be back on in 5 minutes. Went to dinner, came back and it was still out. It didn't come back on until 830. We had to pack for our 7 am flight using our phones as flashlights without a way to recharge them. But don't worry, the discoteca still had power directly below our room, and the music kept going. Decreasing to 1 star. This is the worst hotel I've ever stayed at.

FINAL UPDATE: Well, woke up this morning for our early flight. No hot water. The stairwell was locked, so I had to take the elevator which I didn't like due to their electrical problems. Went to talk too the gut at the desk and he said the hot water hasn't been turned on yet because it was too early. Really?

So in summary, no shower, no sleep, no internet, no electricity for a day, no heater in the room, terrible location... I don't know how this place stays...

If your goal is a peaceful and restful night, DEFINITELY AVOID this hotel. Figure it out! 3 stories of hotel rooms sandwiched between a discotheque floor and a convention hall floor with no sound insulation where Karaoke amateurs are singing their hearts out all night long... This is a very bad choice you can make in El Alto or in La Paz. The first night we stayed, we were on the third floor and the music from the discotheque kept us awake until 3h30 in the morning. We complained and were given another room the following day on the 4th floor. This was not much better as the music from the discotheque still came up to our room and the night still was not restful at all. The Karaoke when on until 6h00 am.The staff at the front desk were courteous but basically, there is nothing they can do about the noise. The bottom line is that the management of this establishment does not seem to care about the well being of their hotel customers. Loud music and noise does not go well with the hotel accommodation business.||The name of this place should be Alexander Palace Discotheque and Karaoke as it seems that this is the main mission of this place. Forget about peace and quiet!||The hotel also claims to offer WIFI internet but it did not work half of the time during the 3 days we were there.||||This really is the worst hotel we ever...