Barceló Guatemala City — Hotel in Guatemala City

This hotel is a SCAM. I don't recommend this hotel to anyone.

Let me just start off by saying I stayed here for a whole week. I specifically asked for no room service and not to be bothered. Every morning they would knock on my door for room service, it got to the point where I had to go down to the front desk to ask for no room service but nothing changed. They still came knocking everyday.

I had my laundry sent down to get washed, ladies and gentlemen, I wish I remembered the ridiculous prices to get your clothes washed but I think it was like 3-4$ US dollar for AN underwear. That's not what made me upset though, what made me upset was that when I was packing my clothes to leave the day before, I realized my clothes still weren't back yet! It's been 3 DAYS. When I asked the front desk, they told me it's cause you have to go to the front desk and pay for your laundry before they give it back to you?? Why is everything else charged to the room then??

The most absurd part of my stay was when I went to the front desk to ask them to leave my key and transfer the name of my room to someone elses after I leave, and they told me it was ok, not a problem. I asked them once the day before to know the protocol. Before I left to go to the airport at 5am, I asked them AGAIN, to make sure there wouldn't be a problem. I asked them if they needed anything in order to do that but they said it was ok, not to worry, that they'll check the id when they got there and give them the key. I got a text while i was checking in at the airport and the hotel REFUSED to give them the key to my room. I, then called the hotel and the SAME guy I talked to 30 minutes ago, answered and told me that I have to send an email or write them a letter saying they can have the key to my room. WHY didn't he tell me that when I was there and asked him MULTIPLE times? WHY did he tell me it was ok KNOWING I was leaving to the airport? I am from the US and I don't have internet or data down there, I literally CANNOT do anything without wifi. I had no wifi at the airport, so I had to take a taxi back to the hotel to write him his email and MISS MY FLIGHT because he told me it was OKAY and all I had to do was leave him a name. If this wasn't inconvenient enough, the only thing he could say when I came back and told him that I missed my flight because of him was "sorry" and it didn't even sound genuine. "sorry" doesn't pay for the fee I had to pay for missing my flight, or the time I had to sit at the airport waiting for the next flight. I don't deserve this kind of service and neither does anyone else. I really think this hotel needs to train their employees about protocols again to prevent making this mistake ever again. It's preposterous. You can't tell someone every time they asked that it's ok, just leave their full name and when they check in, they'll just check their ID to make sure it checks out, and then half an hour later, tell them it's not ok and that there's protocol, WHEN I ASKED ABOUT IT MULTIPLE TIMES. I've never been so upset in my life.

This hotel is a scam, all of their "room service" are full USD. They charge 4 US dollars for a CAN of soda. Their Japanese restaurant, Kyoto, charges 18$ for a fruit sushi dessert made out of canned fruits. When everywhere out on the streets they charge 5 quetzales for a bag of fresh fruit. Their sushi is not made with fresh fish either. I had the chicken pasta at Strikers and it literally tasted like cheap marinara poured onto noodles with microwaved chicken patty on top of it. I do not recommend ANY restaurant in this hotel. The gift stores here are over priced and everything is USD when you can get the same stuff for cheaper elsewhere in quetzales. Do not make this your first place to purchase stuff. Don't eat their over-priced food.

Don't stay here period, bad service, bad food,...

I would like to update my review, My scored have not changed as I still believe that this hotel is by far the worse for travelers.

For travelers;

This hotel is highly outdated, the furniture is not current and leaves much to be wanted. The hotel as an entirety has not been updated in the last ten years, I cannot comment for anytime before because that was the first time I visited.

The food, was lukewarm as described before not warm, feeling as if it is old food being reheated. Although this does include a “continental” breakfast most the food are Guatemalan in nature, it is a poor example of authentic Guatemalan cuisine.

The amenities, There are not that many amenities included in the hotel, You have a ridiculously small gym, the pool is fine, the hot tub was not hot. The bar that is adjacent to the hotel, is highly outdated and serves terrible bar quality food.

Customer Service, The quality in customer service by far is the worse aspect in this hotel. The staff think that they are entitled, and feel like they are over you. They lacked any kind of respect, and when dealing with issues, resolved them with attitude. If it weren’t for the people I was with I would’ve jumped over the desk and resolved the issue.

For the hotel;

By far I am deeply disappointed with my stay, I have been a patron that has at this hotel over five times. But I can say that I will never stay or recommend this hotel again. On top of having my AirPods stolen by the cleaning staff, which in this update I must say. I do have tracking on my device and it allows to see the location of it and it has moved in places of ciulapa. Additionally, I had received a secondary room for my mom and sister to stay in. The front desk staff again, feeling entitled decided that they were not to be allowed in my room. The front desk staff when asked by my mother that her card wasn’t working snatched it from her hands. My mother immediately called me, I went down and asked what the problem was. The desk attendant gave me attitude during the interaction and is very lucky that I didn’t jump the desk for his rude behavior. The problem was resolved but only after I had to put pressure on the situation. A formal report was also filed in the book made for reporting issues, I asked for an update and never received one.

I appreciate this last stay because now it makes my decision easier for the next time. I rather recommend the Westin camino real...

Staying at this hotel is a 5-star adventure that will keep you on your toes and your anxiety running high.

Checkin is at 3pm, but surprise, you have to wait in line for an hour no matter what time you show up because they use ancient systems and poorly trained staff for the process.

Locked yourself outside the room or (more likely) your room key isn't working? Well, back to that hour long queue, because if you chose to stay here, you clearly don't care about your time.

Whether or not a restaurant is open for lunch or if you can get a coffee in the lobby is also an adventure, because depending on who you ask, the answer is going to be different. But don't worry, you wont get either the lunch or coffee because eff you very much.

They do provide luggage storage, but only if you have patience of a stone waiting to turn into a diamond, or just lose it and enter the storage and put/retrieve it yourself.

Being a near the airport hotel, they offer you a shuttle service between the airport and the hotel, but wouldn't life be more exciting with the uncertainty of not knowing if you are actually booked on the shuttle despite being confirmed? Or if the last shuttle of the night (the one you were confirmed on) just decides to not go because, well, eff you very much.

Going to the hotel restaurant is also an adventure because you wouldn't know if the restaurant is still seating people without waiting outside for 30min. The fun little adventure doesn't end, cause who doesn't like to order food with no idea of what you are going to get and how much will it cost because they decided to not print half their menu. It's is especially fun if you have food allergies/restrictions.

Oh, and if they bring you the wrong order, they have a phenomenal process of conferring with all 15 employees, doubling the duration of your meal and then deciding to fix it. Not only does it reestablishes that your time is obviously worthless, it also gives you the splendid joy of eating your meal while everyone else is already done and can awkwardly watch you stuff your face.

I'll stop here, not because I don't have more to write, but because I don't want to spoil all of the adventure for the other guests, sticking with the theme of the wonderful hospitality of Barcelo hotel, fyvm!

TLDR: Room and Location are good. Service is...