Hotel Terrado Cavancha — Hotel in Iquique

I have mixed feelings about this hotel.

Location:

Its location albeit facing playa Brava lacks basic necessities such as decent coffee shops, cafe or restaurants. As you step outside the hotel, there is literally nothing around the hotel to get morning coffee or a light meal. The closest point where you can find coffee or breakfast is where Jumbo superstore is located.

The view from my 15th floor facing the beach had great views.

From the hotel you can walk along the well structured walkway along the water. I walked that route everyday round trip to/from Baquedano. During the daytime it’s generally safe. After dark I recommend to walk along side the water as there are more people out and about and the pathway is mostly well lit.

Amenities: The bed was good, clean room, work desk and chair. There was ample hot water and basic amenities in the bathroom.

There was no directions on how to use the room phone to call the front desk. You have to go down to the lobby in case you need to contact the reception. Yes I did try dialing 0 but no it didn’t work.

Hotel doesn’t offer any laundry service which was a bit shocking given the size & location of the hotel.

Staff: The hotel staff lacks basic customer service skills. The entire time I interacted with them I didn’t get a single smile/hello and anytime you asked them something they seemed irritated. I noticed this pattern since the time I checked in at night and on other days during morning/afternoon.

At the checkout around 9:30AM there were 4-5 people in the line and just one person at the reception handling the line taking a very long time. At the peak check-in/out times they should have maximum number of personnel attending the customers. What I found really irritating that there was indeed another girl at the reception desk but she was twiddling away on some papers instead of attending to the customers waiting in the line. This speaks to the lack of training and her total lack of awareness of her surroundings.

Another event that stood out was that during my stay there was an earthquake. I was in the room and there was visible shaking for good few seconds. I went outside the room and in the hallway there was a hotel staff member (not cleaning lady). I asked her if there was an earthquake and she said no. I went to USGS website and sure enough there was an earthquake. There was visible shaking but the hotel management did not take any steps to notify the guests. I found that extremely irresponsible. Later on I asked the reception staff if there was an earthquake and I had to try hard to not laugh at the response “era un temblor”. Potato PotAto I suppose.

Gym: I booked this hotel as they advertised gym. It was disappointing to find out that the gym only had 3-4 treadmills and zero weight training gear (no free weights or machines).

Sky Bar: The sky bar has nice views and I used it once for dinner. The staff was marginally better than the one in the lobby restaurant. Closed on Sundays.

Lobby restaurant/ Breakfast: I found $17 USD expensive for the choices offered for the breakfast buffet. I had breakfast only once in the lobby restaurant.

Another thing I noticed that the hotel doesn’t show up on Uber and instead the Uber app tries to populate some import/export business as the pickup location even when I was inside the hotel...

My husband and I stayed here one night with our 9 month old son. It was a stop on our way to San Pedro de Atacama (from Arica), so we were not looking to sightsee in Iquique as we had already been here before. ||Apart from an awkward greeting by the staff, they helped us check-in, gave us a parking space, and helped us up to our room with our luggage. We had to ask for a crib, even though we already mentioned in the email that we needed one. ||Be careful with the parking lot, as it is open at all hours to the public.||The room was spacious enough for the three of us, with a comfortable bed, two arm chairs, a nice bathroom, and a nice view of Cavancha Beach. We also had a view of the temporary soccer stadium for the regional team. ||The restaurant on the 19th floor was beautiful with delicious dinner meals, and buffet breakfast. The view is even better up here.||My husband needed to print some documents, and the staff at the reception was happy to help him print what he needed.||When we were about to leave the next morning, I needed a trolley to take up to our room for pour luggage, but had a stroller with my baby inside. The staff said I needed to take it up myself, besides the fact that it was obvious that I couldn't do it by myself with a stroller. ||All in all, a comfortable hotel to stay...

My husband & I are currently at the end of our amazing 3 week Chilean trip and we thought it would be nice to end with some days at the beach so booked Terrado Cavancha in Iquique So far we're disappointed with our choice. After driving 8 hours from San Pedro de Atacama, we arrived about 12 am at the hotel. As per our request we were given a room on a high floor (1807) but to our horror bedding & furniture were not clean. We found blood stains (likely menstrual blood) !!! No kidding. First it was blood stains on one of the  chairs & then the bedding (see pics). We complained to reception and were told we could have another room or  new linens.  We opted for a room on a lower floor (1607) but that room had faulty air con that made VERY loud rattling sounds that made it impossible to sleep (we told Terrado Cavancha). We're into the 2nd day of our 4 day stay here and yes, so far we disappointed with Terrado Cavancha and their...