Hotel California CDMX — Hotel in Mexico City

For a no-frills, well located, moderately priced hotel, I can recommend the Hotel California. While particularly convenient for patients and families going to the Centro Medico Siglo XXI across the street, it is conveniently located by two Metro lines and one of the limited access MetroBus lines. For me, I needed to be within ready walking distance of the Sefarad synagogue Yehuda HaLevy, without staying near the noisy Insurgentes Sur corridor. I enjoyed waling through the Roma Sur, Roma Norte, and Condesa neighborhoods. In particular, Condesa had many cafes, restaurants, and small parks even prettier than those of the Romas. ||||Do not expect a booklet detailing hotel special services, for there are none. Well, yes, there are safe deposit boxes for the asking, though no one tells you about them. Allegedly there is free WiFI, and perhaps there was; I had nothing with me WiFi capable As for the free lobby computer, with use up to 20 min. if someone else is waiting, its keyboard letters were mostly illegible and the keyboard itself was dead. Useless. Staff tried to breathe life into it, without success. I did not ask, but saw no signs of a pool.||||There is parking under the hotel for those with cars. I took advantage of public transit. From the MetroBus northbound, I got off at Hidalgo station in the center of town, walked around the corner to the right, and took MetroBus Linea 4 Norte to Airport Terminals T1 and T2. The latter line costs 30 pesos, has a luggage rack, and is, I am told, rarely crowded. (30 pesos – less than $USD 2.40-- is a fair amount of change to a Mexican, though far less and more secure than a cab.) Oh, some words on security. The City appears to be making exceptional efforts to assure Metro and MetroBus users of the systems' security. Police everywhere. Of course, anyone who wants to test the system is invited to display jewelery and expensive clothes at the own risk. You need either a DF transit card or a MetroBus card to use the MetroBus. There are MB machines just inside the Terminals, and at most stops. The DF card can be found in the Metros, is good for the MB, the Metro, and the STC trolleybuses. None of the drivers of those lines accept cash. ||||Some strange things about the hotel. Firstly, while a full side of the hotel facing the Hospital bears its name, the front only displays the name of its lackluster restaurant, Montebello. While the restaurant features a plus, opening at 7 a.m. when other establishments start to awake at 8 or 9, service starts a bit later. In a city with abundant fruit juice stands, breakfast included packaged orange juice. Incidentally, the surround area awakes about 8 or 9 a.m. weekdays. Do not expect to be able to buy a Mexico City newspaper until after 7:30 or 8 a.m. If interested in cultural offerings in Mexico City, do buy Tiempo Libre, available Thursday mornings at many newsstands. ||||The hotel bills daily, upfront, not when one checks out. Perhaps that says something about the clientele. I did not want to have to make daily payments of 620 pesos/day. Took the staff a few minutes to figure out that the American was willing, no, insisted upon paying for his five nights up front. They finally caught on. (My Spanish is fine, but my request apparently was unusual.) Nonetheless, every day after 12 noon I needed a new key card. Staff advised me that the key cards expired every time one leaves the building. Not so. Only upon check out time, about 12 noon. Oh, and no problem using my U.S. credit card.||||My room, 302, was clean, the bed comfortable, with ample hot & cold running water in the shower. As with most rooms, I had a “view” across an air shaft of other rooms. The windows contain no screens, but mosquitoes seemingly appear to be very scarce in Mexico City. The TV featured a poorly working cable system, and no dedicated channels in other than Spanish. However, I was not there for the view –- would not have been particularly scenic anyhow, except for a park just south of the hotel – nor for television. Although my stay included a full weekend, it was quiet – quite a find in a Mexican urban hotel! ||||The staff was friendly enough. Beside the reception person, there is a guard who seems to be on duy in the nondescript lobby around the clock, well, at least when awake. (I would not want his working hours!) The neighborhood outside in non-threatening. Baja California is a westbound artery. Cauthemoc is a northbound artery. An Internet shop is some doors down from the hotel, and maintains a very limited schedule. However, there are many Internet cafes around...

My wife and I needed to visit a company in Mexico City near this hotel. We called the night before arriving to inquire about prices and availabiity of rooms as we would be arriving at about 5:30am. We were told that no reservation was necessary as plenty of rooms were available.. OK, so we arrived by taxi at around 5:30am, Told we could get a room, but needed to wait until 7am. We were directed to look at a family nearby that was waiting until 7am and we could wait with them. And then we were told that we would need to pay for a half day until noon, when the regular rate would apply. But rooms were clearly available right then. Oh, no, That was the rule! I did not mind paying for an extra half day, but we were tired. This situation was very annoying and we grabbed our luggage and walked to another hotel (the Porto Novo) about a km away. No problem there (subject of a separate review). Avoid the Hotel California in...

I stayed here a couple of nights, made a phone reservation and all was well when we arrived.||||Rooms were ample and clean, not too outdated, not smelly at all and shower super clean and no problem with hot water or toiletries. We had two queen beds and a window to the park behind the building, super quiet, no one bothered us!||||Service was good all over, and front desk was always helpful, nothing was stolen or missing. Didn't eat at the hotel restaurant due to high prices on menu and small portions I saw.||||It's close to everything (even in Mexico's distances) and area has lots of thing to do, a cute park behind, and 2 big and modern shopping malls a couple of blocks on...