Hotel Marela — Hotel in San Salvador

As I have stated many times when you take a review into account see the experience of the reviewer and WHERE they are from.||||My first stay at this hotel and I will state the Positives and the Negatives.||||POSITIVES - Located in Colonia Escalon one of the safer parts of San Salvador. NOTE: There are NO really safe areas in San Salvador, the country is ruled by the M13 Gang and people do not like to go out especially at night. Nearby is a Starbucks and a shopping center with super market. Staff is very friendly and "tries to be helpful". TV in room worked well but very few English channels. AC was nice and cold and did not make much noise. Fridge in room (un-stocked). Overall the room is a nice size and the Mattress was excellent and firm. Bathroom shower had excellent water pressure (how nice for a hotel). WiFi was EXCELLENT, one of the best I have found in a hotel.||||NEGATIVES - Hotel is like a large mansion converted to hotel. No elevators I was on the second floor however stairs were short and angled so it was not a problem climbing them. Was told my room would have a "room safe" and mine was one of the newly remodeled rooms, NO ROOM SAFE ! I was told by reception that in order to make local calls I could NOT dial direct from the room, that I had to go through reception. After doing this annoying ritual a few times I used my USA/ATT cellular which of course incurred roaming charges. I had little to do one morning and read the 2 page "hotel manual" it said in it to dial "9' and the local number. WHAT A SURPRISE, IT WORKED !!! Reception NEEDS to be better informed. Breakfast my first two days was poor, had been sitting out for a long time and not much to choose. Orange juice only available my first breakfast. On my third day I asked my business associate to pick me up early and we would go to Denny's. Wouldn't you know THAT morning the breakfast had decent choices and looked fresh... The coffee as usual was "hotel BAD". I brought some instant "Bustelo" with me to mix with hot milk, no hot milk provided in the breakfast buffet. The poor receptionist working the complete night shift on March 9 is being grossly exploited. She not only has to work reception desk, phones, but act as a waitress also in the restaurant, later in the night she also has to help clean the dirty dishes. Whatever they are paying her should be 3X as much ! I had the hotel arrange transportation for me to the airport at 4:30am on the 10th. they did not arrange for a taxi but "a regular car obviously not a licensed transport". As soon as I walked out and saw the car I knew it was not going to be a pleasant 35-40 minute ride to to the airport. The car was OLD, beat up and dirty. The minute I sat in the car I could smell gasoline fumes. On the ride I felt this clunker was going to break into 3 or 4 parts. WORST, EXHAUST was leaking into the car making me feel sick. I had to open the window and sick my head out the window the hole drive to the airport. ARRANGE FOR YOUR OWN TRANSPORT TO THE AIRPORT IF YOU STAY HERE !!!!!!!!! Also the day of the afternoon of the 9th I had to complain about lack of cleaning by the maids. The stairs that lead to my room had pieces of tissue laying there since early morning. There was a cigarette butt laying in the hallway on the second floor since the morning and the maids had cleaned that floor, also the floor was dirty ! While the cleaning in my room was ok, when I first entered and did my walk around I found a used piece of soap left in the soap dish in the shower.||||Closing - Would I stay here again ? YES, but I am now aware of the flaws and can work around them. But will probably look for another option next trip...

Hotel Marela is very quaint. It feels like a big house. LOL! Very nice. My room was on the top floor. There's no elevator so anyone with mobility issues should ask for a room on the main floor. There is a small pool, the breakfast buffet was great and the service was great! ||||The room was a good size! I had a queen sized bed. There's an in-room safe I didn't use and a tv that I also didn't use. You have to step up to get into the bathroom. Not sure if that's the case for every room but I know it was for mine so, again, something to consider if you have challenges with mobility.||||I only have two complaints. The AC was loud and not easily controlled. I had it set to 70 and it was FREEZING so I turned down the fan which didn't actually turn down. I then raised the temperature to 74 and it was still freezing. 76 made it HOT. So I just turned it onto freezing when I left in the day and turned it off at night. Also, the wifi drops a lot and although you are assigned to wifi for your room, sometimes it doesn't work. Feel free to seek the other rooms' wifi connections. Most of them are accessible...

I stayed at Hotel Marela 7 nights. Here are the highlights:||1- Great customer service: the staff is friendly and cares. Special thanks to Fatima who went out of her way to provide me with all I needed and to the cleaning Staff because they always did an excellent job, with great attention to detail.||2- Great firm bed. The hotel made a smart choice when they decided to buy good quality beds, there is nothing worse than to stay in a hotel and find soft beds||3- My room was clean and it remained that way during my stay. ||4- The breakfast buffet was delicious. They also tried to vary the offerings so that customers that stayed a few days wouldn't get bored. They also can accommodate requests. One morning I saw they had omelets in the buffet but I couldn't eat any because they had cheese (I'm lactose intolerant). All I had to do is mention it to the staff and they made me an omelet with whatever I wanted. I also enjoyed the fresh fruit juices (specially the watermelon) offered during breakfast.||5- Safe neighborhood, and the hotel does take measures to keep their...