Hotel Casa Veranda Guatemala — Hotel in Guatemala City

I had been customer in this hotel many times within the last 15 years – last time upon my arrival in Guatemala City on July 22. I arrived from Europe on Saturday morning, but could not get my room upon arrival (which is not very nice, but it is OK) and before I got my room I was searching an agency to pick up money from Moneygram and within 2 hours didn’t find any – the information in the Internet are simply outdated. I finally tried the reception, told to them, that I needed to pick up money from Moneygram and they gave me the hint, that maybe local banks would deliver money transfers from Moneygram and I found out, that a bank close to the hotel accepted to deliver my money. I gave a feedback to the reception, told to them, that I finally received my money from this bank and 1 hour later I received my room.||||I had 4300 Quetzales - the money from the bank - in the left pocket of my jeans and had a bunch of paper tissue packs on top of it, and in the right pocket I had a huge moneybag, there were 1200 US$ in the moneybag and I hardly could close it. I must say, that I have been working in hospitality for more than 50 years with experience in 17 countries, and I do not trust hotel room safes at all – it is very easy for employees with a reset code to open the safe and within my hotel experience I saw ten thousands of dollars disappear from hotel safes: So – a hotel safe is no option for me!||||I had my pants on during the whole day Saturday and Sunday. At all time I felt my moneybag - it was so thick - it could not be taken out at all without me to realize.||||After entering the room, I took a shower and afterwards did some sleep in order to avoid to much jet lag and after waking up 90 minutes later I immediately put my pants back on, went to a Supermarket with a taxi, did some shopping within 5 minutes but paid with the money in my shirt – I did not want to access any of my money in the pants and returned back with the same taxi. I then picked up my suitcase and drove with another taxi to a bus terminal in the North of the city, dropped my suitcase there, and sent it close to home with the night bus – having pretty much hands free on my last flight the next day. I had left one shirt and some underwear for the next day in the hotel in my backpack – so no suitcase needed and returned back to the hotel with the same taxi. I relaxed a little bit in the room, and then went to dine close to the hotel, paid with the money in my shirt and never had taken out neither my moneybag nor my Quetzales in the other pocket.||I went back to the hotel, took one more shower and wanted to go to sleep, but checked on the money and there were 3000 Quetzales missing – I had no idea, how this could have happened – the money was secured in my left pocket, still the paper tissue packs on top of it, and I was clueless, when this could have happened – I never was close to many people, I never was on the street, there was never anybody close to me and I was speechless. It was literally impossible to get the money out.||||The next day I took the flight to close to home, then a taxi ride, then picked up my suitcase, and I reached my home in the early afternoon.|| I unpacked my suitcase and I wanted to get my money to a safe place in my house and I realized, that 700US$ were missing in my moneybag – all the hundreds in my moneybag were gone!||||I was thinking every minute over since I arrived in Guatemala City. It was impossible to get the money out of my left pocket, and it was impossible to get the moneybag out of my right pocket - the right pocket was so full , and it was very hard to get the moneybag out of the pocket, while the pant was on my body. There was a key chain on top of the moneybag and I would have realized in the first moment, when someone would have tried to get this moneybag out. ......and it would have been impossible to get it back into my pocket - I would have realized in the first moment.||||Now I know - there are only 3 options, when this money and the moneybag could have been robbed: Unfortunately all three options would be in the hotel.||||Two of the options: That someone entered the hotel room the both occasions, that I took a shower, entered the room via one of the connecting doors, took the money out of the left pocket, took the moneybag out of the right pocket, took the 100s out and leave all the 20s, 10s, 5s and 1 dollar notes, so that I would not realize, something was missing. The remaining 1320 Quetzales had been put back into the left pocket, the moneybag in the right pocket - so this is one option. The second option would be, that someone entered the room via the connecting door of room or through the entrance door while I was sleeping my siesta in the afternoon (but I had blocked the room entrance with the security block at the door) – so it might just have been possible though the connecting doors to the next rooms.||||Sorry to have to say this: But these are the only options - there are NO others - no moments where someone could have had access to both sides of my pants: as already stated: I had the pants on permanently - except while taking a shower twice and sleeping. ….and the people from the reception were the only ones knowing, that I had received money. ||So, yes, there is nothing I can do, but I wanted at least to publish this. I want the hotel manager to know this! Maybe they already had some of these issues? Then they must seriously research: There must be a criminal within the staff.||I sent an email 3 days ago and did not get any answer – this is very rude and of course, after 15 years I will never stay in this...

The suites are spacious and pleasant, it's nice to have large balconies too. My suite contained a good kitchen with a counter bar. Pans for cooking were included but strangely no cutlery or crockery.

If it were not for the truly incompetent staff I would give 4 stars overall. Unfortunately most of them don't know how to use the credit card machine.

On the first day they tried 5 times to charge my card and failed forcing me to use another, the next day when I decided to extend a night I was able to use the original card because the person at the counter understood how to use the machine, the following day extending again unfortunately it was a different person at the counter and so payment failed and I was forced to use cash. I left cash at the desk and waited until the following morning so I could use my card with the more skilled person and receive a refund of cash.

Also separately from the above the ATM machine at the front charged me but did not contain cash, emptying my account and giving me nothing in return. The amount will be refunded with my insurance but as it takes a week this is still annoying.

This level of service is really not acceptable.

To the manager: Please teach all your staff how to accept card payments so the customer has the same experience every time and is not dependent on whoever is at...

What a luxurious and beautiful hotel! We used to stay at the Barcelo but on this trip I wanted more room for the three of us prior to our departure.

I called and received the most amazing customer service from Amanda at the front desk. And then Amanda went out of her way to make our check in and special requests go smoothly and quickly.

The lobby has a comfortable 1st class vibe and the breakfast is a beautiful buffet with many hot and cold dishes plus fruit and amazing juices and made to order eggs and omelets! The servers kept the coffee flowing tableside.

But the real kicker is the incredible huge 2 room suite with 2 queen beds and amazing hot water in the shower plus a whole additional massive room with a couch/bed, love seat, kitchen, bar and TV plus a very big classy coffee table.

After our weeks volunteer trip in Guatemala we feel like royalty. It started with a phone conversation with Amanda. Now this is going to be our new go to hotel in Guatemala city....