Hotel Almasur Punta Arenas — Hotel in Punta Arenas

I came to this hotel thinking I would be really pleased with it from the reviews and the photos. Walking in it seemed very comfortable and the lobby furniture was like walking into an old english living room, there's a bar off to the left with a few bottles of various spirits and a fridge with beers and wine. So I thought I was off to a good start. ||Then there was the check in process. I had been set two different emails to check in online, which I thought okay, that would be cool. However, come upNeither of the link's workEd. No big deal.I'll just check in when I get there which would be about one thirty in the afternoon. Of course, when I got there, what happened was a minor group of people had come to the same hotel from the airport all at the same time, but that also was okay since I was second in line. The men in front of me who were traveling together had no problem checking in and went straight to their room. Bixby comment well, I was not that lucky.I was informed that my room was not yet ready.I have to come back at two o'clock. I had a beer and waited, but you could check in it to a box and I was told three o'clock. Still, that wasn't the big deal, perhaps just a miscommunication.||When I got to my room, it was large, add a large jacuzzine cub and a small futuristic closed in shower. If you are on the heavy side, which fortunately i'm not, you would have a really hard time. Still, I'm okay.||So why two stars? ||Noise! And LIGHT! ||The only thing I really wanted, and you would probably really want, after traveling from Florida to Santiago, to Punta Arenas was a nice pot bath or shower and a good night's sleep. Therein lies the problem and the low score. On my first night, I was awakened at five thirty in the morning by doors, opening and closing on the elevator and people talking loudly until about six o'clock. Then again at six thirty, until about seven fifteen when I said to myself, "Screw it, I'm awake." ||The front desk assured me, dad, that would not happen this morning and they were right. The noises didn't start until almost six o'clock today. Add to that that the backout curtains don't and you have an untenable situation for sleeping through a full night. Maybe another room would be great, but this was my experience. Oh, yes I did say something to the front desk but there was no accommodation made. ||Oh, and, very...

Unfortunately we had to spend one night at this hotel, finishing our required 7 day quarantine after testing Covid-positive on an Antarctic cruise. The room we were given (and based on the recounting of other passengers housed at this same hotel, all were different sizes, with different amenities) was small, with one tiny window looking out at a wall. The room’s twin beds were smaller than standard US twin size (24 inches?), the reading lights didn’t work and there was one chair between us, so we had no choice but to eat our meals in bed. Most disturbing to us was that there was no telephone in the room. When we asked for one (and another chair) we were told that there weren’t any more to distribute. How were we supposed to communicate with the front desk - to order meals and perhaps a bottle of water to take medication? When my husband went out to the front desk to ask for a bottle of water, one of the desk employees threatened calling the police because he was breaking quarantine. Somehow this wasn’t an issue when all 35 of us from the ship were made to wait in line for an hour to check in. When he protested and said we had no way to communicate with the front desk, he said we were supposed to use WhatsApp for this purpose. So a requirement for staying at this hotel is that you have a cell phone with international calling ability AND knowing how to use WhatsApp. Absurd. Lastly, we were charged a crazy $240 (plus meals) to spend one night at this horrible hotel. The cruise line had told us in advance that we would be charged $160 per night (which was approx. 3x the Booking.com rate), but upon checkout we were told that we were being charged an additional $80 for early check-in. We were brought to the hotel by the cruise company at around 10 and checked in at around 11. We have traveled a lot and NEVER have we been charged for an early check-in if the rooms are available. This was truly an example of a hotel taking advantage of ill (and mostly elderly) guests who had no choice as to where they quarantined. Our advice: stay at any hotel in Punta...

The rooms were clean and modern and very comfortable. We were extremely pleased with how quiet the hotel was. The staff provided wonderful, friendly service. They couldn't have been more helpful, and cheerfully provided extra towels when we requested.

The one thing I found annoying was the very modern bathroom vanity which was slats of wood around the sink rather than a solid surface. It was hard to keep my cosmetics and personal items from falling through the open slots. The design was beautiful to look at, but not at all practical. There was a lower shelf under the sink which was convenient for storing cosmetic bags and shaving kits, but that too was open slats. I wonder what the designer was thinking.

We were especially impressed by the servers in the restaurant. They were exceptionally well-trained, knowledgeable and helpful with special requests. They are truly professionals who could serve in any fine restaurant in the world. The food was excellent, and the staff accommodated my request for gluten-free meals without hesitation. The server who helped us at dinner after we checked in also served us for breakfast the following morning. He remembered that I asked for gluten-free meals, and brought out rice cakes and gluten-free treats without me asking. I was pleased and impressed.

Our Spanish is not the best, but everyone at the hotel spoke English and were very forgiving of our horrible Spanish. We felt very welcome.

This hotel and restaurant are gems. Hope we can come...