Casa Bueras Boutique - Hotel en Lastarria — Hotel in Santiago

I was attracted to this hotel because of its boutique status and 5 star reviews. Having now stayed here, I don’t understand the overwhelming positive reviews at all.||Whilst we had booked a junior suite, the room size was tiny. We could not open both our suitcases at the same time. . ||The location was excellent - really close to many bars and restaurants. Breakfast was ok - the lady was actually nice enough, but you had to be proactive to ask for things. ||The honesty bar was a great idea (although more options would be good) and the sitting area looking over the pool was very nice of an evening.||The staff were responsive via email and were proactive in arranging an airport pick up.||What we didn’t like….||- pool was freezing. It’s a concrete pool without much sun. But was so cold you couldn’t get in. We wanted to use it because Santiago gets hot and we wanted a relaxing pool day before returning home to Australia. Hence we were disappointed that it was just too cold to use. If you are after a swim, or a place to lie by the pool - this place is not it. It really could benefit from some solar heating. ||- it took literally forever to get hot water in our room. On our first night we went to bed without showers because we thought there was no hot water. Turns out there is, you just have to wait over 5 minutes (it’s a lot of wasted water)!. ||- Our room got so baked in sun in the afternoon that our bathroom literally felt like the surface of the sun. Better window coverings are needed. The terrace was not appealing at all - hot and a view of dingy apartments.||- But the thing I disliked most of all was that the bed linen was too small for the mattress. The bottom sheet was not fitted and would not stay tucked in because of its size. This meant during the night, the sheet would ride up and you would be sleeping on the old mattress itself which is just gross. During the night I would have to get up and try to pull the sheet tight to try and tuck it back in.||I would classify our actual room...

So many reviews are not very honest anymore, and I was suckered by other reviews when picking this hotel. |So, Let me be honest so you control your expectations. |First, the Casa Bueras has very helpful front desk employees. |The rooms/bedding/pillow variety is good. |The location is convenient to BellaVista area and the funicular. |There is no coffee or tea in the rooms. |The “honesty bar” area has soft drink cans for $2500($2.50) and does have a complex coffee machine that I was told “use it if you know how”. Well, I have never been a barista, so I could not work the huge machine that had at least 5 compartments and spouts. | I did read that Breakfast was good at this hotel, but I cannot confirm that because it was never ready at 7am when advertised and needed. If you are taking any of the full day tours to Valparaiso, Casablanca, or the Andes, for example, know that the tour bus pickup here is about 730am as this location is usually first pickup and last dropoff. The breakfast lady doesn’t even look at you to offer a coffee until about 725am, thus no time to even drink it. Upon HER arrival at 7am, she goes through a 25-minute ritual putting out cold plates of meats, fruits, and other items while ignoring your presence, your pressure for time, and your yearning for your first cup of morning coffee (as the room has no kettle). We experienced this two days in a row. Eggs cooked to order were only seen from a sign during our stay, as we never had enough time to wait for her attention to guests, and left with only a couple of bites of fruit each day. |We had a junior suite with a patio, but the patio atmosphere is just “meh”, with little greenery, a view of an old apartment building (not park), and a tattered umbrella. The room itself for the Junior is cramped. For the price paid, I would not choose this hotel again and was disappointed overall with my stay of three nights (for almost $600 usd). I think there is better value elsewhere...

This is a very odd hotel. It’s in a great location, we walked nearly everywhere. Lastarria has a lively restaurant scene and is on the door step. We walked to the main shopping area, Menuda Palace and Plaza de Armas. The street it was on was very quiet at night but that might have been because the road was part closed for roadworks. The adjacent roads were not quiet.||We had booked a Junior Suite so we could have a sitting area and a private terrace. The room we got had neither but when we enquired we were told we had been upgraded to a suite. We had a table and chairs but no sofa which is what I had hoped for. The room was large with antique furnishings and well lit and looked onto the street. The bathroom was large and quite smart. The bed was comfortable and we had a fridge, AC and a safe. It just didn’t fit my expectation of a suite (ie has separate sitting area). ||There is a small dining area and an outside terrace but no real lounge area other than outside. The breakfast is served in the dining area and was adequate. There was a bowl of fruit on day1 which went slowly down and was never replenished. Eggs were available with bacon which was a real treat. The pastries seemed a poor selection and a bit stale. The coffee was good and they have decaffeinated.||There is a pool in the garden but it was absolutely freezing and not usable. The really odd thing was that you hardly ever saw anyone. It was rare to see another guest and the staff only seemed to be behind the front desk. There is an honesty bar rather than a real one but they didn’t have a lot of the items on the list. It was a bit like a ghost ship, except for one day when we came back to find it being used as a photo shoot with young people...