Hotel Altiplanico — Hotel in San José de Maipo

We stayed at the Hotel Altiplanico for two nights recently while in Chile. There are not a lot of real hotel options in the area (mostly hostels and Air B&Bs) and this is one of the better ones. ||||Our room was a two-level room just off the reception area. It was quiet and comfortable, with a queen-size bed downstairs and two twin beds in the loft above. The bathroom was on the main level. ||||Staff is friendly--most do not speak any English, so it's helpful to have a Spanish speaker in your group, but I'm sure one could figure out how to manage even without speaking Spanish. ||||We arrived around noon and were given a tour of the property by the friendly gentleman at reception. The hotel is set in the foothills of the mountains, just adjacent to the Maipo River. The views are gorgeous and the setting feels like a quiet refuge in nature. There is a nice swimming pool, hot tubs, and an outdoor seating area around a fire pit where one can roast marshmallows at night. ||||While the facilities were fine, the rooms could use some sprucing up. Our curtains were tattered and the carpet in the loft was worn. It clearly had not been vacuumed before our arrival as there were dead flies on the floor. Having said that, the sheets and towels seemed clean and the beds were comfortable. ||||I think my main issue with the hotel was that the staff is not particularly well trained for service. Needs are not anticipated, requests are sometimes forgotten. We had a fluent Spanish speaker in our group, so I don't think a language barrier was the problem. A few examples:||||--We informed the staff when we arrived that one in our party ate only fish, no meat. We had to keep reminding them, and our packed lunch on the first day included only sandwiches with meat. ||||--At breakfast we asked for our lunches to be packed. The waitress either forgot to tell the kitchen or the kitchen forgot to do it, so we had to wait. (Not a big deal, but an example that perhaps better training is in order.)||||--One morning we asked to reserve a hot tub for 4:30 in the afternoon (guests are instructed to ask ahead as the water has to be heated). When we returned to the hotel around 4:00 pm, we were told that there had been a mixup and the water had not been heated. The hot tub was not ready until about 5:30, which meant that we only had 30 or 40 minutes to use it before we needed to come in to get showered for dinner. This would be less of an issue if the hotel didn't charge about $40 for hot-tub use (something we realized only after we got our bill at checkout). ||||--There is a coffee/tea bar that is supposed to be available all hours. Sometimes there wasn't any coffee, sometimes the water jug was empty, sometimes there was a very limited tea selection, sometimes there were no cups/mugs available. This could all be remedied by more attentive service.||||The food at breakfast was very good, with eggs cooked to order if you want them. Fruit juices were fresh and delicious. Packed lunches were inferior--sandwiches and dry cake with a couple of pieces of fruit thrown in. Dinners were good, not excellent.||||I don't want to imply that we had a bad experience here. We liked the hotel and it seemed a better value than the Lodge Andino El Ingenio, which was a lot more expensive for room and full board. Given the options in the area, I think we would likely return to this hotel, but if the hotel itself were kept to a slightly higher standard of maintenance/cleanliness and if the staff were trained at a higher level of hospitality, it would definitely be a...

I stayed here with my wife several weeks ago. The issue I encountered was on check-out; despite providing my Irish Passport and Immigration Papers on check-in, and having very little Spanish, I was still “mistakenly” charged the extra 19% Chilean IVA tax. My wife is also a native Spanish speaker and she confirmed with the staff member on check-in that we would not be subject to this tax. However, come the time to settle our bill, we had the 19% extra tax added on for good measure.||Also, on check-out we were presented with a bill in Chilean Pesos and not US dollars as I had requested for my Irish bank account (I have never encountered this in any other hotel in Chile). Again, this was confusing and only for my wife been able to query this fully in Spanish, we would have been none the wiser!||After a number of weeks, I was refunded the excess amount, however when bank charges and unfavourable exchange rates are added in, I lost a significant amount of money due to this “error”.||I still to this day, cannot understand how the hotel could make this mistake, so I urge a strong word of caution to other foreign travellers to this hotel, make sure you are not erroneously charged the IVA on check-out. Do not swipe your bank card until you have fully verified this. You will probably need to be able to speak Spanish fluently to query...

I stayed here with my wife several weeks ago. The issue I encountered was on check-out; despite providing my Irish Passport and Immigration Papers on check-in, and having very little Spanish, I was still “mistakenly” charged the extra 19% Chilean IVA tax. My wife is also a native Spanish speaker and she confirmed with the staff member on check-in that we would not be subject to this tax. However, come the time to settle our bill, we had the 19% extra tax added on for good measure.

Also, on check-out we were presented with a bill in Chilean Pesos and not US dollars as I had requested for my Irish bank account (I have never encountered this in any other hotel in Chile). Again, this was confusing and only for my wife been able to query this fully in Spanish, we would have been none the wiser!

After a number of weeks, I was refunded the excess amount, however when bank charges and unfavourable exchange rates are added in, I lost a significant amount of money due to this “error”.

I still to this day, cannot understand how the hotel could make this mistake, so I urge a strong word of caution to other foreign travellers to this hotel, make sure you are not erroneously charged the IVA on check-out. Do not swipe your bank card until you have fully verified this. You will probably need to be able to speak Spanish fluently to...