Mandarin Oriental, Santiago — Hotel in Las Condes

We were two couples traveling together to Santiago for our first time. In brief, we loved our stay in Santiago and the Mandarin Oriental was definitely the right place to stay.||We stayed in Executive Suites which were located on the first and second floors (more like 5th and 6th floors). The immediate reaction when we walked in was how spacious, elegant and well appointed the suites are. The living room was very large had a long couch, enormous coffee table and a chair. The dining area had a small table and chairs that were perfect for breakfast and a bar area that had a coffee machine. The bedroom was a separate room and was very spacious with a king sized bed, chair and ottoman and a long bench at the end of the bed. The bathroom was also large with walk in shower, tub, two sinks and a walk in closet. The shower was a great experience with a rain head, hand held and body sprays. If we had one negative comment on our whole experience, it would be that the shower was designed for someone no taller than 5’10” as our 6’1” friend could not fit under the the rain head or the hand held. But alas, the room was wonderful in every other way. ||The amenities in the room were wonderful. The bed was firm but comfortable. The bed had crisp white sateen sheets, a feather duvet, and huge king pillows. Honestly, the bed was among the most comfortable hotel beds that we have slept in. I should also note that the room had black out curtains, which made sleeping late very inviting. I should also note that the executive suites are on the lower floors. Our suite looked out over the street, but with the thick mirrored windows, we hardly ever heard a noise. Also, our air conditioning kept the room very comfortable. Again, we slept very well for three nights. ||Service really shined at the Mandarin. The concierge team helped arrange dinners, a city tour and day in the Maipo Valley. A celebration cake that I had requested was waiting for us in our room when we arrived. When we needed something in our room, we would send a text via WhatApp and whatever we needed arrived shortly thereafter - champagne flutes, wine glasses, extra towels, etc. Housekeeping provided service twice a day and laid out slippers, a mat and chocolates before bed. Everyone we encountered greeted us with a smile. ||Food at the Mandarin Oriental was top notch. Breakfast in Senso offered a nice spread. By the second day, the server knew exactly what we would want and a decaf cappuccino and omelette arrived in no time. We had dinner one night at Matsuri and really enjoyed the fresh sushi. Our server in Matsuri was Felipe and he took excellent care of us, delivering flawless service. ||In terms of location, the Mandarin Oriental is conveniently located near the Arauco Mall and the Avenida Alonso de Córdova . The mall has restaurants, some high end shopping, a supermarket and a wine store. The Avenida Alonso de Córdova is considered to be one of the nicest in Santiago and has restaurants and designer stores. At the end of the Avenida Alonso de Córdova is a beautiful park. Some have commented that the location is between busy streets and difficult to navigate. However, we did not find that to be a real issue. ||While we stayed at the Mandarin Oriental during the fall, I can only imagine that it would be a very nice place to stay during the summer with its enormous outdoor pool and patio. We look very forward to...

This is my first stay at Mandarin Oriental, and I'm a little disappointed. I've stayed at many hotels that are comparable to MO (e.g. Park Hyatt, Four Seasons, etc..), so I had certain expectations, which, were not met... Here's a list of things that I didn't like about this hotel from our 5 nights of stay: Mediocre breakfast - buffet selection was limited, the only hot items are scrambled egg, some not-so-crunchy bacon, sausage link, and fried potato, and that's mostly it. On some day cappuccino taste quite good, on others, I couldn't even finish one cup. There were a decent selection of cookies and breads, but that's not my thing. Inconsistent service - sometimes we got turn down service sometimes we didn't. The first day we went to the pool, they ran out of fresh towels and we waited for 30+ minutes. The manager came to apologize in the end and asked for our room number, but nothing special happened, I wonder why they bother asking for room number... Unnecessarily sophisticated checkout - We stayed at the hotel for 4 nights before our Antarctica cruise and 1 night after. For the first stay, they forgot to add the Amex credit and the Silversea dining credit to the bill so it was $200 more than what we were supposed to pay. It took quite some effort for them to look through the dining receipts to confirm the amount. But in the end, the bill was settled accurately. When we checked out our 2nd stay, the front desk gentlemen told me that I need to pay for my charges from the first stay. This is outrageous given that we had already settled that earlier bill! Again, I had to explain to him what charge is what, and with the Amex credit and the Silversea credit, we shouldn't need to pay anything for the previous stay. From my perspective, they simply had a system IT issue when they combined my Amex nights with the Silversea night, resulting in Amex credit not being recognized. However, they've been working with Silversea for so many years, and I bet it's quite common that guests will stay extra nights either before or after the cruise, it's quite unforgivable that they get this wrong. Elevators always out of service - random elevators would stop at certain floor with their doors wide open and become unresponsive. I once stepped into an elevator waiting on the lobby floor and it had about 10 floors lit up, which is a sign that 10 guests had attempted to use that elevator and it failed 10 times.. Hotel is pretty old and the interior decoration is, meh..

Now after my rant, there's some nice things I liked about the hotel: Good A La Carte menu for dinner - although I didn't like their breakfast buffet, their Matsuri and Senso restaurants are pretty good. Food is well cooked and the plate presentation is great. Bell man and front desk staff are pretty friendly and polite. They are always smiling and willing to help us out! Wifi is stable and reasonably fast. In a safe neighborhood, view from the room is amazing! Swimming pool...

For me this hotel is nice but didn’t live up to my expectations of a true 5 star Mandarin.

Here’s why: when we got there it took a while for someone to come greet us/ help us with suitcases and we were told there is no valet parking and we were responsible for parking our own car. First time ever at a five star resort where this is the case. Then at check in we find out the spa is out of order. This was my birthday weekend and I would have loved to have a spa day so this needs to be communicated at time of booking, not at check in ! My husband had paid for flowers to be delivered to the room which weren’t delivered until he complained. The whole hotel design feels dated and needs modernising. And lastly : the check out took 25 minutes !! First we waited in line, then Kimberly at reception told us that despite us having had our passports scanned at check in, the scan never went through so she had to do it again , then the charge/ hold amount on the card kept getting messed up. She did apologise for the long process but honestly- at a five star resort this really shouldn’t be the case and check out should be done online or have someone come to your room, like in other top resorts.

Here’s what I liked: our suite had a terrace, a spacious layout with everything you need, was quiet and had tea/ coffee machine in the kitchen area. The location of the hotel is really great, in the nice residential/ commercial area of Santiago. The big pool area outside is very pleasant with lots of spaces to relax and a waterfall over the pool. The staff acknowledged that I was a MO FAN at check in and gave me a list of benefits to choose from (faster wifi, glass of wine etc) , the Matsuri restaurant is TOP and the best Japanese in Santiago in my opinion. I’ve reviewed it separately because of how much I enjoyed it.

Update: it’s been a day since I checked out and the hotel contacted me to ask to charge my card on two items “taken from the minibar” which I did not consume. This further solidifies my point on check out needing to be better, as well as attention to detail - like refilling the minibar after previous guests leave to avoid playing detective on who took what with the guests that come after. Definitely not 5 star...